A Research On Relationship Betwwen Consumer Interaction And Channel Coordination Performance

With social media applications in China’s explosive growth, consumers can take advantage ofall kinds of internet technology and Apps to share information and discuss issues among thecrowd online, through continuous interaction and refining able to effectively reach aconsensus on a theme. Compared to any other media, the impact speed, breadth and depth ofsocial media is not in the same league. The companies hope to close to their customers, socialmedia is quickly becoming the object of primary concern, because social media has becomean important information channel of customers’ source of information to decide buying aswell as enterprises maintain communication with customers.At the same time, along with the extensive application of the Internet and mobile Internetterminal, the function and connotation of channel is also undergoing changes, the mostprominent feature of the internet not only affect consumer how to use channels, but also hasbecome the main source of consumer information. The meaning and function of the channelsare differentiated, in a broadsense, channel is the touchpoint or the intermediary mediabetween the customer and the enterprise which customer interact with, the touchpoint is allopportunities for brand (or corporate) communicate and interact with current or potential theconsumers in the contact process,and all possibility of contact with consumers. Thetouchpoint is the basic unit of marketing communication mix, consumer based on theiraccumulated experience from touchpoint to form their perception of the business or brand.More and more traditional enterprise started transformation from a single-channel marketingro multi-channel marketing, to provide consumers with information, products or servicesthrough two or more channels (including distribution channels and information channels).Enterprises expect to expand by increasing marketing channels and consumer contact points,and increase the cost of consumer switch to other firms, thus effectively reducing the rate ofconsumers defection. Therefore, the channel mix strategy makes service offerings acrossmultiple channels to increase the service point of contact between consumers and retailers,the complementary channel made consumer be more convenient, more extensive access to services or products, thus can achieve a greater degree of customer satisfaction and customerretention.From the consumer buying process, customer purchase can be simplely divided into twostages: search and purchase. At each stage, for the customer, faced with the choice from twodimensions of brand and channel which belong to different companies, consumer perceptionof different search properties(search attractive) and purchasing property(purchase attractive)towardr different brand, which will affect each time consumers search and purchase. In thispaper, we select the retailers which use social media platforms as information channels and atthe same time, own online channels and physical channels as distribution channels asresearch object, and explore when consumer search goods online and offline and purchaseonline finally, that is to say, we study the phenomenon the consumer migrate from offline toonline, study the mechanism online social interaction and offline interactive channels impacton channel coordination performance. Specifically, research online social interaction andoffline interaction through the mediation of customer psychological distance and consumerchannels information free-rider behavior affect customer’s perception of channelscoordination performance.Data survey and empirical analysis verify the assumption of the vast majority of the proposed,and the following conclusions:(1) Online information search will stimulate customer’swebsite social presence, and significantly affected customer’s psychological distance;(2)Consumer’s observational learning impact on website social presence is not significant, butthe effect on customer psychological distance is significantly;(3) Customer online reviews ofwebsites impact on website social presence significantly, but the impaction on thepsychological distance is not significant;(4) customer’s prior offline brand image have asignificant impact on the channels information free-riding behavior;(5) Customer psychologydistance and channels information free-riding behavior significantly both impact on thechannel coordination performance;(6) Consumers perceived control moderate the path thatinformation search impact on website social presence;(7) Customer brand sensitive moderatethe path that psychological distance and channel information free-riding behavior impact on the channels coordination performance;(8) Customer internet experience moderate the paththat observational learning, information search, channel information free-riding behaviorimpact on channels coordination performance.The research also get some useful managerial implications: First of all, in the era ofinformation fragmentation, companies must not only focus on the diversification of mediadelivery, but also pay more attention on the consumer digital media forms of communication,the particularity of the content, especially in the internet branding should be more focus oninteractive communication with the consumers and maintain the nice online reputation of theenterprise. Second, the corporate website is the important window for consumers to touch andfeel the enterprise, the lack of e-service website social presence will block the customers trust,and hinder the growth of the enterprise, therefore, enterprises need to integrate informationtechnology, website design and social media technology platform to enhance the socialpresence of online channels. Finally, the integration of the supply chain management, throughpurchase, establish, rent and other forms to build relationship with partners in the valuenetwork, specifically, purchased through a third party, serve by a fourth party logistics, and afourth-party service, etc., stimulate enterprise channels synergies.