Towards rebuilding the highstreet: Learning from customers’ town centre shopping journeys

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2021.102772Get rights and content

Abstract

Patronage in town centres has been fluctuating over the past few years, indicating that consumers are buying elsewhere in pursuit of better and more fulfilling shopping experiences. This is concerning as patronage is considered an indicator of high streets vitality and viability. To help understand the changing patterns of patronage, especially related to the growth in online retail spending, this study sheds light on key touchpoints that influence the town centre shopping experience. Using the customer journey framework and drawing insights from datasets of two central UK regions, we provide new contribution to town centre research by capturing significant and specific physical and digital touchpoints in the town centre shopping journey, thus developing our understanding of the determinants of the town centre shopping experience. Consequently, this work provides recommendations for town centre management to help improve town centre patronage by developing customers’ experience with shopping-specific touchpoints.

Introduction

The viability of town centres as a retail destination has long been debated as new formats and channels offered alternative shopping experiences such as out-of-town shopping centres and online retailing (Portas, 2011; Wrigley et al., 2015). More recent research (Centre for Retail Research, 2019) suggests the rate of store closures in town centres is increasing partly due to convenient shopping experiences (such as flexible shopping hours, reduced transactional costs and price comparison) offered by online shopping and shopping malls. Town centres were a central location for shoppers and retailers to exchange products/services as over 80% of journeys into town centres are shopping related (Stocchi et al., 2016). Yet, unfulfilled shopping trips to town centres involving monetary and temporal losses, created negative perceptions of the shopping experience, leading to a significant decline in patronage (Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, 2019). With a store closure rate of 60 stores per day through the COVID-19 pandemic (PwC, 2020), UK town centres face the prospect of turning into ‘ghost towns’, with resultant economic impact unless a significant improvement occurs in the shopping experiences they provide (Holder, 2019; Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, 2019).

These prevailing conditions suggest urgent attention is needed if high streets are to be preserved. For town centres to survive, managing the town centre touchpoints is a priority with the aims being to design and audit positive customer experience (De Keyser et al., 2020; Herhausen et al., 2019). Touchpoints are key moments in the customer journey in which the customer interacts with the retail setting and shape their direct/indirect shopping behaviour (Verhoef et al., 2009). They are defined as the “episodes of direct or indirect contact with a brand or a firm” (Baxendale et al., 2015; Verhoef et al., 2015) at different stages of the shopping journey including: search, purchase, and post-purchase (Lemon and Verhoef, 2016). During the town centre journey, customers are in contact with tangible (e.g. assortment of stores, parking) and intangible cues (e.g. atmosphere, events), acting as functional and experiential touchpoints, shaping the holistic town centre shopping experience (Stocchi et al., 2016). Likewise, they engage with non-retail touchpoints (such as traffic queues) that influence their shopping experience and patronage into town centres (AbedRabbo et al., 2021). Touchpoints operate in different ways in town centre journeys compared with an individual retail store (Hart et al., 2013); examining these may uncover the role played by specific touchpoints in town centre patronage.

Customers' shopping journeys are continuously changing as there is increasing dependence on digital channels to inform decisions from beginning to end of the customer journey (Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick, 2019; Dennis et al., 2016). Beyond the physical cues of the retail setting, digital touchpoints (such as websites, social media, email, and mobile shopping apps) are also shaping the landscape of retail journeys (Hallikainen et al., 2019; Wagner et al., 2020). They empower customers with information that creates feelings and sentiments towards their interactions with retailers’ physical touchpoints throughout journey (De Bellis and Johar, 2020; Demko-Rihter and Ter Halle, 2015; Rigby, 2011). With the addition of digital channels, the myriad of touchpoints available to the consumer creates challenges for retailers to monitor the complex consumer journeys in pursuit of their goal fulfilment (Grewal et al., 2016; Mencarelli et al., 2021). Herhausen et al. (2019) identified how specific touchpoints (offline and online) reveal customer segments with different loyalty intentions towards retailers. This study responds to the research call to explore customer journeys in different retail settings to better understand the shaping of patronage intentions in multichannel settings (Grewal and Roggeveen, 2020; Roggeveen et al., 2020). Particularly in town centres, customer journeys are more complicated as consumers interact with different retail and service providers, as well as public and private organisations (Hart et al., 2013). In turn, the myriad of touchpoints available for consumers in town centres increases the complexity of measuring customer experience in these retail agglomerations.

The increased use of retail digital channels (web, social networks, mobile applications) may have resulted in changing customers' perception towards the town centre shopping journey. Indeed, Hart et al. (2013) note the image of a town centre has changed from a ‘pure shopping’ destination to include leisure and entertainment, indicating that customers are shopping elsewhere. Similarly, government reports indicate the potential effect of online shopping on consumers' preferences towards the spatial convenience and information sharing available in the current format of town centres (Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, 2019; Wrigley et al., 2015). This topic warrants further research attention because existing town centre studies (Hart et al., 2007, 2013; Stocchi et al., 2016) omit the expanding role of digital in town centre shopping journeys. Retailers should be particularly aware of customers' migration across online/offline channels as the interaction with multiple touchpoints can influence the seamless customer experience positively (Valentini et al., 2020; Verhoef et al., 2015).

Further, research into town centre customer experience also neglects the moderating role of customer goals, which dilutes customer's recall ability of critical touchpoints that have played a role in their reported experience (Stein and Ramaseshan, 2016). The purpose of the journey (such as shopping) moderates customer experience with the retail setting as shopping goals dictate customers' interaction with the myriad of available touchpoints (AbedRabbo et al., 2021; Homburg et al., 2015; Puccinelli et al., 2009). The contributions of touchpoints to the customer experience vary according to customers' interaction with them, and their ability to fulfil their goals (Puccinelli et al., 2009; Wagner et al., 2020). Thus, for a deeper understanding of town centre patronage, research should focus on specific journeys to control the effect of consumer and situational factors (De Keyser et al., 2015; Verhoef et al., 2009).

To understand the decline in patronage intentions in the high street, re-examining the town centre shopping journey is necessary to reveal insights into the effect of physical and digital cues that influence consumers’ experiences with town centres (AbedRabbo et al., 2021; Stocchi et al., 2016). Building on scholarly recommendations for researching retail experiences (Grewal and Roggeveen, 2020; Kuehnl et al., 2019; Lemon and Verhoef, 2016), this research adopts a multichannel perspective to develop an understanding of the role of digital touchpoints (including town-based webpages and mobile applications) in shaping the town centre experience and responds to the patronage issue in town centres (Stocchi et al., 2016). Using the customer journey framework of Hossain et al. (2020) and Lemon and Verhoef (2016), we focus on the shopping journey due to the frequency of the trip (Stocchi et al., 2016). Further, we identify key interactions at the three stages of the customer journey: pre-purchase, purchase, and post-purchase. To address the research objectives, we adapt the notion that the town centre customer experience is composed of functional and experiential touchpoints in the town centre (Stocchi et al., 2016; Hart et al., 2013). Moreover, we extend this notion to include digital channel touchpoints (including email, websites, social media pages, and mobile applications) that play a critical role in the modern shopping journey (Hallikainen et al., 2019; Wagner et al., 2020). Using data from two central regions in the UK, we develop an illustrative framework to present physical and digital touchpoints that shape the town centre shopping journey and explain how customers assess their shopping experience and patronage intentions. Accordingly, the objectives of this paper are:

  • 1.

    To highlight the physical and digital touchpoints and when they are accessed during customers' shopping journeys.

  • 2.

    To explore the effect of interaction with these touchpoints on the perceived shopping experience in terms of town centre patronage intentions.

  • 3.

    To provide managerial recommendations towards improving the town centre shopping experience.

The paper explores the theoretical foundations that contribute to the shopping experience across the customer journey in a town centre context. Next, the qualitative methodology and thematic analysis are highlighted. Finally, a discussion of the results presents an illustrative framework of the customer journey that shapes managerial implications and future research directions.

Section snippets

Customer experience journeys and touchpoints

Retailers' offerings play a critical role in motivating customers to visit their stores (Stocchi et al., 2016). Yet, this notion has changed with more emphasis placed on experiences that stimulate customers' senses across their shopping journey beyond goal fulfilment (Van Rompay et al., 2012). Customers shop for different reasons beyond products/services including entertainment, recreation, or social interaction (Foster and McLelland, 2015). Thus, their experience hinges on their sensory

Methodology

A qualitative research design using an online diary was used to capture respondents’ interactions with the town centre during their most recent shopping visit. This approach allows respondents to reflect on their experiences and behaviour using their own words at each stage of the journey (Milligan et al., 2005). At the beginning of the diary, respondents were asked to give details about their shopping visit and describe their perceptions of the shopping experience. Then, after the customer

Results and discussion

Respondents’ diaries revealed detailed insights into the influences which shape their patronage behaviour. Approximately, 72% of trips reported in this study were completed within 2–3 days of taking part in this research. The average shopping journey duration was 1–2 h with an average spend of £20–50. Consistent with town centre studies (Hart et al., 2007; Stocchi et al., 2016), more females (114, 57%) participated in this research in contrast to men (79, 43%). The age group 31–40 years old

Managerial implications and limitations

Retail patronage is vital if town centres, and retail businesses are to be sustainable. But the advent of digital channel touchpoints as a mainstream route to market has changed the dynamic between consumer, retailer, and place. At the beginning of a visit to a town, individuals not only rely heavily on digital devices, to provide information on parking availability, transport timetables and booking a ride to their favourite shopping destinations but also rely on the reliability of the physical

Concluding comments and future research

The town centre shopping experience is a specific construct which is viewed through the customer journey framework in this paper. Currently, many customers' interactions remain physical and occur during the visit to the town centre and yet we highlight a moderation effect of digital touchpoints on customers' perception of the physical touchpoints, shopping experience and patronage intentions. Future research should focus on digital interactions impact on customers' shopping experience and could

References (61)

  • T.M.T. Hossain et al.

    Reconceptualizing integration quality dynamics for omnichannel marketing

    Ind. Market. Manag.

    (2020)
  • R. Mencarelli et al.

    Do myriad e-channels always create value for customers? A dynamic analysis of the perceived value of a digital information product during the usage phase

    J. Retailing Consum. Serv.

    (2021)
  • C. Milligan et al.

    Digging deep: using diary techniques to explore the place of health and well-being amongst older people

    Soc. Sci. Med.

    (2005)
  • E. Pantano et al.

    Store buildings as tourist attractions: mining retail meaning of store building pictures through a machine learning approach

    J. Retailing Consum. Serv.

    (2019)
  • E. Pantano et al.

    Engaging consumers on new integrated multichannel retail settings: challenges for retailers

    J. Retailing Consum. Serv.

    (2015)
  • N.M. Puccinelli et al.

    Customer experience management in retailing: understanding the buying process

    J. Retailing

    (2009)
  • A.L. Roggeveen et al.

    The DAST framework for retail atmospherics: the impact of in-and out-of-store retail journey touchpoints on the customer experience

    J. Retailing

    (2020)
  • A. Stein et al.

    Towards the identification of customer experience touch point elements

    J. Retailing Consum. Serv.

    (2016)
  • N.S. Terblanche

    Revisiting the supermarket in-store customer shopping experience

    J. Retailing Consum. Serv.

    (2018)
  • S. Valentini et al.

    Identifying omnichannel deal prone segments, their antecedents, and their consequences

    J. Retailing

    (2020)
  • T.J.L. Van Rompay et al.

    With or without you: interactive effects of retail density and need for affiliation on shopping pleasure and spending

    J. Bus. Res.

    (2012)
  • P.C. Verhoef et al.

    From multi-channel retailing to omni- channel retailing introduction to the special issue on multi-channel retailing

    J. Retailing

    (2015)
  • P.C. Verhoef et al.

    Customer experience creation: determinants, dynamics and management strategies

    J. Retailing

    (2009)
  • G. Wagner et al.

    Online retailing across e-channels and e-channel touchpoints: empirical studies of consumer behavior in the multichannel e-commerce environment

    J. Bus. Res.

    (2020)
  • M. AbedRabbo et al.

    Do connected town centre shopping journeys improve town centre patronage?

    Int. J. Retail Distrib. Manag.

    (2021)
  • B. Alexander et al.

    Change in technology-enabled omnichannel customer experiences

    J. Retailing Consum. Serv.

    (2020)
  • B. Barann et al.

    Can't touch this? Conceptualising the customer touchpoint in the context of omnichannel retailing

    J. Retailing Consum. Serv.

    (2020)
  • J.H. Betzing et al.

    Design principles for co-creating digital customer experience in high street retail

  • V. Braun et al.

    Using thematic analysis in psychology

    Qual. Res. Psychol.

    (2006)
  • Who's Gone Bust in UK Retailing in 2019-2020?

    (2019)
  • Cited by (5)

    View full text