2.3. Challenges of an Omnichannel Retail Environment
Since the turn of the century, multichannel retailing has been evolving into omnichannel retailing [
20], a move that has been facilitated and pushed by information technology [
7]. Different from multichannel retailing, omnichannel retailing provides customers with simultaneous access to multiple channels, e.g., store, online, mobile, and social media [
20], calling for a holistic management of the parallel channels to make customers’ cross-channel transitions seamless and their shop** experience integrated [
21]. Omnichannel retailing is not just a simple compilation of different channels, but emphasizes the synergetic management of all channels. Consequently, it is defined as a synchronized operating model, in which all of a company’s sales channels are aligned and present a single face to the customer [
9]. While omnichannel retailing increases convenience for consumers in terms of maximum shop** flexibility, it also creates new challenges for retailers and supply chains with regard to designing effective strategies that emphasize cross-channel objectives over single-channel interests [
22].
The degree to which a company provides customers with a seamless shop** experience across channels is referred to as channel integration quality [
23]. When consumers expect to shop at any location and at any time [
22], the separation between offline and online retailing becomes blurred [
24] and retailers must have products available at any location and at any time, too [
25]. To ensure that this is achievable, retailers have to utilize stores as fulfillment centers, operate advanced information technology systems [
26], and pay particular attention to logistics service quality [
27].
2.5. Hypotheses Development
Omnichannel retailing and sustainable development are currently the most important challenges for fast fashion brands. The UCRPs that are offered by fast fashion brands constitute one small step towards more sustainability. To date, however, there is no research concerning consumers’ participation in UCRPs in an omnichannel environment. To close that gap, this paper examines the effects of consumer (individual) and channel (organizational) characteristics on consumers’ willingness to participate in the UCRPs of fast fashion brands. In addition, mediation effects are investigated. The assumed individual determinants are consumers’ environmental attitudes and consumer satisfaction. The organizational determinant to be examined is channel integration quality. In addition, we look for mediation effects, including impulsive consumption and brand identification. In the following, we develop the conceptual model, which is thereafter tested on empirical data, and substantiate our hypotheses.
With the present challenge of climate change, containing environmental pollution is vital, and consumers’ environmental awareness is growing rapidly. Sustainable, green consumption emphasizes consumers’ responsibility for the protection of the environment, and encourages them to purchase environmentally friendly products and reduce consumption in general [
33]. In contrast to the logical conclusion that an environmental attitude is an important determinant of sustainable consumption behavior [
34], research on environmental awareness and consumer behavior delivers inconsistent results. While in the UK, according to research conducted by Dermody and colleagues (2015) [
35], environmental attitudes have not been found to significantly affect the actual consumption behavior of environmentally friendly products, Dong and colleagues (2020) [
33] found that Chinese consumers with a passion for, intimacy with, and connectedness to nature reveal a clear tendency towards green purchasing and recycling. These inconsistencies make the relationship between environmental attitudes and sustainable behavior (in our case, willingness to participate in a UCRP) worth testing further. Since data for our study were collected in China, we assume a positive effect of environmental attitudes on the willingness to participate in a UCRP and hypothesize accordingly:
Hypothesis 1. Environmental attitudes positively affect the willingness of consumers to participate in a UCRP.
Consumer satisfaction is based on a product’s, service’s, or brand’s performance meeting or exceeding the consumers expectations in that regard [
36]. Offering a UCRP is one of a brand’s services. Tam (2004) [
37] showed that customer satisfaction not only affects re-purchasing behavior, but also post-purchasing behavior. Since participation in a UCRP can be seen as post-purchasing behavior, we propose the following hypothesis:
Hypothesis 2. Consumer satisfaction positively affects the willingness of consumers to participate in a UCRP.
Channel integration quality is pivotal for the success of omnichannel retailing [
38]. One of the dimensions that determines channel integration quality is the consistency of process and content. With regard to a UCRP, this means that a brand offering it does so consistently across channels. In addition, consistency also refers to time. Consistency of previous and present experiences [
39], and of formerly and currently used channels [
40], represents a quality feature and affects omnichannel purchasing behavior. Following this line of reasoning, we assume that the higher the channel integration quality, the more consumers will know about, start, and continue to participate in an offered UCRP. Therefore, we propose the following hypothesis:
Hypothesis 3. Channel integration positively affects the willingness of consumers to participate in a UCRP.
While contemplative consumption is a deliberate and cognitively controlled process, impulsive consumption is characterized by high levels of emotional activation and low levels of cognitive control [
41]. Previous research has shown that channel integration quality affects consumer attitudes as well as behaviors [
42,
43]. It enhances customers’ value perceptions and reduces information asymmetries, thus creating more transparency in the shop** process and allowing for more cognitive control [
43]. This is, why we suggest the following hypothesis:
Hypothesis 4. Channel integration negatively affects impulsive consumption.
It is known from research that impulsive and contemplative shoppers differ in terms of personality [
44]. While impulsive shoppers prioritize short-term benefits, contemplative shoppers are more concerned about the long-term costs of their consumption behavior. The term ‘environmental attitudes’ refers to people’s awareness of environmental issues, support for solving them, and willingness to contribute to the solutions [
45]. As such, taking the long-term environmental costs of consumption into consideration is the foundation of environmentally friendly consumption behavior [
46]. Taken together, we therefore propose the following hypothesis:
Hypothesis 5. Environmental attitudes negatively affect impulsive consumption.
The rapid update of fast fashion products stimulates consumers to buy new designs frequently [
2]. Impulsive consumers tend to purchase products spontaneously, unplanned, and on the spur of the moment [
13,
47]. More consumers buying more fashion items more often raises the question of what to do with fashion waste [
13,
47]. While on first sight, one might assume that impulsive consumers, buying clothes thoughtlessly, thereby harming the environment, will not be inclined to participate in a UCRP, we argue differently. Unlike contemplative consumers, impulsive consumers will possess more clothes that are more idle and more useless and, hence, have a greater need to deal with them. Consequently, participating in the recycling of used clothes may become an option for impulsive consumers to handle their idle clothes, particularly when participation is connected to a discount for buying new clothes. Accordingly, we propose the following hypothesis:
Hypothesis 6. Impulsive consumption positively affects the willingness of consumers to participate in a UCRP.
Sousa and Voss (2006) [
23] proposed a conceptual framework for channel integration quality, consisting of channel service configuration quality and integrated interaction quality. Channel service configuration quality reflects channel choice breadth and channel service transparency. Channel choice breadth describes the degree to which consumers can access information and services from different channels. Channel service transparency refers to the level of customers’ familiarity with the attributes of available channels [
39]. Finally, integrated interaction quality expresses the consistency of cross-channel interactions in two dimensions: process and content consistency. Combined, they produce a unified, reliable, and consistent service experience for consumers [
39]. Whether it is through physical or online stores, what is important to the customer is that they can immediately buy what they want, when they want it. Fast fashion brands strive to achieve a truly unique and integrated relationship between the customer and the brand. Fast Retailing, for example, aims to unify sales channels through its StyleHint app, which allows customers to access up-to-the-minute information on their phones and buy the products that they want immediately, whether in-store or online [
5]. Although there is scarce evidence in the literature on the effect of channel integration quality on customer commitment, customer engagement, and brand attractiveness [
39,
48], we assume that a broad choice of channels, familiarity with channel attributes, and experience of a reliable service contribute to brand identification, and we thus offer the following hypothesis:
Hypothesis 7. Channel integration positively affects brand identification.
The prevalent model for understanding consumer satisfaction is the expectancy confirmation paradigm [
36]. Accordingly, satisfaction is the outcome of a product or service’s performance meeting or exceeding the consumer’s expectations [
36]. Building on social identification theory, brand identification is commonly defined as consumers’ psychological state of perceiving, feeling, and valuing their belongingness with a brand [
28,
49,
50]. The literature is somewhat divided on the matter of the causal relationship between consumer satisfaction and brand identification, however [
51]. On the one hand, identification is seen as an antecedent of satisfaction [
30,
52], with the assumption that identification enhances satisfaction through a more favorable overall judgement that is based on an affective attachment with the brand [
53]. On the other hand, there is also the view that identification is motivated by the satisfaction of consumers, assuming that consumers will particularly identify with brands that satisfy their needs and wants [
28,
54,
55]. Since positive paths from satisfaction to identification were also confirmed in empirical research [
56], we hypothesize that:
Hypothesis 8. Consumer satisfaction positively affects brand identification.
Brand identification is a psychological state referring to consumers’ perceiving, feeling, and valuing their belongingness with a specific brand [
50]. Through identification, consumers internalize and integrate the brand and its image. To them, the brand has a positive and attractive meaning, which meets their needs [
57]. Therefore, we assume that consumers who identify with a brand will consequently also view its UCRP as a wise choice and be inclined to participate in it. Hence, we hypothesize:
Hypothesis 9. Brand identification positively affects the willingness of consumers to participate in a UCRP.