Investigation on omnichannel sales services considering consumer experience and return policy: Comparing BOPS and ESBO

We investigate the performance of two representative omnichannel sales services: buy online and pick up in-store (BOPS) and experience in-store and buy online (ESBO). To this end, we incorporate the important offline strategic factor (consumer experience) and online factor (return policy) for omnichannel operations. By comparing the performance of omnichannel and traditional online and offline services together, we reveal important implications for managers who are considering the adoption of omnichannel services. ESBO can always provide an opportunity to enhance the overall performance of an offline retailer. However, while adopting BOPS, online retailers should carefully consider the business environment. If consumers are highly sensitive to the service experience, the offline hassle cost is not very high, or the inventory cost is not high, the adoption of the BOPS sales service is recommended. We also provide the detailed conditions for omnichannel selection between BOPS and ESBO.