Discovering the phygital customer experience: which digital technologies influence leading companies’ processes?

Purpose The new “Phygital” (physical plus digital) customer experience combines the physical with the digital channel, creating a unique, interactive, immersive and personalized “onlife” experience for customer. Beginning with this premise, the research aims to analyse the importance of Phygital technologies when applied within physical stores to enhance the customer experience, creating the Phygital Customer Experience. Design/methodology/approach The study employed a qualitative and exploratory multi-case study to examine 19 leading world companies belonging to different private and public organisations. They were specifically linked to the retail and fashion, tourism, food and cultural heritage sectors. Findings Findings reveal the most suitable Phygital technologies for improving each customer experience phase (pre-purchase, purchase and post-purchase), designing a comprehensive customer journey in different industries. A final framework is then proposed which represents the customer’s experience cycle. It allows managers to choose the most suitable digital technologies, combining the physical and digital channels to create an interactive and personalized consumer experience. Originality/value The Phygital concept is promising from a multidisciplinary perspective integrating technological and managerial issues, with several implications on customer experience and companies’ strategic processes.