Customer experience and engagement

The 11th Latin American Retail Congress (Congresso Latino-Americano de Varejo [CLAV]) conducted at Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo da Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV EAESP) on October 25 and 26, 2018, aimed to connect the frontier of academic literature with practical issues related to retail, through the theme “Engaging and interactive shopper experience.” This theme was selected due to its relevance in terms of theory and practice and its integrative character because it combines various topics, such as consumer behavior, big data and retail analytics, experience, engagement, customer relationship management, shopper marketing, and omnichannel. The discussion included the role of retailers in providing an engaging and interactive experience for consumers and shoppers throughout the retail journey and how they respond to the experience. The term “customer journey” refers to the process through which the buyer is provided with the customer experience, across all stages and touchpoints. (Lemon & Verhoef, 2016). Changes in technology have provided customers with several interactive touchpoints regarding media, channels, and online and offline devices in their purchase journeys. Retailers attempt to provide different levels of experience—rational, emotional, physical, and sensory (Smith, Bolton, & Wagner, 1999; Verhoef et al., 2009)—for customers and the company to make their journey more valuable and to aim at customer engagement through direct and indirect contributions to retailers throughout the journey (Kumar et al., 2010; Venkatesan, Petersen, & Guissoni, 2017).