Antonio Moreno
Sicupira Family Associate Professor of Business Administration
Sicupira Family Associate Professor of Business Administration
We conjecture that for online retailers, experience-centric offline store formats do not simply expand market coverage, but rather, serve to significantly amplify future positive customer behaviors, both online and offline. We term this phenomenon “supercharging” and test our thesis using data from a digital-first men’s apparel retailer and a pioneer of the so-called zero inventory store (ZIS) format—a small-footprint, experience-centric retail location that carries no inventory for immediate fulfillment, but fulfills orders via e-commerce. Using a risk-set matching approach, we calibrate our estimates on customers who are “treated,” that is, have a ZIS experience, and matched with identical customers who shop online only. We find that after the ZIS experience, customers spend more, shop at a higher velocity, and are less likely to return items. The positive impact on returns is doubly virtuous as it is more pronounced for more tactile, higher-priced items, thus mitigating a key pain point of online retail. Furthermore, the ZIS shopping experience aids product discovery and brand attachment, causing sales to become more diffuse over a larger number of categories. Finally, we demonstrate that our results are robust to self-selection and potentially confounding effects of unobservable factors on the matched pairs of customers. Implications for retailing practice, including for legacy, offline-first retailers, are discussed.
Antonio (Toni) Moreno is the Sicupira Family Associate Professor in the Technology and Operations Management Unit. He teaches courses related to technology and operations management in the MBA, executive, and doctoral programs. Before joining HBS, he was an associate professor in the Kellogg School of Management.
Professor Moreno’s research studies the digital transformation of operations, and he is particularly interested in the transformation of retail and service industries. Professor Moreno’s work has appeared in journals such as Management Science, Marketing Science, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Information Systems Research, and Sloan Management Review, and has been covered by several media outlets. He received the Wickham Skinner Early-Career Research Accomplishments Award from the Production and Operations Management Society.
Professor Moreno earned degrees in electrical engineering and industrial engineering from Technical University of Catalonia. He has an MA in statistics and a PhD in operations and information management from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
- Featured Work
-
Springer Series in Supply Chain Management, C. Tang (Series Ed.), 2019.The world of retailing has changed dramatically in the past decade. This edited book examines the challenges and opportunities arising from the shift towards omni- channel retail. We examine these issues through the lenses of operations management, emphasizing the supply chain transformations associated with fulfilling an omni-channel demand.
We conjecture that for online retailers, experience-centric offline store formats do not simply expand market coverage, but rather, serve to significantly amplify future positive customer behaviors, both online and offline. We term this phenomenon “supercharging” and test our thesis using data from a digital-first men’s apparel retailer and a pioneer of the so-called zero inventory store (ZIS) format—a small-footprint, experience-centric retail location that carries no inventory for immediate fulfillment, but fulfills orders via e-commerce. Using a risk-set matching approach, we calibrate our estimates on customers who are “treated,” that is, have a ZIS experience, and matched with identical customers who shop online only. We find that after the ZIS experience, customers spend more, shop at a higher velocity, and are less likely to return items. The positive impact on returns is doubly virtuous as it is more pronounced for more tactile, higher-priced items, thus mitigating a key pain point of online retail. Furthermore, the ZIS shopping experience aids product discovery and brand attachment, causing sales to become more diffuse over a larger number of categories. Finally, we demonstrate that our results are robust to self-selection and potentially confounding effects of unobservable factors on the matched pairs of customers. Implications for retailing practice, including for legacy, offline-first retailers, are discussed.
In this article, we pursue two interconnected themes: the expansion of online-first retailers into offline stores that serve the purpose of “supercharging” customer value, and the transformation of the stores of offline-first retailers from fulfillment-dominant centers into experience-dominant centers, which simultaneously reduce store size and inventory while improving the customer experience. In doing so, we explain how offline-first retailers can benefit from mimicking the showroom concepts started by online-first retailers and why online-first retailers can benefit from opening more traditional stores.Omnichannel environments where customers shop online and offline at the same retailer are ubiquitous, and are deployed by online-first and traditional retailers alike. We focus on the relatively understudied domain of online-first retailers and the engagement of a key omnichannel tactic; specifically, introduction of showrooms (physical locations where customers can view and try products) in combination with online fulfillment that uses centralized inventory management. We ask whether, and if so, how, showrooms benefit the two most basic retail objectives: demand generation and operational efficiency. Using quasi-experimental data on showroom openings by WarbyParker.com, the leading and iconic online-first eyewear retailer, we find that showrooms: (1) increase demand overall and in the online channel as well; (2) generate operational spillovers to the other channels by attracting customers who, on average, have a higher cost-to-serve; (3) improve overall operational efficiency by increasing conversion in a sampling channel and by decreasing returns; and (4) amplify these demand and operational benefits in dealing with customers who have the most acute need for the firm’s products. Moreover, the effects we document strengthen with time as showrooms contribute not only to brand awareness but also to what we term channel awareness as well. We conclude by elaborating the underlying customer dynamics driving our findings and by offering implications for how online-first retailers might deploy omnichannel tactics. - Books
-
- Gallino, Santiago, and Antonio Moreno, eds. Operations in an Omnichannel World. Vol. 8, Springer Series in Supply Chain Management. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2019. View Details
- Journal Articles
-
- Bell, David R., Santiago Gallino, and Antonio Moreno. "Are Everywhere Stores the New Face of Retail?" MIT Sloan Management Review (website) (December 18, 2023). View Details
- Gallino, Santiago, Nil Karacaoglu, and Antonio Moreno. "Need for Speed: The Impact of In-Process Delays on Customer Behavior in Online Retail." Operations Research 71, no. 3 (May–June 2023): 876–894. View Details
- Stamatopoulos, Ioannis, Achal Bassamboo, and Antonio Moreno. "The Effects of Menu Costs on Retail Performance: Evidence from Adoption of the Electronic Shelf Label Technology." Management Science 67, no. 1 (January 2021): 242–256. View Details
- Bassamboo, Achal, Antonio Moreno, and Ioannis Stamatopoulos. "Inventory Auditing and Replenishment Using Point-of-Sales Data." Production and Operations Management 29, no. 5 (May 2020): 1219–1231. View Details
- Bell, David R., Santiago Gallino, and Antonio Moreno. "Customer Supercharging in Experience-Centric Channels." Management Science 66, no. 9 (September 2020). View Details
- Bell, David R., Santiago Gallino, and Antonio Moreno. "The Store Is Dead—Long Live the Store." MIT Sloan Management Review 59, no. 3 (Spring 2018): 59–66. View Details
- Gallino, Santiago, and Antonio Moreno. "The Value of Fit Information in Online Retail: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment." Manufacturing & Service Operations Management 20, no. 4 (Fall 2018): 767–787. View Details
- Bell, David R., Santiago Gallino, and Antonio Moreno. "Offline Showrooms in Omni-channel Retail: Demand and Operational Benefits." Management Science 64, no. 4 (April 2018): 1629–1651. (Winner of the 2014 POMS Applied Research Challenge. Workshop on Information Systems Economics Overall Best Paper Award 2014.) View Details
- Gallino, Santiago, Antonio Moreno, and Ioannis Stamatopoulos. "Channel Integration, Sales Dispersion, and Inventory Management." Management Science 63, no. 9 (September 2017): 2813–2831. View Details
- Cui, Ruomeng, Santiago Gallino, Antonio Moreno, and Dennis J. Zhang. "The Operational Value of Social Media Information." Special Issue on Big Data in Supply Chain Management. Production and Operations Management 27, no. 10 (October 2018): 1749–1774. View Details
- Moreno, Antonio, and Christian Terwiesch. "The Effects of Product Line Breadth: Evidence from the Automotive Industry." Marketing Science 36, no. 2 (March–April 2017): 254–271. View Details
- Moreno, Antonio, and Christian Terwiesch. "Pricing and Production Flexibility: An Empirical Analysis of the U.S. Automotive Industry." Manufacturing & Service Operations Management 17, no. 4 (Fall 2015): 428–444. View Details
- Bell, David R., Santiago Gallino, and Antonio Moreno. "Showrooms and Information Provision in Omni-channel Retail." Production and Operations Management 24, no. 3 (March 2015): 360–362. (Extended abstract for the 1st POMS Applied Research Challenge 2014 Awards.) View Details
- Bell, David R., Santiago Gallino, and Antonio Moreno. "How to Win in an Omnichannel World." MIT Sloan Management Review 56, no. 1 (Fall 2014): 45–53. View Details
- Moreno, Antonio, and Christian Terwiesch. "Doing Business with Strangers: Reputation in Online Service Marketplaces." Information Systems Research 25, no. 4 (December 2014): 865–886. View Details
- Gallino, Santiago, and Antonio Moreno. "Integration of Online and Offline Channels in Retail: The Impact of Sharing Reliable Inventory Availability Information." Management Science 60, no. 6 (June 2014): 1434–1451. (Finalist of Management Science Best Paper award in Operations Management.) View Details
- Book Chapters
-
- Gallino, Santiago, Nil Karacaoglu, and Antonio Moreno. "Whether Weather Matters: Impact of Exogenous Factors on Customers' Channel Choice." In Operations in an Omnichannel World. Vol. 8, edited by Santiago Gallino and Antonio Moreno, 235–261. Springer Series in Supply Chain Management. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2019. View Details
- Moreno, Antonio, and Santiago Gallino. "Operations in an Omnichannel World." Introduction to Operations in an Omnichannel World. Vol. 8, edited by Santiago Gallino and Antonio Moreno, 1– 11. Springer Series in Supply Chain Management. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2019. View Details
- Li, Jun, Antonio Moreno, and Dennis Zhang. "Agent Pricing in the Sharing Economy: Evidence from Airbnb." Chap. 20 in Sharing Economy: Making Supply Meet Demand. Vol. 6, edited by Ming Hu, 485–504. Springer Series in Supply Chain Management. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2019. View Details
- Gurvich, Itai, Martin Lariviere, and Antonio Moreno. "Operations in the On-Demand Economy: Staffing Services with Self-Scheduling Capacity." Chap. 12 in Sharing Economy: Making Supply Meet Demand. Vol. 6, edited by Ming Hu, 249–278. Springer Series in Supply Chain Management. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2019. View Details
- Working Papers
-
- Gallino, Santiago, Nil Karacaoglu, and Antonio Moreno. "Algorithmic Assortment Curation: An Empirical Study of Buybox in Online Marketplaces." Working Paper, September 2022. View Details
- Bandi, Chaithanya, Antonio Moreno, Donald Ngwe, and Zhiji Xu. "The Effect of Payment Choices on Online Retail: Evidence from the 2016 Indian Demonetization." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 19-123, June 2019. View Details
- Cases and Teaching Materials
-
- Huckman, Robert S., Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Antonio Moreno, Bradley Staats, and Sarah Mehta. "Best Buy Health: Enabling Care at Home." Harvard Business School Case 624-009, February 2024. View Details
- Di Maggio, Marco, Antonio Moreno, and Elena Corsi. "Adyen: Reshaping the Payment Ecosystem." Harvard Business School Case 223-059, February 2023. View Details
- Moreno, Antonio, and Gamze Yucaoglu. "Majid Al Futaim: Adapting the Shopping Mall to the Digital Era." Harvard Business School Case 623-051, March 2023. (Revised August 2023.) View Details
- Moreno, Antonio, Santiago Gallino, and Emilie Billaud. "Mirakl: Growing The Marketplace Economy." Harvard Business School Case 623-054, March 2023. View Details
- Moreno, Antonio, Leela Nageswaran, Emilie Billaud, and Federica Gabrieli. "Zalando: Becoming the Starting Point for Fashion." Harvard Business School Case 622-070, June 2022. View Details
- Moreno, Antonio, Pedro Amorim, and Tonia Labruyere. "Worten Portugal: Becoming a Digital Marketplace." Harvard Business School Case 622-062, June 2022. View Details
- Moreno, Antonio. "Operations in an Omnichannel World." Harvard Business School Module Note 622-049, October 2021. (Revised October 2021.) View Details
- Moreno, Antonio, and Anibha Singh. "Glovo: Expanding Quick Commerce." Harvard Business School PowerPoint Supplement 622-031, July 2021. View Details
- Moreno, Antonio, and Anibha Singh. "Kitopi: The Brave New World of Cloud Kitchens." Harvard Business School PowerPoint Supplement 622-032, August 2021. View Details
- Moreno, Antonio, and Anibha Singh. "Glovo: Expanding Quick Commerce." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 622-028, July 2021. (Revised October 2021.) View Details
- Moreno, Antonio, Anibha Singh, and Gamze Yucaoglu. "Kitopi: The Brave New World of Cloud Kitchens." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 622-027, July 2021. (Revised October 2021.) View Details
- Moreno, Antonio, and Anibha Singh. "Migros Turkey: Scaling Online Operations." Harvard Business School PowerPoint Supplement 621-711, May 2021. (Revised August 2021.) View Details
- Moreno, Antonio, and Anibha Singh. "Migros Turkey: Scaling Online Operations." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 621-121, May 2021. (Revised October 2021.) View Details
- Moreno, Antonio, and Gamze Yucaoglu. "Kitopi: Behind the Scenes." Harvard Business School Multimedia/Video Supplement 621-709, August 2021. View Details
- Moreno, Antonio, and Anibha Singh. "Zara: An Integrated Store and Online Model (A) and (B)." Harvard Business School PowerPoint Supplement 621-118, May 2021. (Revised August 2021.) View Details
- Moreno, Antonio, and Anibha Singh. "Zara: An Integrated Store and Online Model (A) and (B)." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 621-117, May 2021. (Revised October 2021.) View Details
- Moreno, Antonio, and James Barnett. "Glovo: Expanding Quick Commerce." Harvard Business School Case 621-094, April 2021. View Details
- Moreno, Antonio, and Gamze Yucaoglu. "Kitopi: The Brave New World of Cloud Kitchens." Harvard Business School Case 621-102, April 2021. (Revised May 2021.) View Details
- Moreno, Antonio, Santiago Gallino, and Amy Klopfenstein. "Buy Online, Pickup in Store: CEO Supplement." Harvard Business School Supplement 621-104, April 2021. View Details
- Moreno, Antonio, Santiago Gallino, and Amy Klopfenstein. "Buy Online, Pickup in Store: Vice President of Store Operations Supplement." Harvard Business School Supplement 621-105, April 2021. View Details
- Moreno, Antonio, Santiago Gallino, and Amy Klopfenstein. "Buy Online, Pickup in Store: Vice President of E-Commerce Supplement." Harvard Business School Supplement 621-106, April 2021. View Details
- Moreno, Antonio, Santiago Gallino, and Amy Klopfenstein. "Buy Online, Pickup in Store: Evaluating an Omnichannel Intervention in Retail." Harvard Business School Case 621-103, April 2021. View Details
- Moreno, Antonio, and Anibha Singh. "Afterpay U.S.: The Omnichannel Dilemma." Harvard Business School PowerPoint Supplement 521-075, April 2021. (Revised September 2021.) View Details
- Moreno, Antonio, and Anibha Singh. "Afterpay U.S.: The Omnichannel Dilemma." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 521-074, March 2021. (Revised October 2021.) View Details
- Moreno, Antonio, and Danielle Golan. "Anodot: Autonomous Business Monitoring." Harvard Business School Case 621-084, January 2021. View Details
- Moreno, Antonio, and Gamze Yucaoglu. "Migros Turkey: Scaling Online Operations During COVID-19 (C)." Harvard Business School Supplement 621-062, October 2020. (Revised March 2021.) View Details
- Moreno, Antonio, and Gamze Yucaoglu. "Migros Turkey: Scaling Online Operations (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 621-027, August 2020. (Revised March 2021.) View Details
- Moreno, Antonio, and Gamze Yucaoglu. "Migros Turkey: Scaling Online Operations (A)." Harvard Business School Case 621-026, August 2020. (Revised March 2021.) View Details
- Shih, Willy C., and Antonio Moreno. "Vanguard Retail Operations (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 620-105, June 2020. (Revised August 2020.) View Details
- Shih, Willy C., and Antonio Moreno. "Vanguard Retail Operations (A)." Harvard Business School Case 620-104, June 2020. (Revised May 2022.) View Details
- Moreno, Antonio. "Zara: An Integrated Store and Online Model (A)." Harvard Business School Case 620-073, January 2020. (Revised October 2021.) View Details
- Moreno, Antonio. "Zara: An Integrated Store and Online Model (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 620-074, January 2020. View Details
- Moreno, Antonio, Donald Ngwe, and George Gonzalez. "Afterpay U.S.: The Omnichannel Dilemma." Harvard Business School Case 519-086, April 2019. View Details
- Research Summary
-
One major theme of Professor Moreno’s research has been retail channel integration and so-called “omnichannel retail.” In omnichannel retail, retailers provide their customers with a shopping experience that may involve different channels in a way that aims to be seamless. For example, many large retailers today allow customers to reserve products online and pick them up at the store where they are stocked, return products purchased online at physical stores, or buy products online and have them shipped to a store to pick up when convenient. In order to offer these functionalities, retailers need to integrate their channels. This is recognized currently by practitioners as one of the most important changes in retail, one that dramatically affects retailers’ operations – especially existing inventory models. Professor Moreno’s multidisciplinary work in this area – combining approaches from marketing, operations, and information systems – has helped bring such practically relevant issues to the attention of the operations management community. In another stream of research, Professor Moreno has sought to understand the operational implications of novel features of (increasingly important) business models based on platforms, such as the fact that services often are provided by independent contractors who make decisions in response to available information and incentives, or the fact that many of these service providers are nonprofessionals. He has also empirically studied fundamental questions in operations strategy, such as how pricing and production flexibility interact. Finally, he has done work in the area of retail and supply chain analytics, developing models that can help firms make better decisions such as improving forecasts or inventory replenishment decisions.Keywords: Omnichannel; Omni-channel; Omnichannel Retail; Omnichannel Retailing; Retail; Customer Value and Value Chain; Information Management; Technological Innovation; Distribution; Distribution Channels; Logistics; Product; Product Design; Service Delivery; Supply Chain; Supply Chain Management; Information Technology; Internet; Online Technology; Technology Adoption; Technology Platform; Retail Industry; Technology Industry; Service Industry; Europe; Spain; Latin America
- Awards & Honors
-
Finalist for the 2021 Manufacturing & Service Operations Management (M&SOM) Journal Best Paper Award for “The Value of Fit Information in Online Retail: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment” with Santiago Gallino.Finalist for the 2021 Management Science Best Paper Award in Operations Management for "Offline Showrooms in Omnichannel Retail: Demand and Operational Benefits" with David R. Bell and Santiago Gallino.Finalist for the 2020 Management Science Best Paper Award in Operations Management for "Offline Showrooms in Omnichannel Retail: Demand and Operational Benefits" with David R. Bell and Santiago Gallino.Finalist for the 2018 Ralph Gomory Best Industry Studies Paper Award from the Industry Studies Association with Santiago Gallino for their paper, "The Value of Fit Information in Online Retail: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment" (Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Fall 2018).Recipient of the 2018 Management Science Meritorious Service Award.Winner of the 2017 Wickham Skinner Early-Career Research Accomplishments Award from the Production and Operations Management Society (POMS).Recipient of the 2017 Management Science Distinguished Service Award.Finalist for the 2017 Management Science Best Paper Award in Operations Management.Recipient of the Manufacturing & Service Operations Management Meritorious Service Award in 2015 and 2016.Recipient of the 2015 Management Science Meritorious Service Award.Winner of the 2014 Overall Best Paper Award from the Workshop on Information Systems and Economics (WISE) with David Bell and Santiago Gallino.Winner of the 2014 Production and Operations Management Society (POMS) Applied Research Challenge with David R. Bell and Santiago Gallino.
- Additional Information
- Areas of Interest
-
- analytics
- channels of distribution
- digital economy
- operations management
- supply chain
- electronic commerce
- machine learning
- e-commerce industry
- internet
- retailing
- Europe
- Latin America
- Spain
- United States
Additional TopicsIndustriesGeographies - In The News
-