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In confining the COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing was key, with traditional, bricks-and-mortar retailing being shut-down for weeks, and have nearly universally moved into online channels. At the same time, online players have started to operate physical stores. This chapter provides an analysis of how COVID-19 has accelerated the digitalization of retailing, focusing on the shift towards the online and mobile shopping channel. On the basis of success stories and failures in retail business practice, lessons are distilled for developing effective future phygital scenarios.

After having drawn lessons from the recent COVID-19 pandemic for retailers in the previous chapters, in this last chapter we provide an outline on retailing over a longer time horizon. We start with projections of how the phygitalization trend in retailing will further evolve and what role data plays as a basis for a competitive advantage – on the condition of smart and ethical use. Besides looking at customers (downstream), we address the upstream in the value delivery network, focusing on how to succeed in balancing between efficiency and sustainability in the retail supply chain. Retailers face huge challenges. This chapter contributes to setting the scene for retailers to thrive in the brand-new post-pandemic aftermath.

This study examines a phygital approach to rural cultural heritage tourism, adopted by a rural community in Sapphaya, Chai Nat Province, Thailand, in response to the Covid-19 crisis. Specifically, it investigates a community’s initiatives to amalgamate its physical and digital marketing communications in order to engage with consumers as a strategy for destination recovery and resilience.

This is a qualitative exploratory study involving three stages of action, applying two research approaches: (1) participatory action research (PAR) with Sapphaya’s tourism stakeholders, and (2) social media research utilising netnographic analysis of Sapphaya’s tourism social enterprise social media pages.

The findings indicate that a phygital rural cultural heritage strategy can facilitate the interconnectivity between a destination’s physical and digital dimensions of its cultural heritage tourism product, thereby enhancing its intrinsic value, meaning and experiential perceptions. Specifically, it recommends that a successful community-based phygitalisation strategy requires grassroot engagement across all stages of planning, development, implementation and management of the rural cultural heritage tourism product.

The paper focusses on the cultural heritage tourism strategy adopted by a rural community across the physical-digital-phygital spectrum to augment its sustainable tourism development during a time of crisis. A framework for phygital rural cultural heritage as a strategy for destination resilience and recovery is also proposed.

This study adopts a local engagement approach to develop a cooperative community heritage management strategy, based upon local rural capacity building towards digitalisation and empowering innovative partnerships amongst its stakeholders.

The aim of this chapter is to present in a pedagogical way the main digital tools used by tourism-related businesses, especially by hospitality businesses. The main purpose of this chapter is to illustrate our discussion with concrete examples and to give a set of advices for efficient use of those tools.

Literature review was conducted on conceptual issues, as well as managerial and marketing aspects of digital tools, their value and use in the hospitality industry.

This chapter highlights the fact that needs in terms of digitalisation depend on the size of the hotel. The main differences can be explained by differences in terms of hotel capacity, and digital technologies should be customised to different types of structures.

This chapter is exploratory in nature, based on a literature review.

It provides clear and practical guidance about the way independent hospitality businesses could use digital tools for marketing purposes. It also suggests the most efficient digital technologies to improve their performance in the field of marketing and customer relationship management.

The chapter demonstrates the huge gap between best practices in the hospitality industry and the way independent enterprises really use, in practice, the digital tools for marketing purposes. It shows how digital technologies could be used in a more efficient way, to take advantage of their full potential.

This study aims to examine the younger generations’ experiential consumption of foreign contemporary music online (i.e. digital music streaming services) by generation and gender in the US market.

The author proposes a sequential experiential consumption model by applying Jacoby’s refined stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) theory to better understand the experiential sequences in foreign music consumption among young generations in the US market. The proposed model, using structural equation modeling (SEM), examines a cognitive permeable role and a hierarchical affective mediating role. Also, moderating roles of generation and gender are simultaneously tested in overall and specific causal relationships.

The refined S-O-R framework is superior to a linear one in better understanding young consumers’ online experiential foreign music consumption behavior. Moreover, hierarchical sequenced affective organismic behavior is crucial to enhance young consumers’ online music consumption experiences to regulate subsequent behavioral responses. Furthermore, gender differences but no generational differences exist in the experiential consumption process among young consumers. Nevertheless, the strength of S-O-R factors affecting experiential consumption seems idiosyncratic simultaneously in gender and generation.

The study suggests foreign music streaming services boost profitability by focusing on young consumers' psychological ownership and tailored experiences, encouraging a shift from freemium to premium subscriptions. Also, the findings recommend adopting phygital experiences using technologies like AR, VR and MR to enhance engagement and create unique, emotionally resonant experiences for young consumers, thus fostering a more profitable business model.

The authors address under-researched topics relevant to young generations by applying Jacoby’s refined S-O-R framework to foreign music consumption through online streaming. This approach delves into a lesser-explored consumer behavior framework, highlighting young generations’ musical trends. The model reveals cognitive and affective roles, offering advantages over traditional linear S-O-R models. It also uniquely incorporates the moderating effects of generation and gender in music consumption studies, addressing a gap in music-related studies.

This chapter provides an overview of the retail landscape during the pandemic, by showing facts and figures of consumers and Governments' containing measures in Europe. It further provides some guidelines and support for retailers to be more ready to react to the environmental changes, along five main areas: (1) rethinking the in-person experience, (2) enhancing digital channels for shopping, (3) investing in digital capabilities, (4) embracing agile and flexible approaches and (5) developing new retail business models. It finally concludes with a brief summary of the remaining chapters of the book.

Traditional sets of attributes characterizing shopping centres need to be updated to relate to new specific consumers' needs and choices, to ensure the survival of shopping centres. To this end, this chapter revisits shopping centres’ attributes in the light of consumers' choices of actual centres, taking into account the recent increasing role of technologies, leisure activities and changes in consumer behaviour. In doing so, we aim to improve perceptions of modernity and help to regenerate (or at least mitigate the decline of) shopping centres. Specifically, the new set of attributes include appearance (external appearance), convenience, entertainment and leisure activities, memorable experiences, green place and policy, image (modern image), price, service, size and technology.

Digitalization is revolutionizing the retail sector as today's consumers prefer a seamlessly integrated, fluid and irritation-free shopping experience enhanced with artificial intelligence (AI)-powered technologies. Literature highlights gaps in the understanding of the shopping experience in an omnichannel context, involving aesthetic, cognitive and affective experience dimensions. This research highlights the direct effects and the mechanism triggered in the presence of such device.

A sample of 259 consumers was interviewed at the point of sale. Data have been collected after a shopping experience in two concept stores belonging to the same fashion brand: (1) not equipped with AI-powered technology and (2) equipped with these tools. The measurement scales were validated through ANCOVA analysis and causal relationship analysis with structural equation modeling.

The results show that the presence of an in-store AI-powered technologies in a connected store generates a higher aesthetic reaction when visiting the store, a higher absorption when shopping through the flow and a higher intent to purchase. The authors further investigate the underlying mechanism triggered by the presence of this technology, which enables the authors to outline their consequences regarding purchase intention.

The study, conducted within an actual connected store in France, explores the impact of AI technology in connected retail environments on consumer responses. It is an early research in this field, shedding light on a rarely explored area. The authors’ research addresses a significant gap, providing insights into AI-driven retail experiences.