The scope and intensity of personalised omnichannel customer journeys: a conceptualisation integrating experts’ and consumers’ perspectives

This article examines the personalisation of touchpoints across the omnichannel customer journey (OCJ) for retailers and direct-to-consumer brands. Despite the increasing availability of connected touchpoints, research on personalisation across multiple touchpoints during the OCJ is scarce. To address this gap, the author conducts qualitative expert interviews with 24 managers and six focus group discussions with 43 consumers. They identify scope and intensity as two overarching design concepts for personalised OCJs whose optimal levels depend on several contingency factors. Two decision trees arrange the contingency factors and reduce the complexity when dealing with personalisation in OCJs by proposing recommendations for the optimal scope and intensity of personalised OCJs. The study provides managerial implications for effectively designing and implementing personalised OCJs.