Identifying Brand-Owned Touchpoints Along the Digital Retail Customer Journey

Abstract

Today’s brick-and-mortar retail is struggling to stay competitive when  compared to e-commerce. However, with a new form of retail emerging, which  makes use of modern day technology to drive sales and offers unique customer  experiences, the playing field seems to level out. Nevertheless, in this so-called  “digital retail”, the number of touchpoints customers can encounter is constantly increasing due to the connection of online and offline customer journeys. To  make use of sales-enhancing touchpoints, retailers require a comprehensive overview of brand-owned touch-points along the digital retail customer journey,  as these are the touchpoints retailers are able to influence. The authors propose  an approach that uses focus groups in combination with the creative techniques  World Café, Channel CARDS, instant polls, and instant word clouds to gain a  comprehensive overview of brand-owned touchpoints along the digital retail  customer journey.

Introduction

Department store revenue peaked in 2001 and plunged by 36% until 2018 [1–3].

Conversely, e-commerce revenue for 2018 grew 15% worldwide compared to 2017  adding up to €1,617,053 million [4]. Looking at these numbers, it becomes evident that  today’s brick-and-mortar retail is facing a significant challenge to stay competitive with  e-commerce. Retailers facing this challenge are engaging in a new form of retail called “digital retail” which makes use of modern-day technology, such as smartphones, to drive sales and offer unique customer experiences superior to pure online customer experiences. For example, it is argued that the use of smartphones can drive brick-and-mortar store sales by providing an augmented and personalized customer experience or that mobile payments can lead to a more streamlined and efficient shopping experience  [5–8]. In fact, a literature review done by Zimmermann et al. [9] identified 29 smartphone-based sales influencers, most of which, according to literature, have a  positive influence on sales in brick-and-mortar stores. However, in a digital retail setting, the amount of touchpoints customers can encounter is constantly increasing as  it combines online and offline customer journeys [10]. According to Lemon and  Verhoef [10], touchpoints comprise every individual contact between retailer and  customer. In other words, every time a retailer interacts with a customer or vice versa  constitutes a touchpoint. Consequently, not every touchpoint along the digital retail  customer journey is equally important for retailers [11]. In order to make use of sales-enhancing touchpoints, retailers require a comprehensive overview of at least all brand-owned touchpoints along the digital retail customer journey [10]. Following Lemon and  Verhoef [10], this paper defines brand-owned touchpoints as customer contact points  (e.g., advertising, websites, loyalty programs, etc.) which are designed and managed by  retailers only and thus are under their control. Consequently, they present accessible  customer contact points which can be changed or altered by retailers in a sale enhancing  way. To gain a comprehensive overview of brand-owned touchpoints along the digital  retail customer journey, the authors propose an approach that incorporates focus groups supported by the creative techniques World Café, Channel CARDS, instant polls, and  instant word clouds. We define comprehensive as a state in which the retailer’s  employees are unable to identify additional brand-owned touchpoints, which, according  to Saunders et al. [12], represents a state of data saturation. Consequently, the authors  want to answer the following research question:

I: Does our approach lead to a data-saturated overview of brand-owned touchpoints  along the digital retail customer journey of an action fashion retailer?

II: How can an overview of brand-owned touchpoints, gained by our approach, be used  to support business decision making of an action fashion retailer?        

The paper is structured in the following way: First, the paper presents the current state  of customer journey mapping techniques upon which this paper builds. Next, we  present a concept of how our approach can be used to gain a comprehensive overview  of brand-owned touchpoints along the digital retail customer journey. Subsequently, the expected limitations of the proposed approach are explained. The paper culminates  in an explanation of the expected scientific and managerial contributions and presents  opportunities for future research.