Side-by-Side phygital selling interactions: New forms of social interaction around screens[Vente en côte à côte : comprendre les nouvelles formes d’interaction sociale autour des écrans]

• Research objectives The proliferation of in-store digital tools generates new forms of interaction between sales staff and customers, as well as new dynamics of selling interaction. By investigating how customers and sales staff interact, side-by-side in front of the same screen, this article reveals which social motivations drive such behaviors. • Methodology Leveraging the results of an exploratory qualitative study, the authors conduct a quantitative study with 499 respondents and a semi-projective approach. • Results The results reveals several personal and situational variables that inform customers' motives to interact with sales assistants around a screen. In particular, salespeople's perceived availability and their relational, technical, and digital skills strongly influence the resulting interaction. • Managerial implications By combining insights from social psychology and econometric data processing tools, this article establishes a clearer understanding of these novel, increasingly common, but rarely studied forms of interaction and also offers recommendations for updated sales team training and management. • Originality The originality of this research lies as much in the understanding of a growing yet little-studied phenomenon, as in the use of an original methodology. • Keywords: interaction around the screen, salesperson, side by side, competencies, social, phygital.