Maintaining customer flow across digital and physical channels: The role of hybrid-experience fluency in omnichannel retail

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Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
Omnichannel research emphasizes channel integration but gives limited attention to how customers maintain experiential continuity across digital and physical touchpoints. This study examines hybrid-experience fluency as a customer-side mechanism linking omnichannel system conditions to customer outcomes. Data from 575 consumers in Indonesia who recently completed a shopping episode involving the same retailer’s digital platform and physical store were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The sample covered grocery, fashion, electronics, and home goods. Channel transition smoothness (β = 0.311), cognitive load management (β = 0.281), and temporal synchronicity (β = 0.370) positively influenced hybrid-experience fluency, whereas technological friction negatively influenced it (β = −0.227; all p < 0.001). Hybrid-experience fluency positively influenced customer satisfaction (β = 0.408), behavioral intentions (β = 0.670), and brand loyalty (β = 0.638; all p < 0.001). Shopping involvement weakened the relationship between hybrid-experience fluency and customer satisfaction (β = −0.145, p < 0.001), but strengthened its relationships with behavioral intentions (β = 0.052, p = 0.006) and brand loyalty (β = 0.061, p = 0.007). These findings position hybrid-experience fluency as an experiential mechanism connecting omnichannel system conditions with customer responses and demonstrate that shopping involvement shapes these relationships differently. The study extends omnichannel research beyond structural integration by highlighting customers’ capacity to sustain experiential continuity within hybrid shopping episodes. For retailers, the findings emphasize smoother channel transitions, reduced cognitive demands and technological friction, and synchronized interactions across digital and physical channels to improve customer satisfaction, behavioral intentions, and brand loyalty.

Acknowledgment
The authors express gratitude to the Faculty of Economics and Business Universitas Pelita Harapan Tangerang, Indonesia, for supporting this research.

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    • Figure 1. Proposed Research Model
    • Figure 2. Structural Model Results and Hypothesis Testing
    • Table 1. Demographic Profile of Respondents (n = 575)
    • Table 2. Reliability and validity
    • Table 3. Discriminant validity (HTMT)
    • Table 4. Structural model path coefficients
    • Table 5. Moderation analysis results
    • Table 6. Specific indirect effects through Hybrid-Experience Fluency
    • Table 7. IPMA
    • Conceptualization
      Juniarty, Evo Sampetua Hariandja
    • Data curation
      Juniarty, Evo Sampetua Hariandja, Yokie Radnan Kristiyono
    • Formal Analysis
      Juniarty, Evo Sampetua Hariandja
    • Funding acquisition
      Juniarty
    • Investigation
      Juniarty, Evo Sampetua Hariandja, Yokie Radnan Kristiyono
    • Methodology
      Juniarty
    • Project administration
      Juniarty
    • Resources
      Juniarty
    • Software
      Juniarty
    • Supervision
      Juniarty
    • Validation
      Juniarty, Evo Sampetua Hariandja
    • Visualization
      Juniarty, Evo Sampetua Hariandja, Yokie Radnan Kristiyono
    • Writing – original draft
      Juniarty
    • Writing – review & editing
      Juniarty