164 Managing Multichannel Integration, Designing Perceived Affordances, and Developing Customer Relationship in the Online and Offline Retailing constructs in retailing environments. This study aims to prove that multichannel integration and perceived affordances constitute important means for adding economic and relational values to customers’ purchases. By examining economic and relational values stimulated by multichannel integration and perceived affordances, this study enriches the understanding of how economic and relational values mediate the relationships between multichannel integration, perceived affordances and satisfaction in both online and offline channels. Furthermore, Verhoef, Kannan, and Inman (2015) consider channel design as the management of different existing channels and of customers’ touchpoints. Rather than judging from a single separate channel, customers’ appraisals of a retailer from multiple channels may influence their online and offline satisfaction or loyalty toward that retailer (Kwon and Lennon, 2009). Frambach et al. (2007) and Montoya-Weiss et al. (2003) point out that retailers may benefit from online and offline channel interactions because customers generate satisfaction and loyalty through their offline experiences. While these studies have built basic knowledge of the effect of multichannel integration on customer behaviors, there is still a lack of full understanding on how the integration influences customer value and customer satisfaction. However, because of resource constraints and based on prior research background (Horppu, Kuivalainen, Tarkiainen, and Ellonen, 2008), this study only discusses the offline customer experiences that generate satisfaction and loyalty and how these offline experiences positively influence satisfaction and loyalty toward the online channel. We believe this study can help multichannel retailers understand how offline channel experiences influence customers’ tendency to online channels. The significance of this study is threefold. First, although multichannel integration has been recognized as a beneficial retailing strategy, not too many empirical studies focus on the determinants of loyalty on retailers. As customers’ shopping behaviors exist in both online and offline channels, examining multichannel integration and perceived affordances in the retailing context contributes to a deeper understanding in this field and their consequences. Moreover, this study is the first attempt to integrate channel management (multichannel integration), affordance theory (perceived affordances), services marketing (economic and relational values), and relationship marketing (online/offline satisfaction and loyalty) in one model. This model concentrates on multichannel integration and perceived affordances that reflect on the values customers obtained. These values further facilitate the realization of satisfaction and loyalty.
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