The Role of Omni-Channel Strategies in Digital Customer Experience: Insights from Customers of Apparel Retail Companies in Erbil City, Kurdistan Region of Iraq

Abstract

This study explores the role of omni-channel strategies in Erbil City customers' digital customer experience (DCX), the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, in the apparel retail sector. A quantitative, descriptive-analytical approach was employed to conduct a survey among those customers of local apparel retail stores. Data were collected via a structured questionnaire from a representative sample of 415 apparel retail customers, selected using simple random sampling and the data was analyzed via SPSS-26.0 and AMOS-26.0 programs. The results indicate that omni-channel strategies greatly improve DCX. In particular, the findings emphasize the positive benefit of incorporating omni-channel functionality in shaping customer relationship, perceptions, and satisfaction on digital retail channels. These results offer insightful information to apparel retailers within the Erbil City, that is their investment on border omni-channel integration can result in an enhanced level of customer satisfaction, loyalty and eventually competitive advantage. Local stores, therefore, ought to focus on integrating and seamlessly transferring information, regardless of whether the interaction is in-store or online, to be able to appropriately meet customer expectations in an aggressively digitalizing market.