The omnichannel retail evolution has changed the role(s) of the store. Applying a quasi-experimental design to data on store openings by an omnichannel consumer electronics retailer, we explore these new store roles and the value they provide to the retailer. We find that, in contrast to small stores, large experience-centric stores substantially benefit online-first retailers through both customer acquisition and activation mechanisms. Category-level analyses reveal the underlying mechanisms.

This paper studies a monopolistic omnichannel retailer's pricing strategies when customers are strategic in making a channel choice and a purchasing decision in the presence of product value uncertainty. We find that charging a uniform price across the sales channels and disclosing it via the online store is optimal. We study the structural properties of the optimal price and the corresponding profit. Finally, we assess the value of omnichannel retailing relative to single-channel counterparts.

We examine how consumers’ fairness concerns affect a multichannel retailer’s pricing strategy. We find that the retailer should maintain consistent price across channels only when the fraction of unfair-adversed consumers is in an intermediate range, and otherwise should charge different channel prices. Moreover, as the fraction of unfair-adversed consumers increases, the retailer may be better off by strategically enlarging the price gap.