The Next Generation of Retail: Realizing the Potential of the Engaging Experience Economy

Abstract

The experience economy has been studied heavily since the beginning of the century. With the attention researchers have given to this topic, much attention is paid to the ‘experience’ aspect, not the ‘economy’ aspect. In our research, we offer more attention to the ‘economy’ aspect, where more than one stakeholder creates experiences through engagement, while taking advantage of other retailing aspects. We introduce the term ‘Engaging Experience Economy’ through a conceptual analysis that develops a framework for the engaging experience economy and draws attention to questions that need to be answered to enhance our framework. Then, we conduct research using primary data collection methods to update our original framework with enablers and barriers of engagement. We collect data from our engaging experience economy stakeholders (consumers, employees, and managers). Using three different qualitative methods, we also highlight the importance of various aspects of the retailing shopping trips in malls. These aspects include store attributes (including sensory elements), technologies, and retailer-to-retailer experiences. We establish that employees’ relationship with their managers affects their engagement levels with consumers. Also, consumers’ trust levels in employees affect consumers’ engagement levels. Furthermore, consumer-to-consumer indirect interactions affect their engagements. Retail spaces are essential for engaging all involved stakeholders. The retailer-to- retailer relationship area is where all involved retailers can use sensory elements to enhance the chances of consumer engagement. Yet, it is still an area that needs to be further researched. The outcomes of our analysis are presented in a chain of outcomes that vary from immediate to intermediate to long-term outcomes. Their inter-related relationship shows their importance, which shows that managers should focus on all of them to achieve one another. We also provide guidelines for future research to enhance our understanding of the engaging experience economy.