infonet-economy

Customer choice in retailing increasingly takes place in multichannel settings. Channel integration, that is, how consistent multiple channels of the same company are in terms of retail mix elements (e.g. price, assortment), receives rising attention in research and practice. In this article, we investigate the effects of multichannel assortment integration on customer choice. Further, we research the moderating impact of assortment relations as well as customer characteristics. We test our hypothesis in a 3 x 3 role-playing experiment using a nationwide representative sample of 959 customers. We find that multichannel assortment integration positively influences customers' perceived choice, exploration, and choice confidence. We also unveil that different interactions between channel assortment integration and assortment relations are at work for each choice construct. The effectiveness of channel assortment integration further depends on customers' personal need for structure and their level of involvement. Our results underscore the need for retailers to consider offering consistent assortments across channels. This is especially important, given that 70% of retailers have not fully integrated their channels. The paper closes with implications for multichannel managers and researchers.