Towards an Integrated Omni-Channel Strategy Framework for Improved Customer Interaction

Online platforms and multiple accesses are two of the necessary conveniences that consumers nowadays look for. A multiple channel strategy allows customer interaction from various angles but does not provide a flawless, coherent user experience. This chapter identifies key factors that drive a successful omni-channel platform and proposes a successful omni-channel strategy framework. A survey consisting of 21 items was administered to gain customers' perspectives on channels provided by a particular company. Descriptive analysis was performed to study the underlying issues faced by customers when making complaints, service request, and enquiries via the multi-channel interaction provided. Findings show that eight technological and four customer engagement factors contribute to a comprehensive omni-channel strategy framework for a deeper understanding on the significance of a flawless user platform.

Analyzing Omni-Channel Shopper’s Journey Configuration of Generation Y and Z

Omni-channel retailing has been an essential issue to enterprises nowadays. This research applies goal theory to Engel-Kollat-Blackwell model in the omni-channel context and adapt the concept of Harris, Riley & Hand (2018) to shopper journey configurations, including search, evaluation, and purchase of decision making process. This study selected iPhone as the product and collected 179 participants of Gen Y and 126 participants of Gen Z to analyze shopper’s journey. The results indicated Gen Y replied on online review after searching and made own judgement, and preferred store purchase. Gen Z either replied on online review or directly made own judgement after searching, and preferred store purchase. Both generations utilized all types of search and referred to online reviews of evaluation process, and purchased at the store. Our findings also benefit to companies’ mange profitable omni-channel strategy.

Contributions of Industry 4.0 to supply chain resilience

PurposeThis study aims at identifying the contribution of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) integration into supply chains (SCs) to the enhancement of SC resilience.Design/methodology/approachA scoping review was conducted so that the relevant literature on SC resilience, and I4.0 integrated into SC management was examined.FindingsThe authors summarize the main findings from existing research and propose three research directions: (1) empirical validation of the contribution of I4.0 ICTs to SC resilience; (2) explore the role of processing-actuation technologies in enhancing restorative capacity; and (3) integration between I4.0 ICTs and omni-channel strategy as a means to resilience development at consumer and retail levels. The literature on the design of resilient smart SCs is far outnumbered by works reporting applications of I4.0 ICTs at different SC tier levels. However, the authors’ scoping review organizes the information available on these themes, setting the ground for the development of new theoretical propositions.Originality/valueThe integration of digital technologies from I4.0 can fundamentally change the SC management, acting as enablers of a more effective response to disruptions. However, the digital transformation of SCs is still incipient, and literature is particularly sparse when considering the contribution of I4.0 to the resilience of SCs.

Exploring Omni-Channels for Customer-Centric e-Tailing

In this volatile post-COVID environment where customers look for ways to order products online using personal computers and mobile devices, a traditional sale/delivery of products via single distribution channel needs to be reassessed. As a revolutionary alternative to a conventional distribution channel, this paper proposes an omni-channel strategy. The omni-channel aims to maximize the customer shopping experience by diversifying and integrating the product purchase and delivery media through customer engagement. The omni-channel also facilitates the sales of products by allowing customers to seamlessly interact with retailers across the multiple channels such as websites, social media, brick-and-mortar stores, kiosks, call centers, and the like. Since the transformation of product sale, purchase, and delivery processes requires a new business mindset and innovative strategic initiatives, this paper sheds light on potential challenges and opportunities of implementing the omni-channel strategy, while identifying key success factors for the application of the omni-channel concept to e-tailing.

Strategic Analysis of Dual-Channel Green Supply Chain with an Unreliable and Competitive Supplier

With the increasing public awareness of environmental issues, green production has become an important issue for supply chain management. This study proposes an analytical model to investigate the dual-channel green supply chain decisions of a retailer and a competitive supplier; the latter suffers from unreliable production yield. The retailer’s environmental responsibility is considered as a two-echelon supply chain in which the retailer promotes the green product in their marketplace through green marketing. This problem is analyzed and modeled under three available channel strategies, considered in the order in which channel selections are made: a single online channel strategy, a single retail channel strategy, and a dual-channel strategy. The results show that the wholesale price of the manufacturer and the green-marketing effect of the retailer increase with the improvement in the level of the green production technology. Interestingly, the result reveals that a retailer’s expected profit is unimodal in the production technology level under the dual-channel strategy, which suggests that the retailer may not be incentivized to encourage the manufacturer to improve its production technology once a threshold has been reached. Further, we develop the channel selection: the retailer is strictly better off in the single retail channel scenario than that in the dual-channel scenario; however, while the unreliable supplier is better off in the single online channel scenario than that in the single retail channel scenario, its best option is still the dual-channel strategy. Additionally, numerical results illustrate that the expected profits of supply chain parties decrease with the improvement in customer acceptance of the online channel.

Green Remanufacturer’s Mixed Collection Channel Strategy Considering Enterprise’s Environmental Responsibility and the Fairness Concern in Reverse Green Supply Chain

In reverse green supply chain, the mixed collection channel strategy of green remanufacturer is analyzed by building a dynamic game model in which we consider that the green remanufacturer undertakes the environmental responsibility and the green collector shows strong fairness concern for the profit. We analyze the impact of the environmental responsibility level of the green remanufacturer, the preference coefficient of the green remanufacturer, the fairness concern coefficient of the green collector, and the coefficient of cross collection price on optimal decision and profit of the green remanufacturer. The result shows that (1) the green remanufacturer can further improve the collection price, so that it makes many more customers participate in the collection activity; (2) the green remanufacturer pays more attention to fulfill the environmental responsibility, which will increase the intensity of collection of the waste green product, and improve the collection price, as the old green product’s remanufacturing cost is lower than the production cost of the new product, and it can improve the green remanufacturer’s profits; (3) the green remanufacturer’s profit in the mixed collection channel is higher than those in online or offline collection channels.