The Role of Channel Integration in Customers' Perceptions Transfer from Offline Channel to Online Channel Service Quality

Abstract

The advancement of internet technology revolutionized the online shopping environment and offered more options to customers in their purchase process, providing them with better products and services and providing opportunities for business firms to open an additional channel to grow. Based on previous inconsistent results regarding the construct of the different channels, the current study proposes Channel Integration as a moderator. Some authors also attribute these insignificant results to a lack of channel integration. While the number of channels increases, the issue of synergies and coordination among channels also increases. The current study investigates the connection between offline service quality and Online Service Quality (ONSQ). Additionally, the moderation of channel integration between offline service quality and ONSQ justifies inconsistent results in multichannel literature. Data was collected from 358 customers of various online fashion industry firms in Pakistan. The study results indicate the significant association between offline service quality and ONSQ. The construct of channel integration moderates the relationship between offline service quality and ONSQ. Hence, the higher the perceived integration between the multiple channels of the firm, the better is the transfer of customer perceptions from one channel to another. Therefore, multichannel firms should acknowledge the role of channel integration in shaping behavioral intentions in multiple channel interaction. Several other variables can be tested to check their moderating effect on customer's perception transfer.