The influence of physical stores on the integration of online and offline channels, from a customer-centric perspective - a case study of Alibaba’s fresh food store, Freshippo

In the customer-centric era, the fragmentation of channels can no longer satisfy customer’s increasing demand for superior customer experience. So, retailers need to figure out how to integrate channels to enhance customer experience. Thus, this study aims to explore the synergy between digital and traditional channels. With the popularity of e-commerce, it becomes difficult for most physical retailers to survive in the market environment. However, the in-store experience, especially for fresh food grocery, is quite essential, due to its role of enabling awareness, brand connection and human touch. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of physical stores on the integration of online and offline channels, from a customer-centric perspective. Omni channel retailing is a growing body of research. However, most studies only focus on the perspective of customer experience but ignore the synergy between digital channels and traditional channels that is achieved by the excellent in-store experience and physical store digital transformation. Therefore, in this study, customer experience is not only the goal of Omni channel retail strategy but also the starting point of Omni channel strategy.