Omni‐channel retailing on platforms: Disentangling the effects of channel integration and inter‐platform function usage difference
研究电商平台提供线上线下渠道整合支持对自身产品销售增长的影响，发现信息整合有负面影响，而物理整合不显著，且第三方卖家的跨平台功能使用差异会调节这种影响。
Abstract The rise of omni‐channel retailing poses challenges for e‐marketplace platforms. To retain third‐party sellers in the face of competitive pressure from rivals, e‐marketplace platforms are compelled to provide support for online‐offline channel integration (OOCI). However, the provision of OOCI support can adversely affect an OOCI‐enabled platform's product sales growth by encouraging consumers to switch to brick‐and‐mortar stores operated by third‐party sellers. To ascertain how the OOCI‐enabled platform can outperform under such circumstances, we analyzed data on sales of 51,409 products on a dominant Chinese e‐marketplace platform as well as inter‐platform function usage difference across 209 third‐party sellers. Combining propensity score matching with hierarchical linear modeling, we discovered that informational OOCI (e.g., concurrent availability of a product on both online and offline channels) negatively influences the OOCI‐enabled platform's product sales growth, whereas the effect of physical OOCI (e.g., the option of store pickup for online purchases) is not significant. Additionally, we found that the three constituent sub‐dimensions of third‐party sellers' inter‐platform function usage difference (i.e., volume difference, category orientation specialization, and uniqueness) moderate the impact of OOCI on the OOCI‐enabled platform's product sales growth differently. Findings from this study thus yield actionable guidelines for e‐marketplace platforms pursuing omni‐channel retailing strategies.