Designing an Omni-Experience to Save Retailing

Abstract

Online-based retailers have made competing in the physical retail industry increasingly challenging. Building strong experiences to differentiate from the onlinebased players is key to survival. Brands can leverage different forms of engagement, such as sensorial or cognitive ones, to support their customer experience. "Read, Eat, Dream" (RED), a new concept by LaFeltrinelli, the major Italian bookseller, is an example of how to create "omni-experiences" by leveraging customers' lifestyles. This article outlines how LaFeltrinelli conceptualized and implemented the RED concept and presents four key design elements that enable the creation of omni-experiences. By creating an omniexperience, retailers can transform from fulfillment centers to spaces where customers can engage, which in turn increases the length of their visit and occasions for purchase. An omni-experiences also establishes the retail store as a reference point for some customers' specific activities.

Does the Effect of Customer Experience on Customer Satisfaction Create a Sustainable Competitive Advantage? A Comparative Study of Different Shopping Situations

“…In physical store shopping, since no aspect of the product is left to customers' imagination, customers exhibit lower tolerance and acceptance levels compared to online shopping. It is more of a matter of threshold [27]. In this situation, we propose the H5: Hypothesis (H5).…”

“…In the retail industry, high competition, high customer requirements, and complex technology is the current market status. Customer experience has become an important factor for retailers to implement differentiated strategies and obtain sustainable competitive advantage [27]. Customers live in an experience economy situation; enterprises' competitive advantages will come from creating an experience based on products or services to attract customers [3].…”

“…It is the way to acquire a sustainable competitive advantage [28]. Especially in the current situation where physical stores and online shopping are coexisting, retailers can create their own niche markets to attract customers and ensure sustainable competitive advantages by integrating these two marketing channels [27].…”

“…At the same time, customer satisfaction is the core indicator of retailers' successful and long-term sustainable competitiveness. Artusi, Bellini, Dell'Era, and Verganti [27] indicated that customer satisfaction has a significant positive relationship with the indicators of success and long-term sustainable competitive advantage of retail enterprises, such as sales volume, profit, consumers' repurchase intention, market share, and word-of-mouth. Notably, customer experience is the most critical determinant of customer satisfaction.…”

“…The shopping procedure must meet customer satisfaction as much as possible in terms of its capability and efficiency, and the efficiency of its operation determines a store's competitiveness [27]. The design of the shopping procedure and quality of management influence the service quality delivered as well as the performance of a store.…”