Exploring the connected town centre shopping experience and its implications on patronage intentions

Research on Customer Experience, more specifically the Shopping Experience, received substantial attention from academics and practitioners due to its conceptualised implications on retail performance. Nowadays, customers seek to be entertained, stimulated and seamlessly connected to the digital domain to enhance their convenience and reduce the transactional costs of shopping (Verhoef, Kannan and Inman, 2015). Studies researched this construct in the contexts of stores, brands and shopping malls, yet, very few studies examine this construct in the town centre context. This is surprising as town centre patronage has been declining for the past decade due to the reported growth in online shopping, reduced high street retail offer and a sub-standard shopping experience (Wrigley et al., 2015; Portas, 2011). Taking this perspective, this thesis explored the Town Centre Shopping Experience as a specific context, and importantly, the role of digital integration in developing a Connected Town Centre Shopping Experience. In doing so, this research provided a precise measure of this construct and its implications on town centre patronage.

Using a Multiphase mixed methods design, a model of this construct has been developed based on real customers’ interactions with the town centre. Notably, the effect of digital interaction on customers’ perceptions of the Town Centre Shopping Experience construct was explored for the first time. Analysis of the results suggest that customers develop their shopping experience through interacting with eight physical touchpoints. The developed experience has significant relationship with customers’ future patronage intentions. Meanwhile, a Connected Town Centre Shopping is developed through customers interaction with two forms of digital integration in the town centre. Such interactions have a moderating role on customers’ perception of the constructs in the model. The findings of this research address theoretical limitations in the literature by answering the call for research on the determinants and implications of Shopping Experience and the role of digital integration in influencing this experience (Stocchi, Hart and Haji, 2016; Wrigley et al., 2015; Portas, 2011). In so doing, the research provides a more concise measure of the Connected Town Centre Shopping Experience, which will allow academics and practitioners to attain deeper understanding of the existing patronage issues in town centre.