Discovering and rescuing weather’s negative impact on retail performance: insights from community retail shops in the omni-channel era

Purpose: Rapid Internet tech development led to widespread adoption of omni-channel retail, including Community Retail Shops (CRSs) catering to local needs. CRSs are close to residential areas and mainly sell products such as fresh produce, making them susceptible to weather. Existing research lacks exploration of weather’s impact and mitigation strategies within the omni-channel context. Design/methodology/approach: This study builds an empirical conceptual model based on environmental psychology theory and member loyalty. Using a large dataset of more than 600 million transactions, we investigate the impact of weather conditions on retail performance across different channels and study how the negative impact of weather can be alleviated. Findings: Our results reveal that adverse weather conditions positively affect online sales in CRSs, while good weather conditions do not always benefit offline sales. Percentage of members can partially moderate the impact of weather conditions on retail performance. Practical implications: This study emphasizes the significance of external weather factors in shaping sales strategies for CRSs within an omni-channel context. We provide practical recommendations to optimize cross-channel intervention strategies, considering various weather conditions in omni-channel retailing. Originality/value: Previous research has primarily examined the influence of weather conditions on offline retail performance. However, this study breaks new ground by investigating the impact of weather on CRSs omni-channel retailing. Moreover, it introduces theories of membership mechanisms into the research framework, expanding the understanding of weather’s effects on marketing.