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

Type of the article: Research ArticleAbstractOmnichannel 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.AcknowledgmentThe authors express gratitude to the Faculty of Economics and Business Universitas Pelita Harapan Tangerang, Indonesia, for supporting this research.