The Role of Seamless Shopping Experience in Linking Channel Integration Quality and Positive Customer Engagement Behaviors

This study investigates how customers interpret seamless shopping experiences in a multichannel retail context and examines the role of such experiences in linking channel integration quality to positive customer engagement behaviors. Data were obtained from in-depth interviews with customers who have prior experience with multichannel shopping and were analyzed using an open coding procedure supported by NVivo 15. Case-based matrix coding queries were applied to examine patterns of co-occurrence among key concepts. The findings indicate that customers clearly differentiate continuity and consistency as two distinct dimensions of the seamless shopping experience. Moreover, the seamless shopping experience emerges as a central mechanism through which channel integration quality translates into positive customer engagement behaviors. Drawing on qualitative evidence, this study advances a theoretical model that lays the groundwork for subsequent quantitative investigation.