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Customer Loyalty
in a multichannel retail environment
Masterthesis defense
Koen ter Borg
Table of contents
› Introduction › Problem statement › Conceptual Model › Methodology › Results › Conclusions › Managerial implications › Academic contributionIntroduction
› Online and offline channels -> growing competition
› Retailers need more than great products to stand out
› Loyalty gets more important
Problem statement
› Increased transparency -> growing expectations
› Switching stores has never been easier
› Decline in loyalty towards certain brands and stores
› Costs of new customers higher than loyal customer
Research questions
Main question: ‘How can multichannel retailers optimize their individual sales channels in order to build loyalty?’
1. What is the influence of the following factors: price perception, quality, image and perceived channel integration on the online and offline loyalty, and what are the differences?
2. In what way do the drivers of one channel of a retailer influence the loyalty towards the other sales channel of the same retailer (how do spillover effects relate to each other between online and offline sales channels)?
Methodology
Data collection
› Online survey (via social media and own network)
› Validated survey questions
› Sample size: 206 participants ranging between 16-76 y/o
› Dutch multichannel retailer in mind
› Assessing the drivers of customer loyalty Data Analysis
› Confirmatory factor analysis (Rstudio)
Conclusions
› Online loyalty influenced by:
• online service quality
• online assortment variety
• online image
› Offline loyalty influenced by:
• online assortment variety (spillover effect)
• offline price perception
• offline image
› Mediating effects:
• Online service quality and assortment variety -> online image -> online loyalty
Managerial Implications
For the online channel:
› optimize service quality:
• very intuitive navigation
• easy access to support (e.g. high-quality chatrooms)
• keep offering easy/free returns
› offer a wide assortment variety
› Improve online channel image For the offline channel:
› offer a wide online assortment variety
› improve price perception (e.g. discounts, psychological pricing etc.)
Academic contribution
Previous research
› Loyalty towards retailer as a whole
› Or single channel This research
› Different drivers of loyalty simultaneously
› Considering both online and offline channels (multichannel)
Limitations & Future research
Single point in time Small amount of data
Cognitive dissonance Measurements
No recent experiences in memory