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Exploring phygital omnichannel luxury retailing for immersive customer experience: The role of rapport and social engagement

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  • Pangarkar, Aniruddha
  • Arora, Vibha
  • Shukla, Yupal

Abstract

Omnichannel retailing has revolutionized the way retailers create strategies for engaging customers in making purchase decisions. Phygital is a new-age transformative form of omnichannel retailing that emphasizes combining the physical and digital elements, with a particular focus on the human touch to satisfy social and symbolic consumer needs. Extant research has not fully addressed the role of phygital in luxury fashion retail. We explore the research question regarding how human interactions with experienced salespeople add value to the phygital experience. In doing so, we contribute to the luxury marketing literature by addressing the research gap by elucidating the role of phygital functionality in enhancing rapport building, social engagement, and developing trust and commitment, which results in a seamless customer experience, along with enhanced loyalty and patronage. Through 18 in-depth qualitative research interviews conducted with luxury retail managers and senior retail leaders, we provide guidelines to managers and practitioners at retail firms, to create actionable growth-oriented strategies focused on leveraging phygital capabilities.

Suggested Citation

  • Pangarkar, Aniruddha & Arora, Vibha & Shukla, Yupal, 2022. "Exploring phygital omnichannel luxury retailing for immersive customer experience: The role of rapport and social engagement," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joreco:v:68:y:2022:i:c:s0969698922000947
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2022.103001
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    7. Pangarkar, Aniruddha & Patel, Jayesh & Kumar, Sampath K., 2023. "Drivers of eWOM engagement on social media for luxury consumers: Analysis, implications, and future research directions," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    8. Wang, Ping & Li, Kunyang & Du, Qinglong & Wang, Jianqiong, 2024. "Customer experience in AI-enabled products: Scale development and validation," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    9. Elizabeth Emperatriz García-Salirrosas & Rafael Fernando Rondon-Eusebio & Dany Yudet Millones-Liza & Jesús Fernando Bejarano-Auqui, 2023. "e-RetailTest: Scale to Assess the Attitude of Consumers towards E-Commerce in the Retail Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-18, March.

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