The Nature of Customer Experience and its Determinants in the Retail Context: Literature Review

The purpose of this study is to investigate the nature of customer experience (CX) in the context of retail, as well as its determinants in a psychological context. Based on a comprehensive literature review we identified 45 relevant articles. Major results are: First, we identified 41 factors operationalizing CX. Bearing the vast amount of conceptualizations in mind, it follows that today we observe significant diversity in how CX is operationalized. Second, we identified 27 determinants of CX. A customer’s psychology always plays a role during consumers’ interaction with companies. Hence, we classified the identified factors into two categories. First, predominating psychological CX determinants which can hardly be, or not at all, influenced by companies. Second, interactive CX psychological determinants which can only be measured during or after an interaction with a company; moreover, these determinants can, at least partly, be influenced by a company.