Evolution of Marketing Methods towards the Omnichannel Marketing: Understanding the Journey through a Literature Review

Abstract

Appreciating the massive evolvement of internet-based technology which has made massive changes to marketing methods globally, the purpose of this study is to identify the impact of omnichannel marketing on generating the revisit intention on the fashion store brands in Sri Lanka. Within marketing management jargon, consumer revisit intention (RI) was being studied widely and it has proved that retaining customers is more advantageous than attracting new, because it would require less marketing resources to retain customers than inviting new ones. As the marketing methods have aged, changed, evolved so is the consumer's thinking, expectations behavior, and intentions. From radio to newspapers, television to social media, marketing has transformed with the mediums over the past several decades. Particularly social media which is the most recent development has changed marketing in several different ways. Social Media has completely transformed the consumer's lifestyles including how they interact with business organizations. Nowadays customers expect proactive service, personalized interactions, and connected experience. Therefore, various integrated marketing methods came to practice and latest of them being omnichannel marketing. In omnichannel marketing it suggests the integration of all physical channels (offline) and digital channels (online) to offer a unified customer experience. In this paper, the literature related to the evolution of the marketing communications used by the practitioners from early dates to today will be analyzed and discussed to identify the attributes, features of different marketing communication methods used in different eras and theories and consumer behavior and expectations that developed and shifted together with the development of the marketing communication.