Despite the orientation towards online retailing journey accelerated by the application of new-age technologies in the pandemic context, the role of the physical store still has a central role in luxury shopping in the digital omni-channel perspective. Digital technologies have increased their impact on consumers (Evanschitzky et al., 2020; Klaus & Zaichkowsky, 2020; Kaplan & Haenlein, 2020; Davenport et al, 2020; Huang and Rust, 2021a; Pantano et al, 2022). In today’s digital age, AI is one of the new-age technologies raising growing interest for their potential disruptive impact on marketing and retailing in different sectors (Forbes, 2022).

The paper examines how omnichannel communication of sustainability of luxury fashion brands enhance consumer brand engagement. We propose a multiple case study of four Italian high-end fashion brands. The study advances the literature on sustainable luxury fashion and omnichannel communication and offers guidelines for managers to effectively communicate sustainability.

Technology, for example, Personalized Technology Services (PTS), has groomed consumers to expect an integrated and personalized shopping experience regardless of the channels, such as websites, mobile apps, physical stores, etc. PTS refers to technologies that offer personalization functions to meet customer needs at the time of their shopping for a seamless experience. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of retailer mobile apps’ PTS in consumers’ omnichannel shopping experiences by: (1) identifying PTS values specific to retail mobile apps for in-store shopping and (2) testing the PTS values – channel integration – consumer responses links based on Information Integration Theory (IIT). We first proposed that PTS via mobile apps holds various positive values. Second, we postulated four hypotheses: H1. PTS values enhance the integration of PTS values, H2. Integration of PTS values positively affects customer engagement, H3. Customer engagement positively affects customer satisfaction and H4. Customer engagement mediates the relationship between integration and customer satisfaction. Two web-based survey studies were employed with US consumers who had an experience with mobile app-mediated PTS offered by retailers. For study 1, a total of 239 US consumers participated in the survey. Study 1 identified five value dimensions of the app-mediated PTS: hedonic value, utilitarian value, self-efficacy, co-creation, and synchronicity. For study 2, a total of 373 US participants completed the survey. Study 2 confirmed the proposed structural model that PTS values positively affected channel integration which, in turn, positively influenced customer engagement and shopping satisfaction. Additionally, customer engagement partially mediated the effect of integration on shopping satisfaction. This study expanded the literature on omnichannel retailing by exploring consumer in-store shopping experience using retail mobile apps from PTS and channel integration perspectives. Practically, the study findings provided insights for marketers into how to design the retailers’ mobile apps to enhance the integrated shopping experience of consumers.

Today, customers experience a multitude of online and offline touchpoints along their shopping journeys. A customer touchpoint is defined as a direct or indirect encounter with a firm along shopping process (Baxendale et al., 2015). Touchpoints can be oneway or two-way interactions between customers and firms (Verhoef, Kannan, & Inman, 2015). Instant experiences are initiated by firms, others or by customers themselves. These experiences influence customer’s overall experience with brands, and furthermore, have impact on customers' subsequent attitude and behaviour. Another important question for managers is to decide whether to aim for creating frequent encounters: focus on volume, or creating instant experiences with stronger positive-emotional response: focus on valence. Prior research investigated different touchpoints separately and mostly focused on the effect of the volume of touchpoint encounters on attitudes and behaviour. Taking a holistic perspective, we investigate the effects of volume and valence of customers’ previous experiences of firm, others and customer initiated touchpoints on satisfaction and current purchases. We employed a real-time tracking method where respondents reported their touchpoint experiences via a mobile phones, each time they encountered the focal brand in a 4- week period in supermarket, healthcare and banking categories. We employ a twostep dynamic Heckman Probit model to investigate the impact of volume and valence of touchpoints on customer behaviour, and a multivariate regression to investigate the touchpoint effects on brand satisfaction along customer journeys. Our results reveal that brand satisfaction is mostly explained by the effect of touchpoint valence and not touchpoint volume. Our behaviour model reveals that the volume, rather than valence, of previous customer initiated purchases and transactions impacts the frequency of current purchases.

It was Macy’s (a department store in the U.S.) which introduced the concept of ‘omnichannel’ in 2010 for the first time, and, at present, representative U.S. retailers have also adopted the approach. In Japan, the effort to interlock real and Internet stores started around the same time. Big retailers have promoted its omnichannel strategies by providing services in which customers can order merchandise on the Internet and receive it in a store. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the characteristics of the Japanese type of omnichannel by comparing it to the U.S. type. Rigby (2011) defines omnichannel as “an integrated sales experience that melds the advantages of physical stores with the information-rich experience of online shopping.” Lazaris & Vrechopoulos (2014) refer to it as “the use of both physical and online channels combined with the delivery of seamless shopping experiences.” Kondo (2015) understands it as “a marketing approach that integrates all (omni) channels and provides consumers with a seamless shopping experience.”