Decision-making styles in the age of omnichannel retailing

Abstract

The retail sector has undergone a significant transformation with the rise of digitalisation and the internet, leading to changes in customer shopping behaviours and retail strategies. The emergence of the omnichannel shopping model has revolutionised the way consumers obtain goods and services. However, research on omnichannel shopping is still limited, particularly in understanding the factors that shape the holistic customer shopping journey and their impact on satisfaction and perception of integration quality. This thesis by publication comprises two core journal publications and three conference papers, which examine the effect of shoppers’ decision-making styles on their holistic omnichannel shopping journey on affective and behavioural response experiences. Through undertaking a mixture of descriptive and causal research, this thesis advances the knowledge of omnichannel retailing and management, supporting academics and practitioners alike. The first paper examines the impact of shoppers’ decision-making styles on satisfaction with the omnichannel shopping journey. Finding demonstrated that maximisers were more satisfied with the omnichannel shopping journey compared to satisficers. Further, shopping values (hedonic and utilitarian) gained from the omnichannel shopping journey, derived omnichannel satisfaction journey, and content consistency was more important in supporting maximisers with hedonic value gained from omnichannel shopping. The second paper showed that shoppers integrate content differently across channels according to their own capabilities, which in turn, improves omnichannel interaction quality. In addition, omnichannel configuration quality improves maximisers’ perceptions of the omnichannel interaction quality. This thesis contributes to the omnichannel retailing literature, presenting an advanced understanding of consumers’ shopping behaviour and providing new avenues to investigate omnichannel shoppers. By examining how decision-making styles influence shoppers’ responses to omnichannel environments, the findings of this dissertation provide insights for researchers and managers alike to manage and promote omnichannel retailing effectively.