Omnichannel Retailing and Customer Retention: The Mediating Effect of Omnichannel Shopping Experience

Abstract

Advances in technology have led to the growth of channels via which businesses can communicate with customers, sell goods, and provide services. To survive in today's competitive retail market, businesses are placing a greater emphasis on omnichannel strategies, which involve integrating and coordinating a variety of sales channels to better serve and retain customers. Omnichannel retailing is a prominent strategy used by businesses to provide customers with a unified shopping experience across multiple channels. Based on the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-OR) theory, the purpose of the research is to examine the effect of omnichannel retailing strategies on customer retention mediated by the omnichannel shopping experience. A quantitative approach was employed, and a questionnaire was distributed electronically to the customers of fashion retailing in Egypt. The data was analyzed using the Smart PLS software. The results showed that omnichannel dimensions: integration, seamlessness and fulfillment have a positive effect on customer retention, and that fulfillment has the strongest effect among the three dimensions on customer retention. The results also revealed that shopping experience mediates the relationship between omnichannel retailing and customer retention.