Articles Retail & Omnichannel Marketing
3-1 Towards the Identification of Customer Experience Touch Point Elements
Stein & Ramaseshan (2016)
The findings uncovered seven distinct elements of customer experience touch points, which
include; atmospheric, technological, communicative, process, employee–customer
interaction, customer–customer interaction and product interaction elements. The findings
highlight that multichannel retail touch points are made up of varying combinations of the
identified elements. The study offers a comprehensive understanding of customer
experience; one that will help retailers to orchestrate the customer experience at individual
touch points.
Customers desire more than just the production, delivery and consumption of products and
services; instead, they seek unique and memorable experiences that accompany the delivery
of products and services. Customer experience is widely recognized as the internal and
subjective response customers have to any interaction with a company. “Experiences are
inherently personal, existing only in the mind of an individual who has been engaged on an
emotional, physical, intellectual, or even spiritual level”. Customer experiences are
constructed by customers' interpretations of encounters, meaning that experiences cannot
be completely controlled by the company. Firms can control aspects with e.g. service
interface, store displays and advertising. Aspects outside the firm’s control are for example
customer interactions and purpose of shopping.
Touch points → The moment of truth every time a customer ‘touches’ any part of the product,
service, brand or organization, across multiple channels and at various points in time. This
creates an experience. This occurs at all stages of the customer journey (pre- and post-
purchase) including the search, evaluation, purchase and after-sale phases of the experience.
The Seven distinct themes related to the elements of customer experience touch points:
1. Atmospheric → ‘The physical characteristics and surrounding customers observe
when interacting with any part of the retailer’, e.g. when evaluating whether to book
a hotel, one views the hotel's website, commenting on certain design elements.
o E.g. Amenities, ambience, store attractiveness, store layout & design, store display.
2. Technological → ‘A customer's direct interaction with any form of technology during
an encounter with a retailer.’ This increasingly plays an important role (across stages).
o E.g. Technology-ease of use, technology- convenience, self-service technology.
3. Communicative → ‘One-way communication from the retailer to the customer,
including both promotional and informative messages.’ E.g. promotions through email
or television ads. This plays a large role during all four stages of the customer journey
o E.g. Promotional message, informative message, advertisement.
4. Process → ‘The actions or steps customers need to take in order to achieve a particular
outcome with a retailer.’ This is a critical element of the customer experience.
o E.g. Waiting time, navigation, service process
,5. Employee–customer interaction → ‘The direct and indirect interactions customers
have with employees when interacting with any part of the retailer.’ Direct interaction
is especially critical during in-store purchase. Indirect interaction (e.g. phone, email,
chat) is important in search and evaluation stages of the experience.
o E.g. Helpful staff, personalized service, friendly greeting, argumentative employee
6. Customer–customer interaction → ‘The direct and indirect interactions customers
have with other customers when interacting with any part of the retailer.’ This is
especially common in the pre-purchase stage, but also in the purchase (in-store) and
post-purchase stage (WOM).
o E.g. Customer review, word-of-mouth, direct and indirect customer interactions.
7. Product interaction elements →’ The direct or indirect interactions customers have
with the core tangible or intangible product offered by the retailer.’ E.g. the food in a
café and the internet speed at an internet service provider.
o E.g. Product quality, Product assortment, direct and indirect product interactions.
,Our finding that atmospherics is a distinct element of customer experience touch points,
which suggests that the physical environment experienced by customers influences consumer
evaluations and responses. Technological aspects are important elements at different touch
points, due to technological innovations (internet, mobile apps), enabling retailers to engage
customers in service co-production electronically. Communication is a distinct touch point,
because customers make better decisions leading to positive evaluations of their encounter
when the quality of information is relevant to the customer. Process elements shapes the
customer’s perception and evaluations. Finally, the customer interactions with employees,
customer-customer interactions, and product interaction elements are both important at
different touch points.
Not all elements arise at each touch point; they are rather made up of varying combinations
of the identified elements. So, different touch points comprise distinct elements, based on the
retail channel and stage in the customer journey. The elements which are relevant to the
customer at a particular touch point, together, constitute each touch point experience.
Companies should manage customer experience by understanding the customer’s point of
view (inside-out). This will highlight areas of the customer journey that they can optimize to
enhance the customer experience, and also identify pain points of the customer.
3-2 Shopper-Facing Technology: A retailer adoption decision framework incorporating
shopper attitudes and privacy concerns
Inman & Nokolova (2017)
Continual innovation and new technology are critical in helping retailers create a sustainable
competitive advantage. Shopper facing technology plays an important role in increasing
revenues and decreasing costs. The authors argue that new technologies provide value by
either increasing revenue through 1) attracting new shoppers, b) increasing share of volume
from existing shoppers, or c) extracting greater consumer surplus, or decreasing costs
through offloading labor to shoppers.
Main finding: ‘shopper perceptions of the retailer are affected by new shopper-facing
technologies and that these reactions mediate behavioral intentions, which in turn drives
the ROI of the new technology.’
The authors argue that retailers’ decision calculus for evaluating the adoption of shopper-
facing technology needs to be expanded beyond what the technology can potentially deliver
to consider shopper reactions and assess what the technology will deliver. Retail technology
has positive effects (increased basket size) but may have negative outcomes (data breach).
, Past retail technology highlights:
1. Barcode scanning: scanning the standardized code of items provides retailers with real-time
transaction data identifies fast-moving items. Transaction data is collected more accurately
and can be combined with causal factors (e.g. price, display). This can be used for performance
tracking (product-level ROI) and strategic decision making (shelf space allocation) for retailers.
2. Videocart: “shopping cart display system that includes a cart mounted display that is
responsive to unique trigger signals provided by respective transmitters associated with
respective fixed locations. When the display receives a unique trigger signal, it displays
advertising associated with the respective location.” E.g. show yoghurt ad if the cart is at the
dairy department. Videocart failed (1993) because many ads didn’t offer a financial incentive,
the screen blocked the cart’s seat and the batteries were often not charged.
3. In-store Coupon dispensers: Stores would install the coupon dispensers next to the product
for which the coupon was offered. A limited number of dispensers were installed in each store
because CPG firms paid for the dispenser for their product to have category exclusivity.
4. Kiosk: A kiosk is an enclosed secure cabinet with touchscreen, a computer, a printer and credit
card reader. Kiosks can deliver information or can promote and sell products. Kiosks are used
as ATMs, for boarding passes, train tickets, or for out-of-stock products (clothing store).
5. Walmart smart network: network of video monitors across the store to increase category
sales by communicating offers to shoppers at or near point of purchase. The ads included
audio, which led to employee fatigue, shopper irritation, and lower ad effectiveness.
Present day retail technology:
1. Mobile apps: apps with the highest app quality scores, included the capability to see deals,
easily switch between PC and mobile, and receive in-store alerts. Consumers prefer integration
in a retailing app; e.g. a single app across retailers and buy whenever the need arises.
2. Self-scanning: “self-checkout”: automated process that enables shoppers to scan, bag and pay
for their purchases without the need for a cashier. Respondents like the convenience of self-
checkout, find it simple to use, and think it is faster than a cashier assisted lane.
3. QueVision: The system couples infra-red sensors that count shoppers to quickly open more
checkout lanes when shopper waiting time is high. This reduced waiting time from >4 min to
<30 sec. Traffic counts are combined with POS-data to track conversion rates, assess out-of-
store advertising effectiveness on traffic, and optimize staffing during peak times.
4. Smart Shelves: reduces out-of-stocks by placing weight sensors on the shelves, which sends a
notification to staff when the last item is removed. The shelves also include beacon-activated
mobile advertising, which sends marketing messages to shoppers’ smartphones. This will
increase the connection between retailers and shoppers and improve the shopping experience
because shoppers will only receive relevant information and discounts. Finally, many smart
shelf systems incorporate digital price tags, which allow retailers to change prices remotely,
leading to substantial labour savings it allows retailers to change prices dynamically.
5. Gravity feed shelving systems: a sloped shelf and a front wall that hold the merchandise in
place. When a customer takes the front item, gravity pushes the remaining items to the front.
This maintains the appearance of the shelf, requires less attention from store personnel and
lowers labour costs. Shoppers find this easier to navigate and more pleasant to shop.
6. Personalized promotions/pricing: retailers use data of customers’ loyalty card to identify their
best customers and develop offers that increase retention. Retailers are now experimenting
with “proximity marketing”: Coupling smartphone technology and loyalty card data to reach
shoppers with personalized offers in real time. The platform gets continuous feedback during
a shopping trip and uses sensor readings to calculate position and movement of the customer.
Together with loyalty data, this delivers relevant messages at key moments.
