Do Hybrid Retailers Benefit from the Coordination of Electronic and Physical Channels?

This paper describes the rationale behind a study of hybrid retailers. These retailers employ both electronic and physical channels to support the downstream sales of goods and services to end users. It is hypothesized that hybrid retailers are able to exploit synergies between physical and electronic channels that enable them to better attract new customers and retain existing ones. Potential synergies include awareness creation, improved trust, consumer risk reduction, coverage of diverse shopping preferences, supplementary support, and more holistic customer information. However, in order to create these synergies, hybrid retailers will need to coordinate their channels. This mean specifically to align the marketing mix between channels, to cross-promote channels, and to provide value-adding services across channels. This paper presents a survey questionnaire that is designed to test whether such channel coordination is indeed beneficial for hybrid retailers.