Rethinking Individual Customer Journeys: Exploration Across Age Groups In A Digitised Retail Industry

Sammanfattning: Purpose: The purpose of this study was to rethink the meaningfulness of abstract customer journey concepts, which are employed as a means of explaining consumer behaviour. Consumer behaviour however becomes more and more diverse. This study thus aimed to create knowledge about the individuality of actual customer journeys from the viewpoints of individual customers of different age groups. Theoretical Perspective: The literature streams of consumer behaviour and customer journey (mapping) in retailing, and of cohorts were deemed relevant for the purpose of this study. Theoretical aspects and viewpoints of reputable scholars constituted the preliminary framework, which provided the basis for this research and likewise favoured a certain methodology. Methodology and Empirical Data: This research took inspirations from a relativist ontology and the epistemological stance of social constructionism as we aimed to verstehen how customers interpret customers journeys from their own perspective. We employed an abductive approach, combining theory-derived deductive and data-based inductive logics. A qualitative research design was applied because we were interested in the reasons why and how customer journeys were actually constructed. Visual data and semi-structured interviews were chosen in order to answer the research questions. A total amount of twelve cases were conducted, and within-case and cross-case analyses used. Conclusion: Two aspects of the preliminary framework were unknowable in the early stages of this study. The analyses of our cases allowed for answering these aspects in line with our research questions and for adjusting our framework. First, it was found that customers construct individual customer journeys, which must not conform the assumptions underlying abstract and theoretic customer journey models. Not every actual customer journey must end with the completion of a purchase (intent to buy) nor follow a linear sequence of phases or actions, thus making it difficult to display the diversity in consumer behaviour along the customer journey in a general manner. Second, it was found that the cohort who was coming of age during the rise of the Internet and digitalisation expressed different and more diverse consumer behaviour along the customer journey than another.