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Strategic channel alignment: an analysis of the configuration of physical and virtual marketing channels

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Abstract

Extensive integration of online and offline channels is often described as the most preferable strategy for multi channel retailing. However, empirical findings challenge this assumption by showing that retailers choose a variety of disparate multi channel strategies. Given this variety, we conjecture that there is no single best approach to multi channel retailing, but that, depending on the general marketing strategy, different multi channel strategies can be suitable for retailers. We develop a model of strategic channel alignment and identify four different paths of channel alignment, which we use to reconstruct and interpret multi channel strategies as an alignment of general marketing strategy and online strategy. An application of the model to four prominent and successful cases from the grocery retailing industry shows that although the companies pursue fundamentally different multi channel strategies, they can all be considered as examples of successful alignment and mature multi channel strategies.

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Acknowledgments

This publication is based on work done within the research cluster “Internet Economy” at the University of Münster. The authors wish to thank the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) for financial support (grant number 01 AK 704).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. European Research Center for Information Systems (ERCIS), University of Münster, Leonardo Campus 3, 48149, Münster, Germany

    Claas Müller-Lankenau & Kai Wehmeyer

  2. Centre for Innovation, Technology and Organisation, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland

    Stefan Klein

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  1. Claas Müller-Lankenau
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  2. Kai Wehmeyer
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  3. Stefan Klein
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Correspondence to Claas Müller-Lankenau.

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Müller-Lankenau, C., Wehmeyer, K. & Klein, S. Strategic channel alignment: an analysis of the configuration of physical and virtual marketing channels. ISeB 4, 187–216 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10257-005-0031-4

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