Physical Shopping Value in a Digitalized Setting: An Abstract

Abstract

The marketplace is continuously evolving and is transforming into a collection of various locations, micro-experiences, and shopping means that constitute the overall consumption experience. Retail outlets are streamlined into comprehensive store networks that are supplemented by digital shopping platforms creating a transformed consumer experience (Shankar et al. 2010; Verhoef et al. 2015). In this increasingly complex shopping context, the nature of the physical shopping experience and related constructs need to be reconsidered. While original shopping environments consisted of physical store, current shopping experiences are characterized by an interconnection between physical stores and other (digital) touchpoints; thus, consumers’ expectations associated with physical store outlets might have evolved. Most research so far considers value in a single-channel context, yet this new digitalized environment calls for revisiting physical shopping value (Kumar and Reinartz 2016), by acknowledging the influence of different touchpoints on value derived in physical shopping experiences.

Recent research suggests that customers’ expectations regarding visits to physical stores challenge existing conceptualizations and measurements of shopping value (Huré et al. 2017). The goal of the current study is to advance results by extending previous research in France and replicating it in the USA. To reconsider physical stores’ SV, a qualitative survey based on semi-structured interviews of experts (practitioners and marketing academics categorized as either value or retail specialists) is implemented. Preliminary findings support the idea of an increased focus on multiple touchpoints and an integrated multichannel strategy of retailers. Furthermore, rather solely relying on the physical retail store as the major touchpoint, companies seem to integrate additional solutions, such as ship-to-store and online reservation of products. Practitioners also note a generational shift regarding consumers’ purchase behaviors. In addition, while academic experts agree that needs and wants of consumers are still the same and that only the process of shopping is changing, they do agree on the need to refine and develop accurate measurement tools to capture the increasing trend of digitalization within retailing and value research.