Towards rebuilding the highstreet: Learning from customers’ town centre shopping journeys

Patronage in town centres has been fluctuating over the past few years, indicating that consumers are buying elsewhere in pursuit of better and more fulfilling shopping experiences. This is concerning as patronage is considered an indicator of high streets vitality and viability. To help understand the changing patterns of patronage, especially related to the growth in online retail spending, this study sheds light on key touchpoints that influence the town centre shopping experience. Using the customer journey framework and drawing insights from datasets of two central UK regions, we provide new contribution to town centre research by capturing significant and specific physical and digital touchpoints in the town centre shopping journey, thus developing our understanding of the determinants of the town centre shopping experience. Consequently, this work provides recommendations for town centre management to help improve town centre patronage by developing customers’ experience with shopping-specific touchpoints.     

Conceptualising town centre image and the customer experience

Abstract

Compared with store image literature, the town centre is underexplored as a retail image context. This paper examines what is meant by town centre image by conducting an empirical study of 536 consumers to elicit top-of-mind images of five town centres. Following extensive content analysis and rigorous replication, the findings reveal a broader, holistic image construct than previously assumed in the literature. New psychological, intangible elements of town centre image are identified, confirming the need to measure image specific to the retail context. Further, drawing on the customer experience framework, a conceptual model of town centre image is developed. The model provides the basis for future conceptualisation and operationalisation of town centre image, combined with an approach for managing the customer experience in town centres.     

A Bayesian examination of the relationship of internal and external touchpoints in the customer experience process across various service environments

Customer experience (CX) is an aggregate of consumer touch points that can be brand-owned (completely controlled by the firm), partner-owned (collectively controlled by the firm and one or more of its partners), customer-owned (where the firm or its partner cannot exert any control or influence) or represented by social/external touch points that account for the importance of the roles of others in the customer experience process. Although the concept of CX is widely used, not much has been examined about how external touch points impact customer perception of experience. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to examine the role and impact of internal and external touchpoints as dimensions of customer experience and how CX can impact consumer word-of-mouth intention. Service outcome and peace of mind were used to represent internal experience touchpoints and peer to peer quality (PTP) was used to represent an external experience touchpoint. A total of 293 usable surveys were used for analysis using a Bayesian model developed for this study instead of the more traditional SEM approaches. Results showed that an external experience touchpoint has a similar impact to those of internal experience touchpoints in the experience process. CX was also found to have a strong effect on customer word of mouth intention. These findings make various contributions to the literature on CX, especially to research differentiating internal from external experience touchpoints. On the practical side, this study provides recommendations to retailers about how to manage an external touchpoint.     

How to create a realistic customer journey map

Although many articles discuss customer journey mapping (CJM), both academics and practitioners still question the best ways to model the consumer decision journey. We contend that most customer journey maps are critically flawed. They assume all customers of a particular organization experience the same organizational touchpoints and view these touchpoints as equally important. Furthermore, management lacks an understanding of how to use CJM as a cross-functional, strategic tool that promotes service innovation. This article proposes a solution to the unwieldy complexity of CJM by linking customer research to the CJM process and by showing managers how to develop a customer journey map that improves a customer's experience at each touchpoint. Using the case of an actual retail mall, we show that common CJM assumptions about the equal importance of all touchpoints are fundamentally wrong, and how easy it is for retail managers and strategic planners to make incorrect judgements about customer experience. This article demonstrates through a case study how customer research helped a mall's strategic management team understand which touchpoints were more or less critical to customer experience. It also shows key strategic initiatives at each touchpoint, resulting in cross-functional input aimed to advance service innovation at the mall.     

Retail concentration: a comparison of spatial convenience in shopping strips and shopping centres

The emergence of the Internet and a more discerning consumer has created the need for traditional retail centres to provide a more convenient shopping environment. A retail centre offers convenience when it minimises the spatial, temporal and effort costs of shopping. Existing strategies for spatial convenience include limiting the size of a retail centre by controlling the entry of non-retail firms, creating a compact physical design, and creating compatible clusters of shops. The authors’ propose an alternative method; the degree of retail concentration. The purpose of this study is to determine the extent to which shopping centres (also referred to as shopping malls) and shopping strips (also referred to as the high street, downtown or city centre) provide retail concentration. From the measures taken, this study provides insight into the degree of retail concentration offered by a sample of nine shopping centres (also referred to as a shopping mall) and nine shopping strips (also referred to as the high street, downtown or city centre). The findings yielded three important insights. Firstly, across the three measures of retail concentration, the shopping centre was found to offer consumers’ greater spatial convenience. Secondly, the findings add support to the notion that the demise of the shopping strip could be linked to its inability to satisfy the needs of a convenience-oriented society. And thirdly, while the shopping strip may be at a competitive disadvantage in terms of spatial convenience, market mechanisms such as Bid Rent Theory provided a better-than-expected spatial juxta-positioning of its businesses.     

Financial service providers: Does it matter if banks don't behave ethically?

The ethical consumer literature predominantly concentrates on fast‐moving consuming goods and thus, neglects insights to consumer behaviour within ethical services. As the financial services sector continues to grow in the UK, this paper addresses this anomaly by providing further insight into consumers and their ethical banking practices. More specifically, it examines their motivations as well as the trade‐offs and barriers which prevent greater uptake. Using a combination of in‐depth interviews and projective techniques, the research draws on Freestone and McGoldrick's model to reveal a lack of awareness towards ethical financial service providers and sheds light on various perceptions regarding what constitutes an ethical financial service. Additionally, numerous underlying personal benefits of ethical financial services became apparent alongside consumer expectations of customer care. In conclusion, our findings help to create a revised model which identifies more precisely the stages of ethical awareness, motivation and behaviour of ethical consumers both in the context of ethical financial services but also ethical consumption practices in general.     

Exploring the link between customer experience–loyalty–consumer spend

Customer experience has drawn significant interest in recent times from both academicians as well as practitioners. There is growing understanding in literature that attitudes are formed by past and present experiences and are expected to change as a function of consumer experience. Attitudes are described as one of the most important determinant of the behaviour. Dick and Basu (1994) were precise in suggesting that a favourable attitude and repeat purchase were required to define loyalty as they viewed loyalty in an attitude-behaviour framework, loyalty is an important concept related with repetitive purchasing behaviour and high Consumer spend. Literature suggests that building loyalty is found in successful management of Customer experience yet little research exist that incorporated this variable into explaining customer loyalty therefore signifying a gap in existing substantive knowledge. The current paper studies the impact of customer experience on attitudinal and behaviour loyalty. The study extends the findings by adding an observed behaviour- share of spend in the frame work. The present study will provide valuable insights to theorist in the retail context as well as practitioners ability to develop more effective strategies.     

The consumer experience: The impact of supplier effort and consumer effort on customer satisfaction

Existing research on experiential offers often examines the impact of such offers on consumers’ evaluations (e.g., customer satisfaction). Yet existing research has neglected that experiential offers typically involve effort from both the supplier and the consumer – and neglected that effort can influence evaluations. To address this gap, the present study examines the impact of supplier effort and the consumer's own effort on the consumer's evaluation of experiential offers in terms of customer satisfaction. Two experiments, comprising two different experiential offers, were carried out. In both experiments, supplier effort (low vs. high) and consumer effort (low vs. high) were manipulated. Customer satisfaction was the dependent variable. The results show that high supplier effort boosts customer satisfaction, and that the effects of consumer effort are either absent or indirect with a negative impact. Moreover, the results indicate that a supplier effort-consumer effort gap (i.e., the consumer perceives that the supplier has expended more effort than the consumer) contributes positively to customer satisfaction.     

A brand preference and repurchase intention model: the role of consumer experience

Consumer brand preference is an essential step towards understanding consumer choice behaviour, and has therefore always received great attention from marketers. However, the study of brand preference has been limited to traditional marketing focusing on functional attributes to maximise utility. But now the shift to experiential marketing broadens the role of the brand from a bundle of attributes to experiences. Technological advancements have helped to increase the similarities between brand attributes and product commoditisation. Consequently, consumers cannot shape their preferences among brands using rational attributes only. They seek out brands that create experiences; that intrigue them in a sensorial, emotional and creative way. This study seeks to develop a model that provides an understanding of how brand knowledge and brand experience determine brand preference and to investigate its impact on brand repurchase intention. Accordingly, exploratory focus group discussions are employed followed by a survey of mobile phone users in Egypt. The findings provide insights into the relative importance of consumer perceptions on different brand knowledge factors in shaping brand preferences. It also demonstrates the significance of consumers’ experiential responses towards brands in developing their brand preferences that in turn influence brand repurchase intention. The model therefore offers managers a new perspective for building strong brands able to gain consumer preferences.     

Change in technology-enabled omnichannel customer experiences in-store

This paper explores changes in technology-enabled omnichannel customer experiences in stores over a five-year period (2014–2019). It contributes to the omnichannel-experience-management literature through customer technology-enabled touchpoints within fashion retail. Adopting an exploratory qualitative approach, primary data were obtained using semi-structured interviews with millennial consumers. The findings demonstrate the growing importance of implementing and integrating in-store technologies to improve customer experience. From these, two models are developed: “technology-induced customer experience in-store”; and “technology-enabled customer shopping journey in-store”.     

Exploring the forms of dysfunctional customer behaviour: A study of differences in servicescape and customer disaffection with service

Abstract

Although wide agreement exists between scholars and marketing practitioners concerning the prevalence of dysfunctional customer behaviour, to date empirical research into this phenomenon is lacking. This article aims to identify empirically grounded categories of dysfunctional customer behaviours and examine the extent to which customers' perceptions of physical servicescape environments, social facets of servicescape, and customer disaffection with service differ for each category. Based on a quantitative sample of 380 consumer perpetrators, cluster analysis reveals three clusters of dysfunctional customer behaviour forms labelled ‘petty norm infringements’, ‘felonious norm infringements’, and ‘belligerent norm infringements’. Subsequent variance analysis assesses the perceived differences between perceived physical servicescape, social servicescape, and customer disaffection for each identified form cluster. Specifically, the study findings reveal statistically significant differences between the forms of dysfunctional customer behaviour that are perpetrated across different service environments. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of the study for theorists and practitioners.     

Order effect of multi-touchpoints on Generation Z consumers

Abundant user-generated content has increasingly driven consumers to form or modify their purchasing decisions based on interactions with other consumers, although the extant research overlooks the customer-to-customer (C2C) interaction touchpoints. Based on the customer journey characteristics of cross-channel and multi-frequency interactions, this study explores the impact of interaction valence and interaction channel sequence on Generation Z consumers' purchase attitudes from the perspective of attitude modification process. Using a scenario-based experimental design in a restaurant setting, we sample 616 Generation Z students. Findings suggest that C2C interactions that have the same valence at each touchpoint strengthen Generation Z consumers' initial purchase attitude, whereas inconsistent valences modify purchase attitudes. Our results reveal that a negative-to-positive ordering is more conducive to the formation of a positive purchase attitude than a positive-to-negative ordering. Moreover, the cross-channel sequence of a customer journey moderates the inconsistent valence order such that the positive-to-negative order improves purchase attitude more than the negative-to-positive order. This study explains theoretically the difference of ambivalent experiences on Generation Z consumer attitudes. We provide practical suggestions for multi-channel restaurant enterprises to successfully employ customer journey touchpoint management.     

Street Markets Influencing Urban Consumer Behavior in Mexico

Street markets in the urban setting form the bottom of the pyramid market structure, which caters to consumers of semi-urban settlements. Consumers favor these markets for farm-fresh agricultural products and low-priced consumer goods. This study empirically investigates the role of street markets in urban sociodemographic clusters in the shift of consumer behavior against large shopping malls and supermarkets. Data were gathered from 490 respondents engaged in buying products at 373 vending stalls across 14 street market locations in Mexico City. Data were collected on 31 variables and analyzed using structural equation model. The study also addresses street markets as change agents of consumer behavior in the context of marketplace ambience, vending patterns, ethnic values, and interactive customer relations. The conventional shopping wisdom of customers, competitive gains, and socio-cultural advantages are also addressed based on an empirical survey. The study revealed that shopping behavior is largely motivated by the physical factors such as location of marketplace, distance, and vending stall type within the street market. Findings also indicate that consumers possess a strong conviction that street markets offer fresh products of farm and animal origin as well as ethnic food irrespective of hygiene standard.     

A neurophysiological exploration of the dynamic nature of emotions during the customer experience

This paper explores the benefits of measuring emotions and their dynamic nature during the customer experience with neurophysiological measures. In this study, emotions are measured during a service interaction (with self-service technology or a human employee) going through a series of touchpoints, including a service failure. We show that creating a loyalty card with the help of a service employee or self-service technology did not impact customers’ perceived service satisfaction and their behavioral intentions. This paper demonstrates that neurophysiological measures such as Galvanic Skin Response might be better equipped to unveil the dynamic nature of emotions (e.g., arousal) during the customer experience and that valence measured by neurophysiological tools (using electroencephalography) better reconciles with the effect found for satisfaction and behavioral intentions. Our findings have implications for both researchers and practitioners who want to understand and bolster customer experiences, thereby taking customer emotions and its appropriate measurement tools into consideration.     

Modelling real-time online information needs: A new research approach for complex consumer behaviour

Abstract

A major challenge for online vendor website operations is serving information that meets visitor needs at a given point in their purchase process. The problem arises from the complexity of human behaviour, as well as changing needs with the evolution of consumer knowledge and skills through the purchase process. The most difficult element, however, is determining the effects of information provided on the site, as well as from other sources that the consumer may access, and anticipating resulting consumer needs. This paper discusses the contributions and limitations of current modelling techniques and utility studies of online consumer information to model consumer needs in real time. An alternative basis for real-time customer need appraisal is proposed using clickstream and customer input data combined with online information utility to enable more effective information serving. This requires further academic research and changes in practitioner online marketing operations.     

Purchased,modified, created: consumer voices in experience gifts

Gift-giving behaviour is an established topic in consumer research, but little is known about the phenomenon of experiences as gifts. Experience companies are only part of the market; hospitality, tourism, leisure and entertainment providers also have the potential to offer such gifts. Using real-life consumer accounts, this research explores the behaviour associated with purchased, modified and created experience gifts. The findings show that consumers act as adaptors and competitors as well as purchasers, make specific use of information technology and use ‘donor resources’ to convey meaning in ways unappreciated by industry in this wider portrayal of the experience gift sector.     

Food Products Vending in Street Markets Held in Urban Habitat

This study explores the influence of street markets in urban geodemographic settings and analyzes vending patterns with ethnic values enhancing consumer satisfaction. Interrelationship among urban dwellers, marketplace ambiance, and conventional shopping wisdom of customers and interactive customer relations are also addressed in the study based on empirical survey. Research on street markets is very limited though some studies are available on street vendors with focus on spatial planning, political interventions, and legal rights. This study on street markets contributes significantly to the existing literature in reference to shopping behavior and perceptional values of urban consumers.     

A conceptual framework of the antecedents of customer journey satisfaction in omnichannel retailing

In light of the complex customer behaviour and customer journeys in omnichannel retailing, this study aims to investigate customer co-creation behaviour, customer response and customer experiential values as critical aspects of the customer journey, and examine their impact on the level of customer journey satisfaction. The results confirmed the significance of all factors, except information seeking and arousal, in all phases and exploration in the post-purchase phase, on customer journey satisfaction. For a further examination, this study classified the participants into three different segments according to their journey pattern and scrutinised whether the impact of the three predictors of customer journey satisfaction varied across customer segments. The analysis showed that customer segments were fragmented. The impact of customer co-creation behaviour, customer response and customer experiential values on customer journey satisfaction varied across the three customer segments. A heatmap highlighted the most influential factors of each customer segment. The study yielded several theoretical contributions and insights into omnichannel customers for managers.     

Online consumer shopping behaviour: A review and research agenda

Over the last two decades, motivated by the continuous evolution of the technology-driven retail environment, researchers have studied various aspects of online consumer behaviour. This article attempts to take stock of this environment to critically assess the research gaps in the domain and provide future research directions. Applying a well-grounded systematic methodology following the TCCM (theory, context, characteristics and methodology) framework, 197 online consumer shopping behaviour articles were reviewed. The findings reveal that the application of theories remains limited in the current pool of literature that focuses more on developed nations. While studies have primarily considered categories such as apparel and grocery, in terms of methodology experimental and survey-based studies were most common. Additionally, the article suggests some future research directions. The use of combined theories to better understand technology acceptance by consumers of online-shopping is recommended. Similarly, studies across other categories like online experiential luxury, luxury services, or second-hand products that then link to novel constructs reflecting issues with payment methods, online service quality, and online store atmosphere are portrayed as meaningful avenues that will advance research in the domain.     

Understanding Corporate Social Responsibility and Product Perceptions in Consumer Markets: A Cross-cultural Evaluation

The concept of corporate social responsibility is becoming integral to effective corporate brand management. This study adopts a multidimensional and cross-country perspective of the concept and analyses consumer perceptions of behaviour of four leading consumer products manufacturers. Data was collected from consumers in two countries – Spain and the UK. The study analyses consumers’ degree of interest in corporate responsibility and its impact on their perception about the company. The findings here suggest a weak impact of company-specific communication on consumers’ perception. The implications of this study are relevant to companies for strengthening their social responsibility associations with the consumers. Dr. Jaywant Singh is Senior Lecturer at Kingston University, London where he teaches consumer behaviour and international marketing. His research interests include customer loyalty, product variants, new brands, corporate social responsibility, and consumer panel data. He received his PhD in marketing in 2004. Dr. Maria de Mar Garcia de los Salmones is Lecturer at University of Cantabria (Spain). Her current research interests include corporate social responsibility, brand image and consumer behaviour. She received her PhD in business administration in 2002. Dr. Ignacio Rodriguez de Bosque is Professor of Marketing at the University of Cantabria (Spain). His current research interests include Business Communication, relationship marketing and distribution channels. He has published in several international journals such as Tourism, Management, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services and Industrial Marketing Management.