Digital transformation of retail stores: The impact of digitalisation and omni-channel retail on the customer journey

The customer 4.0, who is especially influenced by the increasingly digital retail environment and mobile devices, is more and more empowered within the economy. Accordingly, high involvement customers are demanding companies to implement new strategies and to offer an integrated customer experience throughout offline and online channels. These demands imply both the digitalisation within the physical retail stores, for example through digital screens, as well as the implementation of the Omni-channel approach including the linkage of offline and online retail, for example through a click and collect concept. This digital transformation is aiming to offer the customer a neatless and consistent customer experience throughout all channels. The increasing necessity to create a neatless customer experience is leading to a customer journey throughout digital and analog. This study is therefore aiming to state the changed touchpoints and the new journey of the customer 4.0 as well as the implications for strategies and operative activities from a company perspective. In the course of this study, an essential part was the execution of a qualitative research in the form of expert interviews and through an online survey. The conducted research led to an in-depth insight of the relevance of digitalisation in-store and of the Omni-channel approach, and the following impact on the customer journey.