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Multi-channel business operations are standard practice in most business contexts today. The popularity of multi-channel adoption among developing countries is growing fast. In Bangladesh, the retailers who adopted multi-channel retailing have been getting a very good response from the consumers. This study aims to understand the factors that influence manufacturers’ decisions to adopt multiple channels in Bangladesh. The authors applied an extended technology acceptance model with three variables: business innovation, business competition and consumer satisfaction.

Partial least squares-structural equation modeling was applied to test the data collected from 157 companies and relevant hypotheses.

The study findings show that Bangladeshi manufacturers are positive about, and expect benefits from, applying the new channel. The study also revealed that customer satisfaction considerably affects multi-channel adoption in Bangladesh. Similarly, business innovation and business competition play a significant role in introducing multiple business channels.

This research was conducted in Bangladesh, and data are collected from Dhaka and Chittagong that may limit the generalizability of findings.

The research goal was to understand a manufacturer’s perception to adopt multi-channel in business. The proposed research model was able to address the major factors that drive a manufacturer to introduce multiple business channels, especially in Bangladesh.

Many research and case studies have been done the past couple of decades, but most of them are consumer oriented. Little research has been done to investigate a manufacturer’s point of view adapting innovation in business. Though some research articles are available online, most of them from developed countries. So, the study’s goal was to study developing countries scenario; thus, the authors choose Bangladesh.

Observes that traditional retail, catalog, and online‐only businesses face a critical decision – to accept a new, yet unrefined business model that includes multiple channels or to retain their single channel model and risk becoming obsolete and left behind by new, multi‐channel competitors. The decision process and implementation of a multi‐channel strategy could be simplified if businesses understood what drives consumers to a single channel, multiple channels, and which channels are preferred. Outlines the key issues facing multi‐channel marketers, and encourages multi‐channel businesses to take a customer‐centric view rather than a channel focused view to work through the challenges unique to the multi‐channel marketer. A model of multi‐channel buyer behavior is proposed to help the multi‐channel marketer develop a customer‐centric view. Presents a series of propositions which serve to encourage and direct future research in this area.

Consumers increasingly experience multi‐channel service and a significant challenge for the service organization is to ensure that the design of the multi‐channel interface contributes to the service experience and helps to build bonds with customers. The purpose of this paper is to elucidate four features (i.e. problem‐handling, record accuracy, usability, and scalability) used by customers to evaluate multi‐channel service and investigates their impact on customer relationship and loyalty intentions.

The study involves an online survey with customers selected randomly in two service industries. Empirical data are analyzed using structural equation models.

Customer evaluations of the multi‐channel service interface have a strong influence on customer trust in the organization but a negligible impact on customer commitment. Trust, however, has a positive effect on commitment, thus enhancing customer loyalty.

The measures developed in the study represent a summary account for considerations involving multi‐channel service. However, the ability to capture the hypothesized roles of the multi‐channel service interface suggests a robust foundation for future research. These consumer‐based measures provide managers with a blueprint allowing for the integrated analysis and design of customer touch points.

This paper provides key variables to advance the study of multi‐channel service. Ways are suggested in which firms can benefit from a view of their service channels as an interface system to inform effective service design strategies.

This study aims to examine whether gender, fashion innovativeness and opinion leadership, and need for touch have effects on consumers' multi‐channel choice and touch/non‐touch shopping channel preference in clothing shopping.

A survey was conducted using a convenience sample of 123 male and 154 female US college students. Data were analyzed using PASW Statistics 18 and Analysis of Moment Structure (AMOS) 18.

Results showed that participants' multi‐channel choice was influenced only by fashion innovativeness and opinion leadership such that consumers high in fashion innovativeness and opinion leadership tend to use more than one shopping channel. Touch channel preference was influenced by need for touch and multi‐channel choice such that participants who had higher need for touch and used more than one channel for clothing shopping preferred local and non‐local stores. Non‐touch channel preference was influenced by fashion innovativeness and opinion leadership and multi‐channel choice. Regardless of gender, those high in fashion innovativeness and opinion leadership who used more than one channel preferred TV retailers, catalogs, and online stores.

Results cannot be generalized to the larger population of other consumer groups. Future research should include other population groups.

This study is the first to investigate the effects of consumers' gender, fashion innovativeness and opinion leadership, and need for touch on their multi‐channel choice and touch/non‐touch shopping channel preference in clothing shopping.

This paper aims to analyses the development of exploitation and exploration capabilities, and the role of ambidexterity, in the evolution of small Spanish wineries toward multi-channel distribution systems.

A qualitative methodology based on the analyses of multiple cases supported by a computer assisted qualitative data analysis software with an abductive approach was used to study the relationship between ambidexterity and the multi-channel integration of six wineries.

Companies with more advanced multi-channel distribution systems have more developed ambidexterity capabilities. This ambidexterity stems fundamentally from the ability to simultaneously maintain relations with distributors and innovate and search for creative ways to satisfy new customers.

The research is based on insights from companies based in Spain.

Spanish small and medium enterprises in the sector are in an underdeveloped phase of multi-channel integration. To be successful in this process, these companies must combine exploitation and exploration capabilities.

If the company is able to develop an integrated multi-channel distribution system leading to an omnichannel system, consumers will benefit from it, getting complete information at each specific stage of shopping.

This study provides the first description in academic literature of the usefulness of the concept of ambidexterity as a dynamic capability to explain the degree of development and multi-channel integration.

The purpose of this study is to investigate key differences between web‐only and multi‐channel retailers in terms of five different measures of web activity and three different forms of outsourcing behavior. Specifically, the research examines the marketing and logistics efficacy between business‐to‐consumer (B2C) retailers who sell exclusively via the web and retailers for whom the web offers one additional channel for sales. Finally, it is suggested that how this study may give rise to future research in this area.

This empirical study using the lens of transaction cost economics (TCE) to examine hypotheses regarding customer buying behavior and the retailers' proclivity to outsource is conducted. Secondary data sources provide key metrics for the more than 250 companies found in the sample.

Several key differences exist between the efficacy of web‐only and multi‐channel retailers, which can be explained with the TCE framework. Both web‐only and multi‐channel retailers are found to exhibit respective advantages. Multi‐channel retailers enjoy more web traffic and offer more items for the consumer, yet are disadvantaged in terms of ease of search and conversion rate (percentage of shoppers who actually buy). In addition, web‐only retailers are more likely to outsource the functions of logistics, marketing, and customer support.

This study has value to researchers and practitioners in that it illustrates how two of the most common types of retailing alternatives differ from each other. Multi‐channel retailers are challenged with the broad scope and immense collection of goods they offer and, therefore, struggle to convert shoppers into buyers. Web‐only retailers, on the other hand, enjoy less web traffic, but prove more effective in conversion rates, perhaps related to their more extensive use of outsourced expertise in logistics, marketing, and customer support services.

In the decade since internet retailing (e‐tailing) began to be accepted as a new sales channel, e‐tailing has grown to a market size of over $160 billion within the USA alone. However, empirical examination of the functioning and performance of this sales channel is only now commencing.

The purpose of this paper is to expand existing research on fulfillment systems for multi-channel retailers by combining analysis of customer expectation (CE) with economic performance (EP) aspects.

This exploratory study is based on a literature review of supply chain management and marketing combined with the results of an online questionnaire submitted to French and Chinese multi-channel retailers from two sectors.

The results enable the authors to identify 13 important key performance indicators (KPIs) used by multi-channel retailers for measuring e-fulfillment system performance and also to determine under which of the EP or CE criteria these KPIs might be linked.

Although the sample size is limited, this research is intended to be exploratory, based on the practices of supply chain and marketing managers. Moreover, the results do not address interdependencies among the different KPIs.

E-fulfillment is a major challenge for multi-channel retailers; it is cost intensive and critical for customer satisfaction. The identified set of KPIs enables retailers to choose those relevant to their particular infrastructure.

A limited number of scholarly works have explored the operational implications of online retailing in terms of e-fulfillment in a multi-channel context. In order to manage such supply chains efficiently and effectively, traditional measures of supply chain performance need to be adapted. This study expands existing knowledge by developing measurement systems and metrics for the evaluation of supply chain performance in this context.

Since banks do not sell tangible products, they rely heavily on customer interactions and retention, which requires service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. Banks must innovate and develop new services and expand customer engagement efforts beyond stores, kiosks, direct mail and websites to include social media, mobile applications and location-based services in order to meet their customers’ growing demands. A multi-channel strategy that integrates the offline and online presences of banks can increase quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty. This paper aimed to use a service quality scale to: (1) examine the association between service quality and customer satisfaction; (2) examine the association between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty; (3) examine the indirect association between service quality and customer loyalty through customer satisfaction; and (4) examine the mediation effect of multi-channel integration quality in the relationships between service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.

The data was obtained from banks in Saudi Arabia. The analysis was based on an online survey of 265 Saudi bank customers. The multi-channel integration quality model and Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) were used to test the proposed hypothesis and conduct the analysis.

The results found that there was a statistically significant link between service quality and customer satisfaction in the Saudi banking industry. Service quality did not directly affect customer loyalty. When multi-channel integration quality was moderate to high, service quality affected customer loyalty through customer satisfaction. For service quality and customer loyalty in the Saudi banking sector to be achieved, customers must be satisfied, but also the bank’s brand must manage the quality of integration channels provided to them with care, and thus branding plays a key role in achieving customer loyalty in the Saudi banking sector.

The academic community has provided little evidence to support how the relationships between constructs such as service quality, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and multi-channel integration quality apply to the Saudi banking sector. A conceptual framework was proposed to show how these constructs affect the Saudi banking sector. An empirical study was conducted to see how the framework held up in banking settings. The conceptual framework serves to advance the fields of business and management and banking and their respected literature, as well as advance the understanding of multi-channel integration in boosting customer satisfaction and loyalty through high service quality in the Saudi banking sector.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework to help business marketers with a mixed online and traditional retail channel (multi‐channel company) to find the optimal pricing strategy and market structure in order to maximize their profits.

A game theory model is developed to determine the optimal pricing strategy for the multi‐channel company.

It was demonstrated that an optimal pricing strategy exists under different market structures for a multi‐channel company. When a company uses multiple channels to sell its product, the optimal pricing strategy is to use a low‐high pricing strategy if the online marginal cost is equal to or less than the traditional marginal cost, or a high‐low pricing strategy if the online marginal cost is far larger than the traditional marginal cost. Furthermore, in order to maximize its profit, the company using multiple channels should adopt channel integration as the optimal market structure.

The present study assumed that all consumers have perfect information. However, information with the consumers could be incomplete. It is recommended that future research explore the pricing strategy under incomplete information settings.

The paper provides a very useful model framework, pricing strategy, and market structure for business managers who are using or planning to use multiple channels to sell their products.

This paper fills a conceptual and practical gap for a structured analysis of the current state of knowledge about multi‐channel pricing strategies. It provides practical and solid advice and examples demonstrating the application of the different types of pricing strategies for business managers.

When a company simultaneously manages several distribution channels, there are important issues regarding the sharing of marketing and logistical resources. This paper aims to discuss the integration of sales staff, communication and logistical operations to improve service delivery to multi-channel consumers.

The paper is based on a literature review regarding multi-channel strategy to build a conceptual framework. This framework is discussed using three illustrations from the French multi-channel distribution field (King Jouet, Fnac and Darty).

The exploratory research underlines the importance of information about how consumers order in different channels. This makes the global management of different channels difficult and threatens marketing and logistical sharing.

The integration process is becoming increasingly important in service recovery. Companies must therefore facilitate total access to logistical information. This requires an organisational interaction between marketing and the supply chain activities.

The paper underlines the importance of the integration process in service recovery management, particularly when a defective product must be replaced and a new product be made available to consumers.