Towards future customer experience: Trends and innovation in retail

Retail companies today face new challenges with more intensified competition due to the accelerated pace of technological change, more sophisticated management practices, and industry consolidation. Hence, retail companies have shifted their focus from not only boosting sales but also to ways of attracting and retaining customers. This paper offers a new perspective on how to improve the performance of retail organizations by enhancing customer experience. It suggests that customer experience and use of technology are fundamental drivers of consumer loyalty. We propose a new shopping experience model based on a synergic combination of design thinking and marketing intelligence methodologies. The role of technology in customer satisfaction is also integrated into this novel approach. Based on this model, we developed a smartphone app and then applied it to a supermarket located in Monterrey, the third largest city in Mexico. We conclude that technology-based resources can contribute to improving interactions between the store and customers, supporting the latter to make decisions about purchases. However, regardless of how advanced the technology is, these solutions cannot guarantee adding high value to organizations unless an integrated context analysis is used and managers implement appropriate design strategies that enhance customer experiences. The current research has important implications for decision makers in business strategy, marketing intelligence, and strategic foresight, as well as retail practitioners.