Cross-Channel Product Ordering and Payment Policies in Multichannel Retailing: Implications for Shopping Behavior and Retailer Profitability

Retailing firms face market pressures to transact with consumers across multiple channels – brick-and-mortar stores, catalogs, kiosks, and Web sites – and consequently, to exploit the synergies across them. A retailer’s objective is to distribute resources across the channel mix to satisfy customers and maximize profits. An important strategic decision facing any retailing firm in this case is whether various distribution channels should be integrated so consumers can seamlessly use multiple channels to complete a single purchase transaction. Or, should multiple channels be independently managed, so consumers are restricted to a single channel for a particular transaction? While the integration of remote retail channels like catalogues and online stores has been widely accepted (and hence not addressed in this research), the integration of remote and store-based retail channels presents a challenging issue because of costs, channel conflicts and other strategic implications. Most research on multichannel