Title: The online for offline mobile retail business strategy: sustainable multichannel services

Authors: Kwonsang Sohn; Christine Sung; Qingxuan Zhang; Ohbyung Kwon

Addresses: School of Management, Kyung Hee University, Kyungheedae-ro 26, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, South Korea ' Jake Jabs College of Business and Entrepreneurship, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana, USA ' School of Management, Kyung Hee University, Kyungheedae-ro 26, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, South Korea ' School of Management, Kyung Hee University, Kyungheedae-ro 26, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, South Korea

Abstract: Online for offline (O4O) e-commerce is a new multichannel strategy that is being adopted worldwide, whereby successful online companies launch offline retail stores. Despite this new retail trend, it is unclear whether this new business model is sustainable. Therefore, the purpose of this empirical study is to identify factors affecting consumers' intention to continue using online and offline channels established by successful online brands using an O4O strategy, and to test the halo effect of online stores going offline. The findings of this study confirm that utilitarian value, hedonic value, and parasocial relationships have significant effects on intention to continue visiting online and offline stores. Also, consumers' intention to continue to visit online stores strongly influences the perceived utilitarian and perceived hedonic value of the offline store. These results suggest that the perceived utilitarian and hedonic value of the online store can expand and sustain enterprises adopting the multichannel strategy.

Keywords: online for offline; O4O; e-commerce; mobile commerce; sustainable multichannel integration; retail strategy.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMC.2023.128815

International Journal of Mobile Communications, 2023 Vol.21 No.2, pp.225 - 248

Received: 09 Oct 2020
Accepted: 18 Apr 2021
Published online: 07 Feb 2023 *

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