Omni-Channel Retail Information Systems

Introduction

Information systems in the context of retailing are, though often overlooked as such, some of the most complex systems in the corporate information landscape – this solely on the basis of their geographical and probably also cultural span across nations, traditions, fiscal systems and workforce regimes (Joshi, 2009; Tambo, 2011). When retail information systems are expanded into being able to consistently handle the same information seamlessly across different sales channels, trading platforms, consumers group and logistical systems, then the complexity is increased by yet a magnitude (Ebeltoft Group, 2012; Frei et al., 2012). Contemporary retailing must be understood in the light of its technological character (Wightman, 1990; Heinemann & Schwartzl, 2010).

Cross-channel or multi-channel retailing has normally reflected sales of physical or non-physical goods in stores and Internet-based shops (Hadley, 2012; Williams, 2008). It has also reflected conceptually similar channels, e.g. the physical store could also be a concept store, a shop-in-shop, a trade fair booth, and the virtual store could, for instance, also be a TV-shop and a mobile commerce platform. Especially digital channels are growing in number and format, introducing social media commerce (Stephen & Toubia, 2009), e-shop-in-shops, gaming, social and professional communities, co-creation and various combinations of existing channel formats (Hansen & Tambo, 2011). Cap Gemini (2010) lists new digital channel formats such as highly interactive social networking, personalised e-zines, personal promotions based on situations, intelligent search optimisation, online comparison of competitive products and personalised mobile phone marketing.

Recently, the concept of omni-channel retailing has been introduced (Aberdeen Group, 2012; Arthur, 2012; Bomber & Caudhill, 2012; Demsey & Dunlap, 2012; Edelson, 2012; Elliot et al., 2012; Hadley, 2012; Harris, 2012; Winter, 2012; Wheeler, 2012). Omni-channel retailing is met with interest from key players in the industry of retailing (Wilson, 2012; Verizon, 2012) and covers the idea that anything can be sold anywhere with consistent marketing, reasonable efficiency of the supply chain channels and responsible customer service. This article aims at contributing to a characterisation and definition of omni-channel retail information systems (OCRIS) by using the information systems research tradition as a distinctive starting point (Treiblmaier & Strebinger, 2008; Avgerou, 2001; Parboteah et al., 2009). Omni-channel retailing has evolved since 2010 with the ultimate aim of aligning physical and digital sales channels by the use of technology, thus providing uniform customer experience and operational effectiveness across the channels (Hansen & Tambo, 2011).

The vision of OCRIS remains largely at a conceptual level. Selected point-of-sale (“cash registers”) products and retail management systems have been introduced to be able to cope with the challenges of OCRIS. However, as a business strategy, it is still evolving and not many of the actual implementations have been able to fully realise the vision.