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1. Introduction
“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel,” Maya Angelou (2013). What people remember about shopping experience is determined by the mood, feelings and intensity of emotions created in particular moments while shopping.
Many retailers are incorporating the customer experience as a component of their customer offerings. Faced with increased competition from web retailing, merchants are elevating the in-store experience into something more exciting, entertaining and educational to lure shoppers through the door. The store no longer exists just to move merchandise and ring up transactions. Increasingly, it also serves as showroom, museum, and warehouse and fulfillment center. Stores are routinely practicing one-upmanship in inducing more store visits by making shopping fun and entertaining (Poulsson and Kale, 2004, p. 268).
Creating an experience for consumers is more important than ever (Rauen, 2006). Getting people in the store is not enough. What consumers want is a memorable event that engages them.
Pine and Gilmore argue that businesses must orchestrate memorable events for their customers, and that memory itself becomes the product – the “experience.” More advanced experience businesses can begin charging for the value of the “transformation” that an experience offers. In 1971, Toffler talked about the upcoming “experiential industry,” in which people in the “future,” would be willing to allocate high percentages of their salaries to live amazing experiences. From bustling downtowns to suburban malls, the brick-and-mortar store is poised for reinvention. What consumers want are products, communications and marketing campaigns that dazzle their senses, touch their hearts, and stimulate their minds. Consumers no longer buy commodities; “they express who they are and identify the relationships that are important to them through consumption” (Kim et al., 2007, p. 8).
According to Hirschman and Elizabeth (1984), consumption may be viewed as a process that provides an individual with cognitive and sensory experiences. Cognitive consumption seeks tangible benefits from performing utilitarian functions. It involves satisfying basic physiological needs and assures the security of satisfactory purchase performance. Utilitarian experience involves offering of attributes such as convenience, value, customer service, confidentiality by retailers to the customers. These attributes will positively enhance the consumers’ experience. Consumers can therefore purchase what they want, the...