From the dichotomous paradigm of the shopping
Transcription
From the dichotomous paradigm of the shopping
524305 research-article2014 RME0010.1177/2051570714524305Recherche et Applications en Marketing (English Edition)Editorial RAM Editorial Editorial: From the dichotomous paradigm of the shopping experience to the ubiquitous paradigm Recherche et Applications en Marketing 2014, Vol. 28(3) 3–13 © The Author(s) 2014 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/2051570714524305 rme.sagepub.com Olivier Badot ESCP Europe and IAE de Caen-Basse Normandie, France Jean-François Lemoine Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne (PRISM) and ESSCA Ecole de Management, France As highlighted at a recent professional symposium on cross-channel commerce held by LSA (LSA, 2013), the trend in consumer habits is towards fragmentation, with consumers turning to increasingly varied channels and formats.1 New shopping habits (aiming at better cost control and resulting from more dispersed lifestyles) associated with the development of a ‘digital ecosystem’ (de Rosnay, 2013) prompts us to reconsider the traditional dichotomy – derived from that between commerce and e-commerce – that the business world and the academic community have observed between the ‘shopping experience’ and the ‘e-shopping experience’. The first reason for a discussion about the ‘dichotomous paradigm’ of the shopping experience stems from its segmented nature (having a shopping experience in a store vs. online). Indeed, the fragmentation of lifestyles,2 which causes consumers to commute and move about more and more and to consume on the go3 – the development of a ‘transit and takeaway society’ for Virilio (2009) – coupled with techno-commercial arrangements combining channels (cross-channel commerce) and/or formats (cross-format commerce4), tends to render a dichotomous and segmented perspective obsolete and replace it with an analysis in terms of flows, in terms of a ‘shopping peregrination’. For consumers, this entails optimizing trips (saving time, heightened efficiency) especially when one has a large number of activities to do (dropping off and picking up children, grocery shopping, leisure). For Gasnier (2007), shopping is now part of a complex chain that is meticulously organized and timed. The second reason to discuss the dichotomous paradigm concerns the notion of the attractiveness of a retail outlet or a commercial website. Indeed, as Pine and Gilmore (1999) have shown, shopping experience strategies appeared in the 1990s so that businesses could first build a reputation and attractiveness by providing their customers with highly hedonistic experiences (Filser, 1996), and then charge higher profit margins than they would be able to if they were just selling products or services. The same approach was then applied to websites. The aim of providing e-shopping experiences to online users, inspired by strategies used in brickand-mortar stores, was to increase differentiation and user traffic to websites (Belaud, 2011b ; Lemoine, 2008, 2012). In both cases, the strategy is to promote a shopping or an e-shopping experience by creating a (more or less) revisited destination. On the other hand, ‘in-transit’ shopping – such as bus and railway station retailing, which is fast expanding (Keller, 2009; Sabbah, 2011) as well as the possible use of mobile shopping apps for smartphones, called ‘Shazaming’ – the product offering Corresponding author: Olivier Badot, Full Professor at ESCP Europe and IAE de Caen-Basse Normandie, France. Email: [email protected] Downloaded from rme.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on May 17, 2016 4 Recherche et Applications en Marketing (English Edition) 28(3) (Lemoine and Badot, 2010), has more to do with location than destination. While research on the shopping experience has focused a lot on its relatively participative and interactive nature (Carù and Cova, 2007a), little attention has been paid to the combination of channels and formats and to the instantaneousness of the experience. As Antéblian et al. summarize in their contribution to this special issue, the experience that is co-constructed by the customer, who makes use of all the available resources (network of shops, e-commerce, smartphone, etc.), requires channels to be complementary both in terms of fluidity and coherence, rather than existing in a ‘silo’ configuration. The experience is therefore part of a ‘meta shopping experience’ whereby retailers have to understand consumers’ expectations for each channel and to integrate the whole into a comprehensive offering. The lived experience is no longer strictly linear because the consumer will navigate an ‘omnichannel experience’ that makes sense and which matches the expectations they have for each channel used. We can henceforth speak of a ‘cross-channel’ or even a ‘ubiquitous’ paradigm for the shopping experience. Set within this managerial and theoretical context, the introduction to this special issue of Recherche et Applications en Marketing (English Edition), aims first of all to lay down the terms of the ‘dichotomous paradigm’ separating ‘shopping experience’ and ‘e-shopping experience’ (covered in greater detail in the articles chosen for this issue) and, second, to outline the foundations and modalities of the ‘ubiquitous paradigm’ of the shopping experience. From the ‘dichotomous paradigm’ of the shopping experience In the dichotomous perspective, the ‘shopping experience’ and ‘e-shopping experience’ belong to the same paradigm, they only differ in the ‘space’ where the experience takes place. One is experienced in a physical place (store, shopping mall, theme park, cultural centre, fair, trade show, pop-up store, etc.), the other on a desktop, laptop, tablet or smartphone. Indeed, as Roederer (2012) states in a comprehensive survey based on his doctoral research, the ‘e-shopping experience’ (called ‘cyber experience’) is situated at the intersection of the ‘consumer-driven experience’ and the ‘companydriven experience’, in keeping therefore with the same paradigm created by the seminal work of Holbrook and Hirschman (1982), Pine and Gilmore (1999: 30) and enriched by Carù and Cova (2007b), among others. Apart from the ‘consumer-driven experience/ company-driven experience’ polarity that forms the basic paradigm of research on the shopping experience, the rise of e-commerce has prompted researchers to distinguish between the ‘shopping experience’ and the ‘e-shopping experience’ (Lemoine, 2008, 2012; Soopramanien, 2011). ‘The shopping experience’ As Antéblian et al. state in their contribution to this special issue: the following all have something in common: an Oxylane Village sports centre, a Sephora beauty products store, an Abercrombie & Fitch clothing store, the flagship Louis Vuitton stores on the Champs Elysées in Paris or in Shanghai and a Wholefoods supermarket; these retailers define their market positioning in relation to the shopping experience concept. Naturally they offer an extensive selection of quality products. But above all, they promise customers that they will get these products through an enjoyable interaction, staged in a highly theatrical setting – a source of multi-sensorial stimulation that will leave them with a pleasant memory. The contributions of Antéblian et al., de MichaudTrévinal and de Bœuf and Sénécal delve deeper into the notion of ‘shopping experience’, in relation to its strategic orientation, its antecedents, its modalities, its consequences and its cross-border dimension. Antéblian et al. recall that merchants and retailers, along with most researchers, seem to have implicitly adopted a single strategic orientation of the experience: that of an ‘extraordinary’ experience, based on the massive theatricalization of the selling space and the aim of immersing the customer in a hyper-real environment (like at West Edmonton Mall, the flagship stores of Niketown, Downloaded from rme.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on May 17, 2016 5 Editorial and L’Occitane). Little research has been conducted on ordinary or ‘infra-ordinary’ shopping experiences (with the exception of Badot (2005), Rémy (2005) and, more recently, Ouvry (2013)). Concerning the antecedents to the shopping experience, Antéblian et al. recall that the in-store experience depends a great deal on what motivated the consumer to visit the retail outlet. Three successive theoretical viewpoints have sought to analyse these antecedents: •• The first approach considered the attributes relating to the logistic function of the retail outlet. •• This was then expanded to distinguish these ‘economic’ attributes from ‘recreational’ attributes. •• Recent research has called this duality into question, adopting a more holistic view of the determinants of the in-store experience. In its holistic nature, this line of research prefigures the ‘cross-channel’ and ‘ubiquitous’ paradigms of the shopping experience. In terms of the ways and means by which the shopping experience is produced in practice, according to Antéblian et al., the fact that the differentiation achieved through these experience-creating strategies ran out of steam (Abercrombie & Fitch comes to mind) is a signal that consumers should be allowed more freedom in their experiential progression, without, however, ‘giving them carte blanche’, because it seems that it is only possible to immerse the consumer in an experiential context through the intermediary of guides that give access to the experience. This indicates the importance of interpersonal relations and contact staff in experiential strategies (like at Nature et Découvertes whose success never seems to wane) or the rituals that shape the itinerary that the experience follows (Badot and Lemoine, 2009; Lemoine and Badot, 2008). Concerning the particular case of shopping in a mall or shopping centre, the research carried out by Michaud-Trévinal and reproduced in this special issue reveals four types of shopping itinerary: •• The extremely simple ‘passing through’ itinerary: the time spent is the shortest, the pace is quickest and the itinerary is characterized by continuity as lingering, stops and entry into shops are all short. Followed mainly by men, this type of itinerary is of a utilitarian, very elementary and flowing nature. •• The ‘pragmatic’ itinerary: these are rather simple, lasting around ten minutes. There are fewer shopping companions than in the other itineraries and the pace is normal. This type of itinerary mainly involves a trip to the supermarket with some time spent (or stop and entry) in a particular shop. •• The ‘browsing’ or ‘strolling’ itinerary: this is characterized by a large number of shopping companions and a slower pace than the other itineraries. Numerous stops are made in front of or inside shops (discontinuity). Fewer entries are made into shops than in the fourth type of itinerary. •• The ‘appropriation’ itinerary: characterized by a larger proportion of women shoppers, more time spent, and fewer shopping companions than for the other itineraries. The pace is rather slow as the itinerary includes numerous stops and entry into shops. Piris’s contribution to this special issue concerns a particular aspect of the shopping experience in supermarkets: the customer’s perception of variety based on the breadth and depth of the product assortments. Her survey of 1009 consumers highlights the mediating role played by the perception of variety and hence whether the variety of a product assortment can be reduced without affecting the variety perceived by consumers. For the analysis of shopping experience consequences, three stages may be identified according to Antéblian et al.: •• Satisfaction was initially considered as the principle antecedent of shopper loyalty and the way it is formed was analysed by shifting from a strictly cognitivist view to one that takes the customer’s emotional states into account. •• The overly transactional nature of satisfaction prompted the development of research into the concept of shopping value. Downloaded from rme.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on May 17, 2016 6 Recherche et Applications en Marketing (English Edition) 28(3) •• Finally, current research tends to diversify the results indicators of the experience to focus more rigorously on the relationship between the customer and the shop or retail brand. The e-shopping experience Although shopping experiences began in physical environments, they also exist in virtual environments (websites) through the use of computers, tablets, smartphones … and even electronic clothes hangers in C&A stores in Brazil. Of the different variables that are traditionally used in the marketing literature to apprehend the e-shopping experience, it is website atmosphere (store atmosphere or web atmosphere or website atmospherics) in particular that has caught the attention of researchers in recent years (Belaud, 2011a; Charfi, 2012; Ettis, 2008; Lemoine, 2008, 2012). Defined by Dailey (2004) as ‘the conscious designing of web environments to create positive effects (e.g. positive affect, positive cognitions, etc.) in users in order to increase favourable consumer responses (e.g. site revisiting, browsing, etc.)’, website atmospherics is regularly employed by marketers to offer customers pleasant, fun, valorising navigational experiences that are sources of differentiation. To achieve this objective, it is necessary to know, first of all, which of a website’s different atmospheric cues can be acted upon and, second, their effects on user behaviour. Different typologies of atmospheric cues have emerged with the aim of clarifying the conceptualization of website atmosphere. While they do not all agree on the same set of cues, they do provide complementary approaches in terms of how to best apprehend this variable. According to Eroglu et al. (2001), for example, a website’s atmosphere can be described in terms of the following two categories of cues: •• The first is made up of all the ‘high task-relevant environment’ cues, such as the website’s verbal and visual cues, that may help users to attain their shopping goal (descriptions of the merchandise, the price, sales and return policies, navigational aids, product pictures, etc.). •• The second contains all the ‘low task-relevant environment ‘ cues. In this category we find atmospheric cues whose purpose is decorative and fun rather than informative (background colours and patterns, music, typestyles and fonts, animation and images other than product photos, etc.). For Childers et al. (2001), website atmosphere may be broken down into utilitarian (functional) features and hedonic (experiential) features. Similarly, Chang et al. (2002) distinguish functional features (site map, pull-down menus, etc.) from symbolic ones (music, fonts, background colour, etc.) Finally, a recent research paper shows that atmospheric cues from a brick-and-mortar store, updated by Baker (1986), are adapted to the description of a website’s atmospheric cues (Lemoine, 2008). Thus, it is possible to describe a website’s atmosphere in terms of social factors (virtual customer-service agents, customer testimonials, discussion forums, etc.), design elements (navigability, accessibility of product range), and ambiance (colours, images, music, typography, etc.). In the article she contributed to this special issue, Lao investigates whether e-consumers’ behavioural responses can be facilitated by the mental images that the presentation of a product on a commercial website generates and whether it is possible to enhance the mental images of online users. She highlights the positive influence of mental imagery of self and its antecedents on anticipated mixed emotions and on e-consumers’ impulse buying and purchase intent. Her findings show that the choice of stimuli used in an online product presentation can significantly influence mental imagery and the behavioural responses of online users. To measure the effects of a website’s atmosphere on user reactions, and therefore better understand the consequences of the e-shopping experience, two complementary approaches are traditionally employed in the literature. The first is based on Mehrabian and Russell’s (1974) S-O-R (stimulus– organism–response) model, and stipulates that a website’s atmosphere will only influence consumers’ responses if it first acts on their emotions. It was by using this model that Ettis (2008) was able to expose the principal effects and also the associated Downloaded from rme.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on May 17, 2016 7 Editorial effects of a web page’s background colour, ambient music and animations on users’ emotional and behavioural reactions. Indeed, the second approach emphasizes the effect of website atmospheric cues first on the individual’s state of immersion,5 then on the perceived value of the visit (hedonic and/or utilitarian), and finally on behaviours (Bettaieb and Poncin, 2013; Charfi, 2012). Using this approach, Charfi (2012) underscores the impact of threedimensional decors and virtual customer-service agents on the online immersion experience (Lemoine and Notebaert, 2011). In each of these cases, the two approaches show that the e-shopping experience is a powerful factor in website differentiation, which is a source of significant value creation for the user. In this special issue, Bœuf and Sénécal put forward a conceptual model, focusing specifically on the cross-border online shopping experience, which takes the following determinants into consideration: •• the quality of the online foreign retailer’s product range; •• familiarity with the foreign retailer; •• language ability in the language of the foreign retailer; •• confidence in the online foreign retailer; •• the secondary costs of a cross-border purchase (waiting time at the border, exchange rates, product return policy, guarantees, etc.); •• ethnocentrism that negatively impacts the propensity to buy abroad; •• sensitivity to interpersonal influence, which determines the propensity to conform to the expectations of others in buying decisions. … To the ‘ubiquitous paradigm’ of the shopping experience As Antéblian et al. state in their contribution, ‘knowing that today’s consumer is multi-channel, cross-channel or trans-channel,6 partial to free riding (or channel-hopping among the available channels (Bezes, 2012)), we can imagine for a single retailer or a single category of products a sort of ‘meta shopping experience’ made up of all the experiences in the various channels available (physical and virtual) that the consumer uses to optimize the utilitarian and/or hedonic value obtained from the experience. ‘Retailers’ physical and virtual networks are resources that are made available to the consumer. Whether for consumers seeking information or making a purchase, the e-commerce sites and the physical network should be complementary, each channel should contribute to the total value of the shopping experience’ (Antéblian et al., this issue). Today’s market therefore leads us to rethink the basic paradigm of the shopping experience in a multi-, cross- or omni-channel perspective (CollinLachaud and Vanheems, 2011) as much for socioeconomic reasons (the ‘liquid consumerocracy’) as due to the commercial strategies implemented by retailers. Beyond the cross-channel shopping experience, a ‘ubiquitous’ shopping experience seems to be emerging. Ubiquitous commerce means being able to buy goods and services Anytime, Anywhere and on Any Device (ATAWAD) (Derycke et al., 2005; Lemoine and Badot, 2010; Richard Lanneyrie, 2010). Towards a ‘liquid consumerocracy’? For Sansaloni (2006), consumers seem to be increasingly guided by the ‘I consume what I want, when I want, and where I want’ attitude. For Maffesoli (2009: 41–42), ‘the circumnavigation that is an essential quality of the internet is creating new ways of being and is profoundly transforming the structure of social ties’. We are witnessing the emergence of a ‘consumerocracy’ – a veritable democratization of innovation and production7 (Von Hippel, 2005) and of shopping, whose advanced form is consumer-to-consumer commerce (C2C) and alternative forms of commerce such as community-supported agriculture, direct selling by producers, bartering, with all of this being electronically facilitated through online social networks (Merle and Piotrowski, 2012). It is suggested that this ‘consumerocracy’ is the commercial manifestation of the ‘Powershift society’ prophesied by Agamben (1990) and Toffler (1990), where citizen/consumers have become ‘whatever singularities’, carrying frustrations about the instituted forms of the political, social and commercial spheres, and seeking a Downloaded from rme.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on May 17, 2016 8 Recherche et Applications en Marketing (English Edition) 28(3) way to self-manage their relationship to society, mainly through the internet (Badot and Cova, 2003; Cova and Carrère, 2002). This ‘consumerocracy’ would allow ‘miniature solidarities’ that the macroeconomic order is no longer able to provide (Maffesoli, 2009). It is interesting to see how much the commerce and services channelled through social media come together with the ‘solidarity economy’ (Badot et al., 2013). Furthermore, for Virilio (2009), this ‘consumerocracy’ is liquid (Bauman, 2005) because it is based on an economy of flows, takeaway, geographic emancipation, speed and agility. Gradually replacing a ‘destination-based’ economy, the transit and takeaway society is emerging, a worldwide phenomenon rooted in the mobility of ideas, resources, goods and bodies, but also ever increasing inequalities. In the sphere of commerce and retailing, according to Moati (2011) this is a ‘post-Fordist revolution’ that consists of the dematerialization of commerce into small formats and scattered concepts, calling into question the key foundations of the retail sector’s economy: retailers’ efforts to reach a ‘critical threshold’ (in terms of surface area, volume, sales, network size, etc.) and ‘one-stop shopping’ formalized by supermarkets and big box retailers. Indeed, the ‘dispersion’8 of socioeconomic structures (blended families, work mobility, multiple professions, etc.) combined with the expansion of desires and the feeling of frustration at the increasingly limited resources available to satisfy them9 seems to lead necessarily to the provision, along consumers’ itineraries and schedules, of small services that are functional and designed to fit consumer habits as closely as possible and/or small affordable pleasures to offset the worries and cares of daily life (Miller, 1998). Furthermore, consumers seek to reduce the time constraint (home–work commute, utilitarian errands, for example) in order to maximize the time devoted to leisure (Moati, 2011). In this regard, with a few rare exceptions (mega shopping centres like the Aeroville project outside Paris come to mind), the shopping experience is not oriented around a destination, where the shopper deliberately goes out to have a ‘shopping experience’ in a gratifying retail space (Bonnin, 2002), but along the path of the consumer’s physical and mental movements. From the ‘cross-channel shopping experience’ to the ‘ubiquitous shopping experience’ Like Badot and Navarre (2002), Collin-Lachaud and Vanheems (2011) find that we are witnessing a growing intermingling of retail channels because companies are offering their customers browsing space that is both virtual and physical. The ‘cyber-shopper’ (Vanheems, 2009) weaves online and offline experiences together, completes an experience begun online in a physical shop (Belvaux, 2004) or goes there to prolong an experience initiated in the retailer’s online space. The reverse is also true, a decision-making process can be started offline and completed online. This back-and-forth between a retailer’s electronic and real spaces can be multiplied as much as the cyber shopper wishes. For Antéblian et al., the excitement of the consumer’s multi-channel quest meets an experience-seeking need when it is accompanied by a feeling of being immersed in the abundance of accessible information, both virtual and real. In this view, the ‘cross-channel shopping experience’ can take different forms: •• The ‘brick and press’ experience (shops + smartphones): when they are in a retail location, shoppers use their smartphone to find information about the product they have in front of them and to compare prices by surfing specialized websites. Smartphones can also be used to download discount coupons. To gauge the potential of this option, note that in 2011 France had 23.6 million mobile internet users aged 11 and over (Médiamétrie, 2012) and that 40% of smartphone owners used them in stores (Fevad, 2013). The ‘brick and press’ experiences are accessible in large chains as well as independent retailers (Badot and Lemoine, 2010). •• The ‘click and collect’ experience (e-commerce + urban micro-logistics): consumers buy a product online wherever they happen to be and then collect it at a parcel pickup location near their home, workplace, in an Downloaded from rme.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on May 17, 2016 9 Editorial ‘intelligent car park’ or during their commute (e.g. DHL service points or Cityssimo).10 •• The ‘web to store’ experience: the customer makes a purchase online and then goes to pick up the order at one of the retailer’s stores. In this way they can get additional advice or have a gratifying experience in atmospheric or relational terms and the retail outlet may benefit from additional sales. There are also initiatives such as that of the Socloz.fr platform, bringing together several retailers and enabling customers to reserve products and then buy them at the retail outlet. •• The ‘store to web’ experience: there are two possibilities here. In the first, consumers go to a store to look at products and get information about them before buying them on the website of the same retailer or any other website. In this case, the ‘store to web’ model may prove to be an economic disaster for the store visited, especially considering the very high property costs involved. To cope with ‘showrooming’ behaviour, Lee and Seo (2006) put forward a new business model for physical stores. Today, sales staff spend time advising customers who end up going online to buy the product recommended by the sales assistant because they found a better price than in the retail outlet. The sales staff are not compensated for their expertise and advice because they lose the sale. The authors therefore recommend shifting the way the transaction’s value is distributed: the retail outlet should focus on giving advice (it would show models, but no longer sell them and therefore no longer carry any inventory). When consumers want to buy the product recommended, the sales staff refer them to a marketplace that they have an arrangement with. The sales staff are compensated for their advice and for guiding the consumer right up to the moment of the purchase. All of this is done in complete transparency. Although profit margins are lower, the authors explain that this could be offset by not carrying inventory and not spending money on marketing. The other type of store-to-web experience resembles the long-standing strategies of flagship stores analysed by Filser (2001) in which consumers are attracted to the retailer’s extraordinary enchanted stores, often found in prestigious locations, in order to build enthusiasm for the brand and its products, even if they are purchased on its website. In this second type, the business model is based more on investments in brand management than on effective direct selling. Nevertheless, a bolder view of the future would have us imagine even more fluid, more mobile shopping experiences: ‘ubiquitous shopping experiences’ through smartphones, phablets, Google Glass, or future interfaces inspired by Wii. These shopping experiences involve: •• applications inspired by Shazam (that can recognize a piece of music in the street and let the user to buy it on iTunes in just two clicks) such as Amazon Recognize, which enable users to buy products on Amazon. com from photos taken of inspiring products encountered during one’s travels; •• multiple social networks such as Zaarly that organize the information, advice, analysis, evaluation, sale, barter, and delivery of all kinds of goods and services;11 •• applications such as Around Me (that find nearby services and businesses using geo-positioning; •• a ‘long tail’ of suppliers ranging from large to very small (Anderson, 2007), identified by applications and evaluated on social networks; •• all the retailers or business that might supply nearby or distant ‘ubiquitous shoppers’;12 •• less formatted forms of business possibly originating in the solidarity economy (second-hand stores, thrift stores, consignment stores, Emmaüs, Goodwill, Salvation Army stores, etc.); •• individuals who want to get rid of certain belongings and/or want to increase their income by providing services;13 •• small urban freight distributors (city logistics) that can deliver to ‘ubiquitous shoppers’ at home, at their workplace, along their commute or in situ.14 Downloaded from rme.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on May 17, 2016 10 Recherche et Applications en Marketing (English Edition) 28(3) For example, a woman in the street is excited by a passerby’s handbag and takes a picture of it with her smartphone. Using the digital product databases provided by brands and retailers – those that have agreed to do so – a digital compatibility analysis is done, telling the woman which traditional stores, second-hand stores, consignment stores or nearby residents have this type of handbag for sale (evaluating them) and also giving her the option of buying it, new or used, with two onehanded thumb clicks on her smartphone. Another app will help her find her way by giving her information on transport options and traffic conditions (Lemoine and Badot, 2010). This type of ubiquitous shopping experience is likely to grow in 2014, the year that the number of internet connections by smartphone is expected to exceed that made by PC or laptop.15 No doubt numerous future research studies will analyse the motivations, modalities and consequences of this type of ‘ubiquitous shopping experience’. Their aim will be to analyse how the variables and modalities of the ‘ubiquitous shopping experience’ differ from those of ‘shopping experiences’, ‘e-shopping experiences’ and ‘cross-channel shopping experiences’ and to what extent they are the source of different shopping behaviours. Other research studies will analyse the political economy of these unprecedented cross-channel arrangements, involving new market players and anchored in the perspective of the advanced emancipation of consumers, highly collaborative behaviours, and a holistic and fluid dimension of the shopping experience. Funding This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. Notes 1. A Credoc study on grocery shopping shows that while 15% of French consumers used six, seven or even eight different retail formats in 2005, 24% of them were using between six and ten formats in 2012 (Credoc, 2012). 2. Of the 75% of full-time workers on permanent contracts, only 27.3% have ‘traditional’ working hours. The others (47.7%) work evenings, nights, weekends or have variable hours (Lemière and Marc, 2006). 3. Desse (2010) analyses how urban sprawl combined with the multiplication of work, business and leisure areas has favoured commuting and travel. In France, the average distance travelled per day has increased from 5km in the 1950s to 45 km in the 2000s (30 km around the home and 15 km for weekend and holiday travel). 4. See Ouvry (2013). 5. In this approach, the influence of a website’s atmosphere on flow or on telepresence has also been studied. For more details, see Charfi (2012). 6.For a distinction between multi-channel, crosschannel and omni-channel, see the article by Antéblian et al. in this issue. 7. Examples that come to mind are the announced arrival of 3D printers and ‘personal micro factories’ that will be formed by individuals or groups of digital network artisans (de Rosnay, 2013). 8. Le Breton (2004) has identified three criteria to establish a typology of dispersion in France: biographic dispersion (number of changes of - residence and their geographic scope); - daily dispersion (including daily commuting from home to work); - the type of social integration. Individuals belong to several social groups: close family, extended family, work and school relations, neighbours, PTA, social clubs, recurring holiday destinations, online discussion groups, etc. Integration may be compartmentalized (where different social groups are not mixed) or blended. 9. See Moati and Rochefort (2008). 10. See Durand and Senkel (2011). 11. See, for example, the special report in Challenges: 100 Start-up où investir, n° 339, 4–10 April 2013, pp. 44–66. 12. Consumers having a ubiquitous shopping experience. 13. See, for example, the Super Marmite website: www. super-marmite.com 14. See, for example, Centre d’Analyse Stratégique (2012) and Durand and Senkel (2011). 15.According to the American agency, Emarketer, more people will connect to the internet in 2014 using a smartphone than a computer. Concerning mobile internet use in France, 40% of 15–60 year olds have a smartphone; 91% of mobile users keep their mobile handy 24/7; 61% connect every day; an increase is observed in connections in public transport, public places and shops. The main types Downloaded from rme.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on May 17, 2016 11 Editorial of apps that are downloaded are: geolocation (56%), practical info services (54%), news (52%). The three main smartphone uses are: communications (email 74%, social networks 50%), search for information (search engines 70%, maps 59%, location 48%) and entertainment (games 40%, media 34%, videos 34%). 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