Exploring omnichannel retailing: Common expectations and diverse reality

This introductory chapter provides a brief overview of the current academic literature focused on omnichannel retailing. However, its main purpose is to introduce the chapters included in this book. This book includes, in addition to the introduction, eleven chapters. Chapter coverage reflects the diversity of retailing, with papers from Europe, North America, and Asia. Different retail sectors and product groups are analysed, including fashion, grocery, and pharmaceuticals. The chapters consider top-level, strategic issues, such as strategy implementation and channel integration, as well as operational and technological aspects, such as the use of mobile phones in store and channel fulfilment. Such a variety highlights that we can expect the creation of many different models and solutions rather than one model of omnichannel retailing, all based on the use of technology and channel integration, but adjusted to a …