Lecture 1 - Shopper Behavior
Retail marketplace = retailing operates within a marketplace of five interrelated entities:
retailer, supplier, store, products and customer shoppers
→ retail strategy emerges from how retailers coordinate these entities to create value for
shoppers
Retail service dimensions (Gauri et al., 2021) EXAM
1. Product Assortment = range/depth of products and price levels.
● Online: virtually unlimited
● Offline: limited by store format and space.
2. Information = support for purchase decisions.
● Online: objective, digital information (specs, reviews, comparisons).
● Offline: sensory and experiential information (touch, smell, fitting, personal advice).
3. Accessibility of Location = ease of access.
● Online: ease of navigation, 24/7 availability.
● Offline: physical distance, store hours, parking convenience.
4. Ambience = sensory and emotional shopping environment.
● Online: website aesthetics, personalization, interactivity.
● Offline: store layout, lighting, music, scent, employees.
5. Product Delivery = How and when products are received.
● Offline: immediate possession at checkout.
● Online: home delivery, pickup points, same-day delivery options.
Retail Formats and Market Players = retailing has evolved into multiple formats, such as
local markets, department stores (e.g. HEMA, Bijenkorf, Walmart), supermarkets,
electronics retailers (highly data-driven, self-scanning) and online/mobile retailing
● Platform retailing = selling through third-party marketplaces (e.g. Amazon).
→ higher visibility/large audiences, but lower margins and reduced customer control
● Omnichannel retailing = integration of online and offline channels into one coherent
customer experience
AI-based marketing = used to personalize communication and promotions, optimize
inventory management and anticipate demand and reduce stock-outs
Personalization = tailor recommendations, customize promotions and create individualized
shopping journeys
→ leads to stronger customer engagement, loyalty, and sales.
Shopping motivations
1. Utilitarian Consumption = task-oriented, rational, efficiency-focused
→ fits online shopping and supermarkets
2. Hedonic Consumption = experience-oriented, emotional, pleasure-driven
→ fits fashion and experiential retail
, Lecture 2 - Customer Journey & Omni-channel Management
Customer experience = the internal and subjective response customers have to all
interactions with a firm over time and across channels.
→ Experiences are created through touchpoints = any interaction between the customer
and the firm (e.g. website visit, store visit, ad exposure, customer service contact)
Customer journey = path-to-path purchase; sequence of experiences and purchases as a
customer interacts with a retailer over time.
● covers all stages from awareness to post-purchase and beyond.
● key outcome = customer loyalty
Customer journey stages
Initial engagement → Awareness → Research → Consideration → Validation → Purchase
→ Post-purchase support → Usage → Advocacy
Advocacy = feeds into loyalty (repeat purchase) and next journey cycle
Different customer journeys = customers follow different journeys depending on their goals
→ Retailers should design multiple journeys
● Deal seeker = focuses on price and promotions
● Non-seeker = minimal search and effort
● Category seeker = compares within a category
● Inspiration seeker = explores ideas and trends
● Social-proof seeker = relies on reviews and others’ opinions
Customer journey mapping = visualizes all the relevant customer steps and touch points
with the company over time from the customers perspective
→ captures direct (eg store visit) and indirect interactions (eg reviews, adds)
→ Insight from customer journey mapping
● Shopping behavior
● Relevant touchpoints and channels
● Shopper satisfaction
● Points of pleasure (positive experiences)
● Points of pain (friction, barriers, waiting time)
● Differences between shopper types
● Links with retail mix elements (price, place, promotion, etc.)
Retail Atmosphere: DAST Framework (Roggeveen, Grewal, 2020) EXAM
= links in-store and out-of-store experiences across the customer journey.
D – Design = Visual elements across all touchpoints (store layout, website design, packaging)
A – Ambient = Background conditions (lighting, music, scent, image brightness online)
S – Social = People present in the environment (employees, other customers, service agents)
T – Trialability = ease of trying products/services (fitting rooms, samples, virtual try-ons)
→ affects shopping behavior through: