Omnichannel Strategy Adoption Issues in an eCommerce Company: A SAP-LAP Analysis

The omnichannel strategy aims to produce an integrated and seamless customer experience across manifold channels (e.g., social media, physical stores, website portals, mobile applications, instant messaging platforms, etc.). Adopting omnichannel in an eCommerce company could be challenging and complex with several implementation issues. Existing literature reports various adoption issues; however, these are often deliberated in isolation. Legacy systems, data silos, organizational silos, inconsistent customer journeys and experiences, resource allocations, technological challenges, workforce readiness, order fulfillment, inventory, security and privacy concerns, data analytics, and many more could be those noteworthy challenges. There is a need for a robust implementation plan and top management commitment at all levels of management. This paper aims to analyze a case study of eCom1, a leading eCommerce firm in India, which could enlighten on the current status of omnichannel adoption measures undertaken by them. A situation-actor-process (SAP) - learning-action-performance (LAP) framework has been applied for the case study of eCom1. The situation characterizes the current scenario, actors the participants influencing the situation, and the process refers to the adoption strategies. Based on this SAP, different learning issues are analyzed, guiding appropriate actions followed by performance outcomes intended for its stakeholders. The synthesis of SAP will lead to LAP and fix the gap suggesting numerous activities based upon learnings from the current situation, actors, and processes. The SAP-LAP analysis explains omnichannel adoption and implementation issues from a managerial context as applied in the eCom1 case. This study is novel and valuable to eCommerce decision-makers who plan to implement omnichannel strategies and make them effective and efficient. In this regard, the seminal work on the SAP-LAP model of inquiry is highly suitable in comparison with other related studies.