“Today, the average customer may engage with a brand across 10 channels, and look like a different person on each. If the brand cannot reconcile all data points to one human being, how does it deliver a personalized experience?” Irving Fain (Colloquy 2014).

Recent significant advances in technology, including the emergence of new purchase and communication channels such as the Internet, mobile phones, tablets and social media, have opened up a vast new frontier for business research and practice (Pauwels and Neslin, 2015). In an attempt to reshape the way marketers interact and transact with their current and prospective customers and obtain a competitive edge (Venkatesan, Kumar, and Ravishanker 2007), firms have widely integrated these new channels into their daily operations. Decathlon and Zara are good examples of companies that have introduced new communication channels to interact with their customers. Decathlon has designed a mobile application to facilitate contact between people who practice the same sport and Zara has recently achieved a leading position on social networks (e.g. Twitter, Facebook) where customers can interact easily with the company.

In this new reality, omni-channel management, “the synergetic management of the numerous available channels and customer touchpoints, in such a way that the customer experience across channels and the performance over channels is optimized” (Verhoef, Kannan, and Inman 2015, p. 176), has become a key business priority. According to the National Retail Federation’s “Retail CIO Agenda 2015” report, seventy-six percent of business leaders surveyed placed omni-channel management strategies as a top priority in their agendas for 2015. The academic importance of omnichannel marketing is also supported in Ostrom et al. (2015) where they find that the management of customer relationships across different touchpoints (e.g. purchases and interactions) and channels is rated the third in importance in a list of 80 research priorities in service science.

From a customer perspective, the proliferation of new marketing channels has offered them new opportunities to transact and communicate with the firm (Cao and Li, 2015). As a result, customers increasingly use alternative channels to purchase products and services and to contact the firm for other purposes including requesting information, soliciting technical advice, facilitating feedback about the products and services, and inquiring about a product’s use or availability (Neslin et al. 2006). This results in an increase in the number and complexity of customer-firm interactions (Van Bruggen et al. 2010). For example, a customer might start the purchase experience based on the recommendation of a friend, on an online product research, or on an offer by the company. She can then go to a retail store to touch and feel the merchandise. After that, she can make price comparisons on the web and ultimately buy it from the comfort of her home at any time using a tablet or other device. Later, she can go online to learn about the product’s features and characteristics and about how best to use it. Finally, she can call the service center to report any unsatisfactory situation with the product or during the buying process. This behavior has become the norm, rather tan the exception, in the current business environment. For instance, a study by Oracle shows that more than 75% of consumers use two or more channels to browse for, research and purchase products and services. Importantly, the central role that customers play in the value creation process have led them to become more empowered (Higgins and Scholer, 2009) and demanding throughout the purchase process. As a result, “customers expect (the purchase journey) to be relevant and personalized, to reveal consistent features, offers and experiences based on where they’ve been, what they want and how they choose to get it” (Oracle 2011). In fact, the same study by Oracle shows that 85 percent of shoppers expect the shopping experience to be consistent and personalized.

Despite the introduction of new channels by firms and the importance that customers attach to obtaining a satisfactory and personalized experience through all the interactions in any of the available channels, most companies continue to manage their channels individually and separately. But this might no longer be a good strategy in the current omni-channel environment, where customers demand a seamless experience across the multiple channels they use in their purchase journey. “Customers start their journey anywhere, anytime and from any device. And, when they stop midway, they expect integration: to pick up from where they left off on another device or channel” (Accenture 2014a, p.3). The study just quoted shows that only a third of retailers have operationalized even the basics of multichannel management such as store pickup, crosschannel inventory visibility, and store based fulfillment (Accenture 2014a). Thirty-nine percent of consumers are unlikely or very unlikely to visit a retailer’s store if the online store does not provide physical store inventory information. Retailers who struggle to implement omni-channel initiatives online also experience challenges meeting customer expectations in offline channels. Thus, despite massive investments (technology, people, and processes), retailers are struggling to come even close to meeting the omni-channel expectations of their customers. One central question emerges: how can firms manage all touchpoints across all channels in an integrated manner to provide a superior customer experience and gain a competitive edge? This question is at the heart of most businesses in the current omni-channel environment and, in this study, we aim to identify a number of key issues that firms must consider before they can embrace the changes that their organizations need to recast the customer experience and obtain superior performance in this new environment.

The manuscript is organized as follows. In the next section, we review the relevant research in multichannel marketing and identify its contribution to current knowledge and practice. In the third section, we identify a number of recommendations that can help firms recast the customer experience and manage all interactions and touchpoints across channels in an integrated and consistent manner. Finally, we summarize the main takeaways from the study and suggest some avenues for future research.

How can firms manage customer interactions and touchpoints across multiple channels seamlessly, consistently, and profitably? As noted in the introduction, this question summarizes well one of the greatest challenges that businesses face today in the current omnichannel environment and the underlying focus of the present research (Verhoef, Kannan, and Inman 2015). In searching for an answer to this question, existing research has started to provide some insights which have mainly revolved around two related research areas that aim to shed some light on (1) the factors that influence and explain customer behavior across channels (drivers of customer cannel choice) and (2) the consequences of customer channel choices on performance metrics (consequences of customer channel choices). We now discuss each of these two streams of research in detail.

As noted previously, the current omni-channel environment offers firms a number of opportunities to improve customer relationships and enhance profitability. However, it is important for firms to understand the drivers and consequences of a successful omni-channel marketing strategy (as reviewed in the prior section) and address a number of central challenges. These challenges are the following.

Customer-centric approach: First and foremost, companies need to adopt a customer-centric focus (Shah et al. 2006). It is now wellaccepted that what determines the success of business organizations is their customers, not their products or services. Customers are the firm’s most important asset (Gupta, Lehmann and Stuart 2004), and they determine what a business sells and whether it will prosper. However, many companies are still focusing on products and their contribution to profits as well as on maximizing the number of purchase transactions of their products. The focus should be on customers and on building, developing and maintaining successful relationships that provide long-term benefits in the form of more purchases, product and service usage, positive word of mouth and product co-creation (Bolton, Lemon, and Verhoef 2004; Dwyer, Shurr, and Oh 1987; Ganesan 1994; Morgan and Hunt 1994). To become truly customer centric implies a change in the culture of the organization and all its members, requiring the firm to have all its functional activities integrated and aligned to deliver superior customer value (Shah et al. 2006). It also means that firms can no longer manage their channels individually and separately, but must manage them in an integrated manner in order to provide customers a seamless and superior experience. Adidas is a good example of a company in which the customer-centric focus guides all activities and operations. This brand allows its customers to design and personalize their own sneakers, offers games to its followers through Instagram and other social networks in exchange for concert tickets, etc. With all these strategies the brand hopes to get closer to its customers and to maintain successful and long-lasting relationships with them.

Unify all touchpoints across all channels: Every single touchpoint between the firm and the customer matters (Neslin and Shankar 2009). Customer-firm interactions represent opportunities to improve the relationship and are critical for building and maintaining successful and profitable relationships (Wiesel, Pauwels and Arts 2011). Thus, they must be managed consistently and satisfactorily. To address this challenge, firms need a complete customer data integration that helps them to obtain a 360-degree view of all their customers and their behavior across all marketing channels (Neslin et al. 2006). This will enable them to know, for example, which channels their customers are using at each step of the purchase journey (from the search phase, through the consideration, the evaluation and the decisión making phases to the after sales services phase) (Gensler, Verhoef, and Böhm 2012). And this knowledge is critical in the implementation of a successful omni-channel management strategy as it provides firms with a proper understanding of customer channel preferences and enables them to use communication channels that match these preferences. At the same time, this information helps firms to identify why some channels are generating more sales for the company and, thus, to offer a profitability analysis of each channel’s contribution to firm performance (Li and Kannan 2014).

Deliver personalized customer experiences. The data integration presented before, if properly addressed, will enable firms to deliver a unified and personalized message across all channels to each customer. Marketing has evolved significantly in recent decades and one-to-one marketing, which used to seem difficult to put into practice, has become a reality these days. Coca-Cola and Nutella are good examples of brands that have achieved great success through the customizing of their products, even allowing the customers to include their own names on the labels. Personalization is at the heart of a successful omni-channel customer management strategy. Customers are aware of all the information that they give away to firms about their purchase histories, habits and demographics, and thus demand something in exchange. They want customized communications that understand who they are, know what they like, deliver what they need, and reach them through their preferred channels. But, how can marketers deliver personalized communications and experiences to every single customer at the right time? They need a proper understanding of each customer (the data integration discussed before is of great importance for achieving this objective) and an agile response system that enables them to offer their customers the right products and services through the right channel and at the right time. This marketing activity must be consistent across all channels to maximize consistency and avoid creating customer confusión (imagine a customer receiving an offer of a 15% rebate through direct mail and one of 25% through e-mail). As an example of good practice, Ibercaja Bank offers their customers, through their favorite channels, personalized information about investment funds or pension plans based on their past behavior.

Cross-channel integration: The integration of marketing channels deals with how to combine the available channels to create crosschannel synergies (Cao and Li 2015). Traditionally, most multichannel companies had silo structures where each channel division operated independently. However, managing channels in isolation frequently leads to customer confusion (e.g. prices, promotions, assortment, etc. can differ in various channels) and frustration, diluting the value offered to the customer (Herhausen et al. 2015). Firms can improve the customer experience in an omni-channel environment by coordinating and integrating their marketing channels. Integrating channels enables firms to offer customers what they want at each stage of the buying process. Customers can thus gather as much information as they want in a convenient way, reducing their uncertainty in the buying process and exposing them to more marketing stimuli that can further reinforce the relationship and improve sales (Cao and Li 2015). The consequence is an increase in customer satisfaction and loyalty and in greater opportunities to cross sell. For instance, the UK retail giant Marks & Spencer has announced that it will provide free wi-fi at all its UK stores and to lend customers iPads as part of its plans to further integrate its online and bricks-and-mortar sales channels. This decision will enable the company to develop an integrated cross-channel strategy.

Delight your customers across channels: The previous steps can help firms increase their customers’ satisfaction, but they must go one step further: they should try to delight their customers. Customer delight refers to “a profoundly positive emotional state generally resulting from having one’s expectations exceeded to a surprising degree” (Rust and Oliver 2000; p. 86). Achieving this delight is critical as it not only creates brand loyalty but also brand fans who are willing to interact with the firm to improve its success. As a result, firms must exceed expectations and “delight and surprise” their customers. This can be done, for example, with invitations to special events (such as exclusive demonstrations of the latest products and services), free nights at hotels, free dinners at restaurants and VIP access to events. This is more complex in an omni-channel environment because it involves the use of multiple channels in a consistent manner. For example, a customer might receive an invitation by phone to go to a special event at the store. Once she is there, she may receive a personalized gift (a perfume she loves) and be shown some related products that may interest her and for which an electronic coupon with discounts has been sent to her e-mail address. Unexpected benefits have been shown to be highly valued by customers and to produce positive attitudes such as extremely high satisfaction and increased commitment (De Wulf et al., 2001). In addition, these surprises normally generate buzz and contribute to improving the attitudes of other customers (Kumar et al., 2010). LetsBonus and Groupalia usually give their customers discount coupons for the next purchase to try to generate positive customer word-of-mouth on social networks. In addition, Perfumeries IF and El Corte Ingles often give their customers free samples of cosmetic products to enhance the brand experience. Overall, these actions aim to engage customers and produce strong positive reactions that go beyond the purchase of products and services (Van Doorn et al. 2010).

The role of the physical store: Despite the increase in the number of channels from which customers can purchase products and services (e.g. the Internet, catalogs, mobile phones, etc.), it would be premature to talk about the death of the physical channel. So, what is the role of the physical store in the omni-channel environment? Physical stores play a central role in the development of successful customer relationships because they have a number of features that are of great importance to customers in their purchase decisión process (Avery et al. 2012). Customers can touch and feel the merchandise before they purchase the products, helping them reduce some of the risk of purchasing through other channels. They can talk face-to-face to salespeople to clarify features and characteristics of the products and to make sure they are taking a good decision. They can also talk to other customers face-to-face and find out about others’ real experiences with the product. These features are highly valued by customers. For example, a recent report by Accenture (2014b) shows that 61% of the consumers surveyed strongly value asking a salesperson for product information and recommendations. In addition, the store plays a critical role in the creation of personalized customer experiences. The store and its employees should offer a superior service to customers and, instead of only providing information, they must become engagement creators (Forrester 2014). Some examples of online companies that have introduced a physical channel are Amazon, which opened recently a bookstore in Seattle (USA), ING Direct Bank, which was initially oriented to online operations but has now opened branches to be close to their current and potential customers, and Harper&Neyer, who are also going to open sales outlets in order to receive physical visits from its customers.

Embrace mobile channels: New mobile channels have transformed the business landscape. Some recent figures show that 56% of consumers have used their mobile devices to look for products and services in their homes, 38% have used them to check the inventory availability before going to the store, and 34% have used them to find information about products while they are at the store (Accenture 2014b). In addition, a recent study by Deloitte Consulting (Brinker, Lobaugh, and Paul 2012) predicts that 31 billion dollars of retail revenues will be transacted using mobile devices in 2016. Domino’s Pizza is one example of firms that actively use the mobile cannel to interact with their customers. This company has gone a step further in mobile commerce and has designed an app through which customers can make voice orders. The results obtained have been very satisfactory. They reveal that 40% of the orders are made online and that 50% of these orders are made through mobile devices using this app. Importantly, the increasing introduction of the mobile channel facilitates new customer behaviors, such as showrooming (the practice of examining products and services in the traditional, physical channels and purchasing them through the mobile channel). While at the store, customers can use their mobile devices to find a better deal online and purchase it right away.

Given the prevalent role that mobile devices are playing (and will continue to play), companies must embrace digital channels in their business models. This is important as it presents a new opportunity for companies to offer direct contact with their customers and new sales channels, which may enable manufacturers to increase their market share. However, as noted previously, the introduction of these new channels must be accompanied by a proper management of the customer experience across the multiple available channels. The increasing popularity of the digital channel does not imply that the other channels are losing importance. A truly omni-channel strategy means that firms must deliver consistent experiences, messages, content and processes to their customers across the available channels.

In this study, we aimed to further our understanding of omni-channel marketing, which has become a cornerstone of marketing strategy (Verhoef, Kannan, and Inman 2015). Although firms have integrated new channels into their daily operations (mobile phones, tablets and social media) due to recent and significant technological advances, it is still a challenge for managers to develop an omni-channel strategy with their customers.

Specifically, this paper has attempted to offer some guidelines about how firms can manage all touchpoints across all channels in an integrated manner to provide a superior customer experience and to gain a competitive edge. We have identified a number of central issues that firms must embrace in order to develop an integrated omni-channel customer experience:

Firms must become customer centric. The literature has moved from product or brand management to customer management, from product portfolio to customer portfolio, and from a product-centric to a customer-centric approach (Kumar, 2015). In addition, as technology does not cease evolving, it has been possible to increase firms’ knowledge of customers and to strengthen their investment in personalized actions by offering products that match consumer needs. Being aware of the importance of a customer-centric approach, companies will be able to develop successful and profitable relationships with their customers.

These challenges suppose a useful guide for companies to efficiently develop an omni-channel marketing strategy. However, there are still some important gaps in the literature which indicate new avenues for future research. Verhoef, Kannan, and Inman (2015) highlight that there are now sufficient studies on the effects of multi-channel strategies and additional channels on performance, but more research is required on the effects of the elimination of channels (Konus, Verhoef and Neslin, 2014). Further research is also required about the influence of the use of mobile channels within the store on purchase behavior and on store performance. In addition, companies should develop an integrated omni-channel marketing strategy, studying to what extent shoppers control or are aware of this integration. Finally, one of the issues that most concerns customers is their privacy. As they want to protect their personal data, more research is required into how companies can guarantee customers this protection and the correct use of all their private information across the different channels.