The impact of channels touched on shopping journeys on customized customer experiences

As technology continues to evolve rapidly, shopping experiences have evolved from traditional to digital. As a result of the diversification of digital channels, the increase in the number of contact points with the use of digital and physical channels together offers customers the opportunity to design their purchasing journeys. The customer journey is a process that includes pre-purchase, purchase, and post-purchase stages. Today's customers prefer to have smooth experiences across channels at every stage. For this reason, companies need to analyze the channels used, contact points, and customer journeys in general terms. This research aims to analyze how they design their shopping journey from the eyes of customers and their experiences in this process and analyze the aspects in which they differ from each other. The sequential mixed method was used in the research, an online questionnaire consisting of two stages was used as a data collection tool in the first part, and the questionnaire was applied to 385 participants. As a result of the survey, 30 people who will participate voluntarily were determined and information was gathered using semi-structured interviews and a customer journey map. The customer journeys obtained because of the collected data were classified according to sectors and compared in the light of contact points, channels, and influencing factors. It was observed that most of the participants needed the opportunities offered by the integrated channel understanding in their shopping journeys. Customer journeys are similar in physical and digital contexts according to the channels they contact with, their social experiences, and the benefits they provide. As a result of the examinations, it has been observed that the customer journeys are not the same, it is seen that each customer journey is unique with the channel transitions, the resulting product, and the factors affecting the purchase.