• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.909-923
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• 2018

Online retailers' offline channel expansion is rapidly growing as an important consumer incentive strategy, despite the enormous initial costs of establishing a store. This study focuses on the offline channel operation of online shopping malls, and examines the effects and influencing factors of the channel expansion strategy from a consumer perspective. In-depth interviews were conducted with ten customers in their 20s and 30s who had visited online retailers' stores or purchased products. Major issues were extracted based on the framework of a channel effect mechanism proposed by Cao and Li (2015). Subsequently, it was found that existing online retailers could enhance brand image and perception by expanding their channels to offline stores. It was also emphasized that the consumer trust on the quality of the product in offline stores is a key variable, and it has a significant influence on consumer's continuous purchase and revisit intention. This study showed that borderless channel integration was the most important task when expanding channels of online retailers. So it will be necessary to strive for an omni-channel strategy so that channel integration can be strategically executed and consumers can interact regardless of channels.