Strategic Channel Alignment - Perspectives on the Combination of Physical and Virtual Distribution Channels

Extensive integration of online and offline channels is often considered the preferable strategy for multi channel retailing. However, empirical findings contradict this assumption and show that retailers choose divergent multi channel strategies. In this paper, we present a model of strategic channel alignment and define four alignment perspectives that can help to reconstruct and interpret decisions on multi channel strategies as an alignment of general marketing strategy and online strategy. An application of the model to the cases of four prominent and successful players from the grocery retailing industry shows that although the companies pursue fundamentally different multi channel strategies, they are all examples of successful alignment and mature multi channel strategies.