Three clicks away : A multiple case study of how technologies change the customer journey in the retail furniture sector.

The digital world is constantly growing. This contributes to increasing expectations and demands in the technical aspect. Digitization is powerful, but it further contributes to a number of challenges, such as the coordination of physical and digital stores. During the corona pandemic, the digital transformation has accelerated for companies to adapt to customers. Therefore, the purpose of the research is to understand how swedish retailers can manage technological touchpoints in customer journeys in the furniture sector. Further the purpose is to investigate how retailers can use technological touchpoints to change the quality and customer engagement in the customer journey. To be able to answer the empirical findings, six semi-structured interviews were obtained through a multiple case study. The theory from previous research and the empirical results were then discussed in the analysis. The conclusion of the thesis resulted in the management of digital touchpoints is different depending on whether it concerns companies using physical stores or e-commerce. This thesis has identified that retailers in the furniture sector manage technological touchpoints to create a seamless customer experience, increase customer satisfaction, more easily engage customers and to be able to integrate with customers in several ways. Digital touchpoints have made it easier for companies to measure results and to be able to improve the customer journey. One identification was that customer engagement has increased in relation to the increased digitalization, but also that the researched companies believe that digitization is vital for increasing customer engagement. Due to the technology, opportunities are created to be able to develop the quality of the customer journey. Further, by being able to measure the customer journey, the companies gain an insight into what should be constantly improved.