Digitalization has impacted online retailing heavily, however traditional stores have not
changed as much in comparison. Earlier studies have not only suggested how stores could
reinvent themselves, but also indicated that brands could have great advantages by doing so.
Furthermore, the customer experience and it’s reinforced importance within brick and mortar
has been highlighted. It has also been established that the customer experience could be
strengthen by implementing advanced technology. Due to the lack of research within the
subject and a mainly theoretical discussion about how and why stores implement advanced
technology in store, this study aims to investigate from more practical point of view how and
why companies implement advanced technology. This study has a qualitative method, by
conducting a total of 7 interviews. Five interviews were conducted with employees within
different retailing companies implementing advanced technology in store; BMW, Clas
Ohlson, Volvo Car Company, Volkswagen and Synsam Group. To continue, two
complementary interviews from a rather general market perspective were conducted; one
with AMF Fastigheter on their new project The Lobby focusing on the development of the
future store and one with Curiat (NZ) Limited a subject specialist on Augmented Reality,
which was one of the most common technologies in this study. The study identifies several
factors correlating to how and why brands reinvent their physical stores through advanced
technologies. In order to implement the technology successfully, such as Virtual Reality,
Augmented reality and Interactive Digital Signage, traditional retailers have to modify their
business models and their operational skills within the organization. One main motivation as
for why traditional retailers implement advanced technology is a changed consumer behavior
and market. This puts a new kind of pressure on traditional retailers and stresses the
importance of the customer experience. The customer experience and relationships can be
strengthened by implementing advanced technology and are two important factors as to why
retailers utilize advanced technology in store. Traditional retailers also use the implemented
advanced technology as a marketing tool, in order to market themselves as innovative and
meet the new market. In addition to this, there has been a change in communication between
customer and store. Retailers can use the advanced technology in order to not only interact in
a new way with their customers, but also communicate through various of their channels.
This creates a smoother and more seamless experience for the customer, and connect offline
with online.
2018. , p. 57
Retailing, Digitalization, Smart stores, Advanced technology, Brick and mortar, Experience marketing