Introduction

Fashion is one of the most dynamic industries, being characterised by the distinctive design of its products, a vast global supplier network, speed to market, branding and sub-branding and extensive distribution channels. In this chapter, customer journeys are defined as an ongoing customer experience with a firm during the purchase cycle across numerous touchpoints (Pizzutti et al., 2022). During the journey customers will encounter many physical, digital and experiential touchpoints with the brand, which require careful management. These contribute to customer decision-making in three stages, pre-purchase, purchase and post-purchase, centred on the customer's experience and integrated across all distribution and communication channels. Increasingly, the journey is typified by choice, time compression and mobility, which raise questions about customer agency and control but also consumption and sustainability. Such characteristics have led to a re-assessment of the linearity of the stages to describe and theorise more circular and alternative customer journeys that account for social, technological and temporal changes. The chapter concludes with an overview of the organisation of the book in three sections that explore customer journeys through the perspectives of management and customers and finally the themes of convergence, sustainability and ethical journeying.