Abstract

In view of the development of omni-channel retailing in research and practice still at its early stage, not only is our current understanding of omni-channel retailing limited, onmi-channel retailing as conceptualized and discussed in the literature has also been confused often with those of multi- and cross-channels. Based on a channel integration perspective, this review article attempts to 1) clarify the differences among multi-channel retailing, cross-channel retailing, and omni-channel retailing and 2) deepen our understanding of multi-channel integration and omni-channel retailing through issues and results with important values from past studies. Articles published from 2010 to 2019 in SSCI journals, as listed in the ranking of international journals issued by the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan (R.O.C.), were selected and systematically reviewed. Our analysis revealed that the research on multi-channel integration and omni-channel retailing has been primarily focused on driving factors, impacts and challenges, operations management, and consumer behavior. The present topic is thoroughly investigated, providing further suggestions and insights for future directions. This review article is positioned to facilitate our current understanding of omni-channel retailing, in hope of offering a clearer view of the present topic for future research, guided by past studies.