• Asian Journal of Business Environment
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.15-22
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• 2019

Purpose: Omni-channel retailing is a new retail phenomenon. Consumers in the omni-channel environment do not rely on one channel but integrate different channels from the same retailers freely during a particular shopping journey. The purpose of this study is to better understand omni-channel shoppers in the fashion retailing context. The present study uses consumer characteristics -- fashion innovativeness, technology innovativeness, and fashion purchase involvement -- as determinants predicting consumers' omni-channel shopping intentions for fashion products. Research design, data, and methodology: Data were collected from 403 U.S. consumers, and the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was performed to test proposed hypotheses. The survey for this research consisted of three parts. The first part measured consumer traits in terms of their innovativeness and purchase involvement. The second part was designed to measure consumers' omni-channel shopping intentions, and the third part gathered consumer demographic information. Results: The findings confirmed that fashion innovativeness, technology innovativeness, and fashion purchase involvement positively affected consumers' omni-channel shopping intentions. Conclusions: Fashion retailers should integrate various customer touchpoints and offer mobile-enabled technologies to boost consumer traffic to both online and offline stores. They also need to create a shopping environment that is optimized for customer engagement in various shopping processes and allow them to explore different shopping channel options for best purchase decisions.

• Journal of Information Technology Services
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.29-49
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• 2022

Consumers are now no longer satisfied with using a single channel to shop and then desire a smooth and consistent purchasing experience across channels. By integrating different channels and services, an omni-channel strategy allows consumers to choose their preferred channel to complete their shopping tasks. Therefore, large retailers in China have recently been transforming into omni-channel retail formats to secure their competitive advantage. To better implement this strategy and optimize its effectiveness, it is important to understand how consumers respond to the quality of channel integration. Based on social exchange theory (SET), the main purposes of this study are to explore the impact of channel integration quality on consumer engagement in the Chinese omni-channel retailing environment and to further examine whether there is a moderating effect of consumer empowerment on this relationship. To test this research model, we collected data from 330 respondents by conducting an online questionnaire in China. The results indicated that the two dimensions of channel integration (breadth of channel-service choice and transparency of channel-service configuration) positively affected two dimensions of customer engagement (conscious attention and enthusiastic participation), respectively. The findings also show that consumer empowerment only positively moderates the relationship between breadth of channel service choice and conscious attention, whereas it negatively moderates the relationship between transparency of channel-service configuration and conscious attention/enthusiastic participation. Given these results, this study deepens our understanding of the impact of the quality of channel integration on customer engagement in the context of omni-channel retailing in China and sheds light on how retailers can attract consumers with different levels of empowerment.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.403-412
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• 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic has a great impact in various ways. It changes the normal routine of lives and businesses. Many businesses encounter tremendous financial pressure, some of them lay off workers or choose to close down. According to the statistics, e-commerce experiences a four-fold growth in sales during the pandemic period. There is an urgency for firms to digitalize their businesses to respond to the change in the landscape of purchasing patterns of consumers. The purpose of this study is to understand the success of a few popular apparel brands in digital businesses. This is a qualitative research, and secondary data is collected for the analysis. The findings reveal that all of them engage in omni-channel methods in digitizing their businesses while utilizing other forms of technologies in their product and operational management. All selected firms agree with the importance of digital business, and omni-channel retailing is their choice. In these unprecedented times, the sustainable success of the apparel firms in digital businesses requires a flexible and innovative approach and a commitment to achieving operational excellence. Continuous renewal and digital transformation are needed so that these companies have the capabilities to adapt to changes and reap the benefits of a satisfactory organizational performance.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.170-183
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• 2017

The rapid growth of digital consumption has significantly changed the shopping behavior of consumers. The consumption paradigm is changing; subsequently, an omni-channel has been introduced that empowers consumers to interact with firms through a myriad of touch points in multiple channels. This study is to understand the perceptions and behavioral characteristics of consumers in the purchase process (e.g., information search and purchase phase). A qualitative method was adopted for this study and data were collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews with 15 omni-channel consumers. The results of this study were as follows. At the information search stage, consistency was the most important consideration for consumers who also wanted to retain channel-specific benefits. Consumers also searched for differentiated information among distribution channels. At the purchase stage, participants choose a shopping channel according to shopping values. They utilized newly introduced services (e.g., "online purchase, offline pick-up", FinTech) that combine retail channels. Our findings provide significance in managing omni-channel services. First, it is recommended that fashion retailers provide seamlessly integrated experience to consumer and adopt a consumer-centered channel choice strategy. Second, fashion retailers must maintain a constant attitude toward shopping experience to fashion, such as shopping enjoyment and exclusiveness.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.25-35
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• 2021

Purpose: This study aims to analyze the factors affecting customer satisfaction in the customer reviews of omni-channel, posted on Internet blogs, cafes, and YouTube using text mining analysis. Research, data, and Methodology: In this study, frequency analysis is performed and the LDA (Latent Dirichlet Allocation) is used to analyze social big data to respond to reviewers' reaction to the recently opened omni-channel shopping reviews by L Shopping Company. Additionally, based on the topic analysis, we conduct a sentiment analysis on purchase reviews and analyze the characteristics of each topic on the positive or negative sentiments of omni-channel app users. Results: As a result of a topic analysis, four main topics are derived: delivery and events, economic value, recommendations and convenience, and product quality and brand awareness. The emotional analysis reveals that the reviewers have many positive evaluations for price policy and product promotion, but negative evaluations for app use, delivery, and product quality. Conclusions: Retailers can establish customized marketing strategies by identifying the customer's major interests through text mining analysis. Additionally, the analysis of sentiment by subject becomes an important indicator for developing products and services that customers want by identifying areas that satisfy customers and areas that evoke negative reactions.

• The Journal of Small Business Innovation
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.35-46
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to obtain the implications for establishing a marketing strategy for retailers by analyzing whether the consumer's preference for products (food) is influenced by on-line, off-line, and omni-channel preferences. The research model consisted of the effects of consumers' food selection characteristics on business preference and omni channel preference. The results of analysis based on 477 questionnaires are summarized as follows. First, food purchasing characteristics that utilize the seven characteristics of (1) freshness of food, (2) taste, (3) quality and safety, (4) tasting, (5) food function and information, (6) country of origin, and (7) brand loyalty, has various effects on types of business preference, omni-channel preference. The adopted hypotheses were selected in order of brand loyalty (5 times), freshness (3 times), tasting (3 times), and origin (1 time). The selective attributes on foods are: (1) what kind of brand, (2) how good the freshness is, (3) tasting. (4) The country of origin is to be compressed. Actually consumers seem to utilize only the core selective factors that are appropriate to the characteristics of the distribution channel rather than all of them in the shopping of the food, and there is three characteristics on Convenience Store and only one or two factors in the other types of business. Second, in the analysis of the omni-channel preference analysis, food selection characteristics has been shown to have a limited effect, which is attributed to the fact that the consumer has not yet understood the concept of omni channel. Third, the results of this study suggest that there is a need to reflect the selection characteristics of foods that have diverse influences by business type in the marketing strategies. Because consumers make reasonable consumption to use both on-line and off-line simultaneously, consumers who use Omni Channel focus on quality and safety of food, identify products through tasting, pursue brands that can trust anywhere. Customers who pursue rationality will have a high preference for using Omni Channel. Product choice characteristic has significant effect on omni-channel preference. For a few years, omni-channel strategy of retailers meets with a difficulty. This study make a first attempt to study omni-channel preference changing retailing paradigm.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.21 no.7
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• pp.91-104
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• 2023

Purpose: In the past decade, Scholars, think tanks, and policymakers have had rich discussions about omnichannel distribution science. However, despite the growing body of research in this area, there is currently no universally accepted definition of what exactly an "omnichannel consumer" consists of and what the most relevant drivers are. This study aims to synthesize the empirical evidence surrounding omni-channel consumer research and its management. Additionally, we demonstrate how omnichannel consumer research has emerged from different theoretical perspectives and disciplines. Research design, data and methodology: Using the Systematic Literature Review method and searching the CNKI, Web of Science, and Scopus databases for 130 articles, the study analyzed the current state of omnichannel consumer research and categorized and summarized the findings in the literature. Results: This study analyzes the current state of omnichannel consumer research and categorizes the findings in the literature and identifies four research areas: consumer behavior, consumer experience, consumer sentiment dimensions, and consumer segmentation. Conclusions: This literature review offers the first comprehensive and systematic overview of "Chinese omnichannel consumers." It not only highlights the most critical research trends discussed in existing studies, but also outlines the expected direction of future research, which provides the basis for understanding omnichannel consumer research.

• East Asian Journal of Business Economics (EAJBE)
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.15-24
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• 2020

Purpose - New technologies allow service providers to integrate all the customer information within and between contact channels so that they can offer individualized services. The availability of new mobile devices enables retailers to interact with customers through countless channels (Rigby, 2011). The objective of this research is to examine customers' attitudes toward O2O (on-line to off-line) services and their intention to use based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Research design, data, and methodology - Utilizing the TAM model, the mediating effect of the users' attitudes toward O2O services on the relationship among perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, perceived risks and intention to use are to be investigated. Results - The result shows that the perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, perceived risks have a significant effect on customers' attitudes toward O2O services. It is also revealed that the attitude toward O2O services has a mediating effect among perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, perceived risks and intention to use. Conclusions - The boundary between on-line and off-line is eroding and various services based on the O2O platform are growing. The results of this study and managerial implications can be applied to O2O platform operators or enterprises planning to sharp on their competitiveness edge through offering variations of service channels.