Systematic review of omni-channel banking and preview of upcoming developments in Germany

  • Received May 31, 2020;
    Accepted June 18, 2020;
    Published June 22, 2020
  • Author(s)
  • DOI
    http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/im.16(2).2020.09
  • Article Info
    Volume 16 2020, Issue #2, pp. 104-125
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Banks have not come to rest since the 2008 banking crisis and have been struggling for their future ever since. In addition to serious market distortions, there are increasingly digital challenges and investments in the banks’ platforms to remain competitive and continue to meet customer requirements. Other industries are showing the banks how to do it and investing heavily in the networking of distribution channels to form an omni-channel system, as this is where all interfaces converge. The banking industry has also recognized this groundbreaking approach in the distribution channel. Academic literature is also increasingly examining omni-channel management, but studies in the banking industry are still sparse. This study uses multi-method research in the form of a systematic literature review and semi-structured qualitative bank expert interviews to examine omni-channel management in the banking industry. Thereby, the state of scientific research and the future objectives of the banks are analyzed. Bank experts in Germany explain what bank customers will expect, how far German banks have progressed in implementing an omni-channel system, and how the bank-customer relationship will change. Findings show that banks will completely transform their distribution by omni-channel management by breaking with existing structures and creating a new customer experience and higher customer value. The paper provides critical insight into what omni-channel integration means for the banking sector.

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    • Figure 1. Data management in an omni-channel environment
    • Figure 2. Development of omni-channel research (all sectors) in literature (2012 – July 2019)
    • Figure 3. Published omni-channel papers total and in banking sector between 2012 and 2018
    • Table 1. Description of the different distribution channel characteristics
    • Table 2. German top 5 banks: balance sheet total 2018 in EUR million
    • Table 3. Characteristics of the experts
    • Table 4. Results of literature research
    • Table 5. Distribution of omni-channel management papers by classification
    • Table А1. Omni-channel in the context of banking literature, search phases 3.1, 3.2
    • Conceptualization
      Michael Menrad
    • Data curation
      Michael Menrad
    • Formal Analysis
      Michael Menrad
    • Funding acquisition
      Michael Menrad
    • Investigation
      Michael Menrad
    • Methodology
      Michael Menrad
    • Project administration
      Michael Menrad
    • Resources
      Michael Menrad
    • Software
      Michael Menrad
    • Supervision
      Michael Menrad
    • Validation
      Michael Menrad
    • Visualization
      Michael Menrad
    • Writing – original draft
      Michael Menrad
    • Writing – review & editing
      Michael Menrad