Facilitating customers' post‐purchase food retail experiences

Abstract

Purpose

Delivering superior customer experiences through experiential marketing strategies has become increasingly important in food retailing. While retailers seek new sources of competitive advantage, the perspective to customer experiences should be extended from the in‐store activities to post‐purchase where the value‐in‐use of the groceries eventually actualises. In this quest for an enhanced customer experience, the possibilities provided by Internet‐based service applications have been an underexplored area of research. Towards that end, the purpose of this paper is to explore and analyse how such service applications can facilitate customers' post‐purchase experiences in the context of food retailing.

Design/methodology/approach

A case study research setting was applied focusing on an internet‐based service application that provides customers with detailed information about the healthfulness of their groceries. Altogether 456 submissions of customer feedback data and 16 customer interviews were generated and analysed. Subsequently, a typology of facilitating customers' post‐purchase food retail experiences was constructed to uncover and illustrate how the service succeeds in extending the customer food retail experience towards the customer's context.

Findings

The authors identified four types of the typology, including “Playing”, “Check‐pointing”, “Learning”, and “Goal‐orientation”. These four types can be conceptualised through the utilitarian versus hedonic dimensions and the degree of customer transformation.

Originality/value

The paper introduces internet‐based service applications as a suitable experiential marketing strategy. It offers a fresh perspective and new insight into leveraging on the capabilities of the Internet in facilitating customers' post‐purchase food retail experiences.

Citation

Saarijärvi, H., Kuusela, H. and Rintamäki, T. (2013), "Facilitating customers' post‐purchase food retail experiences", British Food Journal, Vol. 115 No. 5, pp. 653-665. https://doi.org/10.1108/00070701311331562