Marketing Review St.Gallen 5 | 2021 "Experience Management in Commerce"

The customer experience in retail has changed fundamentally with the pandemic. Before, it was primarily stationary sales outlets that offered a convincing customer experience. This was largely due to elaborate shop design, inspiring product presentation and, in particular, personal advice. With the pandemic came the turning point. Fear of infection, mandatory masks and several lockdowns reduced the perceived experience to zero. Inevitably, many consumers are now looking for shopping experiences in online retail. Social media channels, live streaming and many other innovative approaches to online shops have greatly improved the online customer experience.

According to the results of our omni-channel study, online contact points are now ahead of stationary contact points in Germany, Austria and Switzerland in terms of use and importance from the customer’s point of view. Stationary retail must therefore firstly hope for a quick end to the pandemic and secondly reinvent itself in terms of customer experience. In this issue, renowned authors provide suggestions for a new orientation: How can data be obtained to measure customer experience? How can the online experience be improved? What are the implications for the time after the Corona crisis?

The diverse contributions from science and practice in the current issue are intended to show you how customer experience management in retail is rapidly changing and will continue to change in times of and after Corona. We wish you interesting read!

This text was released in German as the editorial of the current issue of Marketing Review St. Gallen with the topic “Experience Management in Commerce”. You can find the issue now in our shop.