Consumer Behavior in Online-to-Offline (O2O) Commerce: A Thematic Review

Abstract

Online-to-offline (O2O) commerce is a popular business model which links offline business activities with online channels. Consumer behavior in O2O commerce is more complex than in other traditional business models as both online and offline channels are involved. Despite the growing number of publications focused on this issue, no review paper has discussed the current research trends and factors influencing consumer behavior in O2O commerce. Therefore, this review aimed to synthesize literature on O2O commerce from 2015 to April 2022, focusing on consumer behavior. A set of inclusion and exclusion criteria was developed for searching and screening articles from two dominant databases (i.e., WOS and Scopus), and 53 eligible articles were included in this review. A thematic review approach using ATLAS.ti 9 software was conducted. Quantitative results presented the research trends of O2O commerce. Qualitative analyses generated eight main clusters of factors which influence consumers’ O2O behavior: (1) service and product quality, (2) technical and utilitarian factors, (3) emotional and hedonic factors, (4) trust and risk, (5) price and cost (6), social factors, (7) online content, and (8) habit. This paper also highlighted promising future research directions. The findings are expected to benefit the sustainable management and the future research of O2O commerce.