Can offline–online congruence explain online loyalty in electronic commerce?

Abstract

Purpose

One key issue to be addressed in multichannel retailing strategies has to do with ensuring the consistency of the retailer offerings between the brick-and-mortar and the online stores to offer their customers a seamless experience. This study assesses whether perceived congruence may be relevant to identify segments of heterogeneous based on their online loyalty levels as well as other constructs and variables related to the customer relationship with the retailer for two different product categories.

Design/methodology/approach

From the responses of apparel and electronics multichannel shoppers to an online survey, a CHAID algorithm was performed to identify the most relevant congruence attribute(s) perceived by customers for predicting their loyalty levels toward the online store.

Findings

The results have allowed the identification of five segments of online shoppers, both for apparel and for electronics retailing, so that customers showing the highest scores in all congruence attributes also showed a higher loyalty toward the online store.

Research limitations/implications

This study presents a first insight into the link between perceived congruence and online loyalty in retailing using a CHAID segmentation-based approach by differentiating various dimensions of perceived congruence for two product categories.

Practical implications

The results obtained allow for inferring a series of strategies and actions that retailers can adopt for improving perceived congruence between physical and online stores along with a series of dimensions, and ultimately, increase online loyalty.

Originality/value

As the interest of the literature on perceived congruence between offline and online stores is relatively recent, this exploratory research contributes to shedding light on the implications of specific congruence dimensions between the offline and the online store in terms of consumer online loyalty in all multicategory setting.

Citation

Ruiz-Molina, M.E., Gómez-Borja, M.-Á. and Mollá-Descals, A. (2021), "Can offline–online congruence explain online loyalty in electronic commerce?", International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 49 No. 9, pp. 1271-1294. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJRDM-02-2020-0060