Digital Channel Integration - The Process of Handling Tensions Internal to the Firm

Sammanfattning: Offering customer a seamless shopping experience through its multiple channels is imperative for retailers to be competitive in the 21st century. To allow the customers to switch freely between the channels, both practitioners and academics highlight the importance of retailers integrating its different sales channels. The reality does however tell a different story, in which internal organizational dynamics prevent the integration to happen smoothly. The aim with this study is to investigate the integration of the digital- and physical sales channels, by describing the tensions occurring among the groups and individuals responsible for each channel. By also describing the handling of the tensions and subsequent effects, we outline the channel integration in terms of a process. We utilize a research approach consisting of in-depth case studies with three of the largest retailers in Sweden. The study takes the standpoint from a managerial perspective at different levels within each retailer. By analyzing the empirical data, we identify five main sources of tensions to be of certain importance in channel integration. Results further indicate that there exists interconnectivity between the tensions occurring, in the sense that when one tension is solved, another one emerges. We propose a processual model for channel integration, composed of three phases, in which the retailers move forward due to internal and external factors.