Uncovering the gamified customer experience in the retail environment
International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management
ISSN: 0959-0552
Article publication date: 9 June 2023
Issue publication date: 18 July 2023
Abstract
Purpose
Retailers increasingly are using gamification to make the customer experience (CX) more exciting and encourage favourable customer outcomes. This paper aims to conceptualise the gamified customer experience (GCX), including relevant affordances, and investigate its effects on key customer outcomes, as well as its influential factors.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted a qualitative interview study with retail customers and gamification experts, plus a scenario-based experiment to test the hypotheses.
Findings
Five distinct affordances induced by game elements in retail have led to a more exciting CX. The connections between these affordances and the holistic CX have led to a GCX that influences customer engagement, satisfaction and brand attitude. This effect is dependent on different factors, e.g. retail brand personality, customers' shopping motivation and fear of manipulation.
Originality/value
This study contributes to retail research by conceptualising the GCX phenomenon and providing a summary of relevant affordances. It further provides insights into the GCX's effects on customer outcomes and influential factors, some of which have been ignored in previous research.
Keywords
Citation
Disse, I.K. and Olsson, M. (2023), "Uncovering the gamified customer experience in the retail environment", International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 51 No. 7, pp. 955-971. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJRDM-07-2022-0268
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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