The Effect of Inbound Marketing on Online Customer Engagement: an Empirical Study in Retail Stores of Basrah

In today's digital world, marketers are facing challenges that make them care about customer engagement more than ever. The technological developments and the wide spread of the Internet have enhanced the role that customers play in creating value for the marketer, which has gone beyond buying to online interaction and engagement behaviors. Therefore, the study sought to examine the effect of inbound marketing as an approach described as the most effective in the digital age on encouraging online customer engagement. Therefore, the study sought to examine and diagnose the nature of the influence of inbound marketing as an approach described as the most effective in the digital age to encouraging online customer engagement. In the field axis, the study relied on a quantitative approach by targeting retail stores in Basra Governorate – Iraq, A sample of (237) retailers was surveyed using the random sampling method. The results showed that there is a narrow interest of retailers in the inbound marketing approach in enhancing online customer engagement, which focuses mainly on the presence of those retailers on social media networks