Omnichannel Retail: A Strategic Approach for Planning and Decision Making

The retail industry is currently undergoing the biggest transformation in its history. Driven by the digitalization of commerce, new technological innovations and tools, as well as ever-evolving consumer trends and emerging forms of consumption, retail business models are becoming fully omnichannel.

This textbook provides a strategic approach to modern omnichannel retailing, its content, and its logic. It offers students the chance to create a strategic business plan that helps retailers make strategic choices and decisions that enable or facilitate the transition to omnichannel operations and the effective management of an omnichannel business.

It addresses key topics, including:

• Customer journey and customer experience
• Business models and service concepts
• Revenue streams
• Retail mix decisions
• Physical and digital channels
• Channel management and integration
• Metrics 

Also offering a glossary-style overview of more than 200 key retail industry concepts, this book provides students with a comprehensive understanding of omnichannel retail, forming a solid foundation for managing and further developing retail business operations across physical and digital channels.

Arto Lindblom is Professor of Retailing in the Department of Marketing at the Aalto University School of Business in Finland. He has published a wide range of articles on retailing and marketing related topics in esteemed international journals, as well as written textbooks on retail business. Furthermore, he has been lecturing for more than 15 years on topics such as retail concepts and business models, retail strategy and retail marketing.

Matti Kautto is a retail industry expert and holds a Doctorate in Business Administration. He has decades of experience in retail business management within the K Group. Kautto earned his doctorate from Aalto University in 2019 and has co-authored several retail-related publications with Arto Lindblom and Lasse Mitronen. He is also an experienced lecturer in retail management at various universities.

Lasse Mitronen is an Adjunct Professor at Tampere University, Finland. He has extensive experience in the retail industry, as well as in international business research and development. Mitronen has published works on topics such as network management, customer relationship management, and strategic leadership in books and academic articles, both domestically and internationally. He is actively involved in executive education and lectures in various leadership training programs.