1st Edition
Customer Experience in Fashion Retailing Merging Theory and Practice
This text provides a holistic, integrated and in-depth perspective on the growing field of customer experience (CX), in a fashion context.
Merging three core perspectives – academic, creative agency and retailer – the book takes a chronological approach to tracing the evolution of customer experience from the physical store, to omnichannel through channel convergence to consider the future of fashion retailing and customer experience. Beginning with the theoretical perspective, customer experience evolution in a fashion retail context is traced, considering the definition of customer experience, physical retail, the digitalisation of customer experience, omni-channel retail, in-store technologies and envisioning future retail CX. The retail creative agency perspective looks at how to locate and design customer experience journeys, designing harmonised CX across retail brand environments online and offline, responsible retailing and taking a human-centric approach to create visceral, wellbeing-based experiences. Finally, the retailer perspective explores real-life case studies of great customer experience from international brands, including Zara, Nike, Ecoalf, To Summer and Anya Hindmarch. Pedagogical features to aid understanding are built in throughout, including chapter objectives and reflective questions.
Comprehensive and unique in its approach, Customer Experience in Fashion Retailing is recommended reading for students studying Fashion Retail Management, Customer Experience, Retail Design and Visual Merchandising, Fashion Psychology and Fashion Marketing.
Part 1: Theoretical perspectives on retail customer experience. Chapter 1: Customer experience evolution in a fashion retail context: From mono- to omnichannel. Chapter 2: (Re)envisioned future retail customer experience. Part 2: Practitioner perspectives on retail customer experience. Chapter 3: Placing people at the heart of customer experience journeys. Chapter 4: Designing harmonised customer experiences for brand environments. Chapter 5: Creating visceral and human-centric customer experiences. Part 3: Retailer perspective on retail customer experience: Global case studies showcasing customer experience excellence. Chapter 6: Phygital customer experiences. Chapter 7: Sustainable customer experiences. Chapter 8: Visceral customer experiences.
Biography
Bethan Alexander is Reader in Fashion Retailing and Marketing and Research Lead at the Fashion Business School, London College of Fashion, University of the Arts, London. Bethan’s scholarly research interests span Multi-Sensory Fashion Retailing, Customer Experiences Online and Offline, Innovative Retail Formats, Retail Technologies and Future Retailing. Results of this research have been published in various academic journals and books in the fashion, retail, marketing and business disciplines. She champions research-informed teaching and leverages her extensive networks in collaborating with industry and academics internationally. Bethan is a published author, mentor and thought leader. She wrote Part 1 (Chapters 1 and 2) on theoretical perspectives of customer experience, as well as the Anya Hindmarch and Loanhood case studies.
“This is a well-considered and thoughtfully written text providing a much-needed perspective on the nexus between theory and practice in relation to customer experience in fashion retail, a field often lacking in the academic rigour which is addressed thoroughly in this book. It provides the academic criticality of use to students and academics alike in the fields of retail marketing, brand marketing and fashion”.
Professor Liz Barnes, Head of Manchester Fashion Institute, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK.
“Dr Alexander’s book provides a much-needed reference touch-point for both students and those leaping into industry, at a time when the emergence of new technologies, communication paradigms and spaces for brand engagement mean that so many of the traditional rules and codes of customer service in retailing have been widely thrown into disarray”.
Katie Baron, Trend and Foresight Director at Stylus Innovation, UK.
The book 'Customer Experience in Fashion Retailing: Merging Theory and Practice’ brilliantly combines both theoretical and practical knowledge around customer experience in the fashion sector. It gives a holistic and global perspective on this surely specific segment in the retail sector. It is a must read for all involved in fashion.
Dr Katelijn Quartier, Professor, Retail Design Lab, Hasselt University, Belgium.
Dr Alexander’s new work ‘Customer Experience in Fashion Retailing: Merging Theory and Practice’ is a comprehensive retail recipe book for the future. Leveraging her decades-long experience in the space, both practical and academic, Dr Alexander lays out all the ingredients necessary to understand and contemplate retail of the future, one that puts the consumer right at the heart of the experience.
Michelle Poole, Brand President, Crocs.
