Customer Journeys in Fashion

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Frontmatter

2. 1. Introduction

   Anthony M. Kent, Anne Peirson-Smith, Yuri Siregar

   Abstract

   Fashion is one of the most dynamic industries, being characterised by the distinctive design of its products, a vast global supplier network, speed to market, branding and sub-branding and extensive distribution channels. In this chapter, customer journeys are defined as an ongoing customer experience with a firm during the purchase cycle across numerous touchpoints (Pizzutti et al., 2022). During the journey customers will encounter many physical, digital and experiential touchpoints with the brand, which require careful management. These contribute to customer decision-making in three stages, pre-purchase, purchase and post-purchase, centred on the customer's experience and integrated across all distribution and communication channels. Increasingly, the journey is typified by choice, time compression and mobility, which raise questions about customer agency and control but also consumption and sustainability. Such characteristics have led to a re-assessment of the linearity of the stages to describe and theorise more circular and alternative customer journeys that account for social, technological and temporal changes. The chapter concludes with an overview of the organisation of the book in three sections that explore customer journeys through the perspectives of management and customers and finally the themes of convergence, sustainability and ethical journeying.

3. Fashion Journey: Channel Management from Producer and Retailer Perspectives

   1. Frontmatter

   2. 2. Physical Retailing

      Anthony M. Kent, Anne Peirson-Smith, Yuri Siregar

      Abstract

      This chapter begins with an assessment of the place of the physical store and its location in the customer journey. For many customers, its attractiveness as a brand touchpoint is determined by both convenience and accessibility, which contribute to their decision-making at each stage of the journey. Different store formats, from department stores to pop-ups offer a range of experiential and physical touchpoints that begin with the exterior of the building and extend into its internal design and spatial configuration. Store atmosphere makes an important sensory contribution to the customer journey, while customer service and instore technologies also contribute the servicescape. The chapter continues by considering the impact of environmental sustainability on customer behaviour, the ways in which stores and their touchpoints can become more sustainable and their effect on the customer journey. Slower journeys in response to the immediacy of fast fashion are envisaged and localism is explored as a further dimension of sustainability and convenience.

   3. 3. Digital and Online

      Anthony M. Kent, Anne Peirson-Smith, Yuri Siregar

      Abstract

      The focus of this chapter is how the journey is influenced by the management of digital media. For the fashion customer journey, management has to create engaging and convenient access to products while using digital data capture and customer information to create personalised fashion journeys. Machine learning, image recognition and 3D visualisation technologies provide online consumers with a smarter shopping journey such as providing advanced image/product searching and personalised styling feeds. Through customer insight analytics, online players sharpen their business decisions to offer the right products through the right channels and touchpoints. Continuing this digital theme will be a discussion of emerging digital technologies such as AI (Artificial Intelligence) and AR (Augmented Reality) as means of influencing consumer decision-making. In the fashion sector, site design and atmosphere, functionality and experience of online sites and apps, including fulfilment and back-office and delivery/returns are particularly significant at the post-purchase stage. In keeping with other sectors, the delivery, and in the case of fashion, the returns process is significant.

   4. 4. Social Media and Social Commerce Disrupt the Fashion System

      Anthony M. Kent, Anne Peirson-Smith, Yuri Siregar

      Abstract

      This chapter focusses on the evolution and application and management of social media sites in the context of developments in social commerce as the interactive site for seller-customer interactions whether B2B or B2C or C2C throughout the fashion shopping journey across all of its stages. The chapter starts by providing a background discussion on social commerce, before turning to the evolution of social media channels, platform usage and service management from the producer perspective in the specific context of the fashion industry. The chapter demonstrates the complexity of social media channels and the problems of managing communications across multiple platforms and media while addressing each stage of the customer journey. Fashion brands in particular attract the close of attention of online communities and social networks that influence their brand communications. The chapter continues by arguing that social media platforms are one of the most targeted, disruptive, and powerful ways to reach, influence, enhance and manage the fashion customer journey as both a process and an experience (Edvardsson et al., 2005), from initial customer thoughts and awareness about a brand or a fashion collection to post-purchase and considerations of future purchases.

   5. 5. Consumers on the Move

      Anthony M. Kent, Anne Peirson-Smith, Yuri Siregar

      Abstract

      The chapter centres on how individuals use mobile technologies and communication devices during the customer journey. In parallel with the rapid progression of technology, mobile consumption and commerce (m-commerce) have now become central to many customer journeys. They are so commonplace that the very concept of ‘shopping on the move’ is one of the defining features of personal, social and commercial life in the twenty-first century. Consumers move across channels in a seamless journey that combines images and text in the process of information gathering, communication and purchasing. Their mobile devices are the primary means to merge the virtual with the real world, enabling users to continue their retail journey at their own pace through online connectivity, interfaces and apps. However, the chapter demonstates that the very fluidity of the journey holds implications for personal identity and consumer behaviour.

4. The Customer Journey: A Consumer’s Perspective from Awareness to Advocacy

   1. Frontmatter

   2. 6. Entertainment-Led Content

      Anthony M. Kent, Anne Peirson-Smith, Yuri Siregar

      Abstract

      This chapter focuses on the importance of entertainment in brands/marketing media and channels for consumers. An engaging story relies on a good plot, well-developed characters, conflicts and resolution. Most consumers want entertaining material that is eye-catching, original and relatable. Consumers are still seeking the same characteristics that any excellent tale has, but without the sense that it is artificial or fabricated. Authenticity is paramount. Furthermore, as the Internet and digital technologies become more accessible, brands must try to generate content that can attract consumers’ attention and lead to longer-term engagement and connections. The chapter concludes with an exploration of how brands should embrace this shift in content consumption by adjusting their tactics to produce tales that resonate with their target audience.

   3. 7. Co-creation of the Journey

      Anthony M. Kent, Anne Peirson-Smith, Yuri Siregar

      Abstract

      The customer journey has traditionally been in the hands of the producers, who have sought to understand and manage customer behaviour as a value-creating activity by curating the selling environment. However, these retail routes and relationships have seen a change in the type and level of engagement with fashion and lifestyle consumers, to one of greater collaboration, in which consumers were first seen as more active co-consumers or ‘prosumers’ in a co-producing journey and later as co-creators of products, services and experiences driven by lived experiences and transactional dialogue. Co-creation represents a move away from a company-centric approach to the customer journey by highlighting a shared process of “creation” among actors. Ramaswamy and Gouillart (2010) define co-creation as the process of developing systems, products or services through collaboration with clients, managers, employees and stakeholders that all have an interest in the company. Some brands/companies build engagement platforms to engage consumers in valuable memorable experiences around the product, for example, Apple turned its stores into community focused “town squares” Apple Union Square or Apple Grove to showcase products in an inviting and inclusive way (Future Stores, 2024) to stimulate and accommodate interaction with consumers signalling the shift from a service mindset to an experiential mindset and defined value driven by human experience rather than service processes. These changes have resulted in a recalibration of power and control in the retail journey as consumers become more knowledgeable and powerful in the product design and retail process, imposing their unique personal direction on the journey driven by needs and wants and realigned values. This chapter examines the customer journey from a co-creating perspective and takes a critical position on problems of power and control between the various intermediaries located across the fashion value chain who facilitate the retail process.

   4. 8. Alternative Journeys

      Anthony M. Kent, Anne Peirson-Smith, Yuri Siregar

      Abstract

      As discussed throughout this book, the customer journey is no longer evidently linear and easily predicted. With so many media and channels that can be used as a path to purchase, not only has the customer journey become longer, but it has also adopted multiple functions. People use branded channels also to interact with brands and others, to be entertained, to be informed and have many other objectives. Clearly, branded channels are not used only for shopping. This phenomenon suggests that consumers have a higher sense of awareness and these purchase decisions are not dictated by brands.

5. The Customer Journey: Key Themes, Insights and Directions

   1. Frontmatter

   2. 9. Convergence

      Anthony M. Kent, Anne Peirson-Smith, Yuri Siregar

      Abstract

      In the complex world of fashion consumption, the customer journey has become a subject of more intense research interest. Previous chapters have examined the evolution of customer journeys and the contribution of consumers, organisations and the broader environment in which the journeys take place. They have demonstrated how the customer journey is becoming increasingly complex and dynamic, with more touchpoints between brand and consumer and changes in consumer decision-making. This chapter argues that they remain anchored in a twentieth-century management paradigm and proposes that a broader approach to understanding customer journeys is required.

   3. 10. Ethics of Journeying

      Anthony M. Kent, Anne Peirson-Smith, Yuri Siregar

      Abstract

      In recent years, the ethical problems that arise from digital technology, media and data have become more apparent, especially in the acquisition of personal data, how it is processed and used. As branded distribution channels and social media merge, so the opportunities for personal data capture increase. While data is used to benefit customers by personalising their communications, products and experiences, they also lead to problems of privacy, permission, bias and data security. A customer journey itself is characterised by movement, it is not a static, single event. During the journey, a customer can encounter many touchpoints that enable brands to gather a wealth of data and second, problems of surveillance and digital ‘stalking’ that can occur while progressing through the journey. Digital identities are created but are also open to unauthorised access, hacking and misuse. Misrepresentation, scamming and fake goods can appear throughout the journey from social media posts and stories to products and brands, so that truth and falsehood become more difficult to define and apply. These form the dark side of the journey and consumers have needed to be more vigilant and informed about these dangers. But little is known about how their concerns influence the fashion shopping journey through its different stages. This is significant in the fashion journey, which with its global connectivity and level and frequency of engagement with consumers, creates many ethical dilemmas. The lack of regulation and variation in policies towards data use and storage across different countries and continents contributes to the poor definition of ethical problems and how best to deal with them. It remains unclear which international bodies should regulate and control the use of data and how this could be achieved, given the diversity of geo-political entities, commercial practices and cultures that are engaged with data processing.

   4. 11. Sustainability and Customer Journeys

      Anthony M. Kent, Anne Peirson-Smith, Yuri Siregar

      Abstract

      The dimensions of fashion consumption and sustainability will be mapped in this chapter to include motivations, drivers and outcomes from pre- to post-purchase stages, involving producers, consumers and policy makers. The chapter will question why, when and where are sustainable journeys activated; which are the most used channels for the consumer journey? Does intention and awareness always translate into purchasing behaviours? At what points on the journey can sustainable choices be made? What do consumers understand by a sustainability journey and what are the range of associated definitions? How important is transparency? Are all sustainability journeys the same or how do they diverge and why? Do demographics, gender or culture affect the journey? What is the future of the consumer journey regarding sustainability regarding online and offline engagement? The theoretical focus will critically examine fashion consumption habits set within the circular economy and will interrogate the sustainable use of resources in fashion shopping habits during the customer journey across the real and virtual sites of fashion consumption.

   5. 12. Conclusion

      Anthony M. Kent, Anne Peirson-Smith, Yuri Siregar

      Abstract

      Community, NGO’s and brand initiatives will drive more responsible wardrobe management through the rapidly popularising care and repair cafes and schemes. In these post-consumer contexts, knowledge is shared in social settings and garments are brought back to life or repurposed, sold, gifted and exchanged for their renewed use, aesthetic or social values (James et al., 2025; Peirson-Smith et al., 2025).

6. Backmatter