Online-to-offline, also known as O2O, is a phrase used in digital marketing to describe systems encouraging customers in a digital environment to make purchases at physical stores or businesses.
The phrase online-to-offline was coined to describe the physical flow of interactions between the online and physical worlds, mostly in retail and eCommerce, but has roots in brand marketing and point-of-sale marketing. For example, a consumer may see an online advertisement for a product they are interested in purchasing and may feel compelled to visit a physical store to complete the purchase of the product. The process can also work in reverse, where a product is seen in-store but then is purchased online due to a variety of reasons.
The initial use of O2O was an effort to leverage QR codes, but later changed to describe the aforementioned interactions.
