A framework to improve retail customer experience: a qualitative study exploring the customer journey

Purpose: This study aims to construct an integrated retail customer experience framework with a single view across platforms and to suggest a new conceptualisation of the customer experience term. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative approach was adopted. Thirty participants were asked to simulate their customer journey in an established UK department store retailer. Their experience was captured through focus groups and analysed by thematic analysis. Findings: The findings indicate that the existence of personalisation and emotional attachment will enhance the customer experience. A new integrated retail customer experience framework is offered incorporating the traditional “7Ps” of marketing and a proposed eighth “P”, which is conceptualised as personal connection. Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical study to use the notion of personal connection as a dialectic relationship between emotional attachment and personalisation as the central discussion in developing customer experience within a retail setting. This study captures this experience through a unique method of replication of the retail customer journey across multiple channels