What does phygital really mean? A conceptual introduction to the phygital customer experience (PH-CX) framework

Although phygital is overly used across businesses, the construct lacks an academic conceptualization. The existing studies define the concept in regards to the marketing channel approach, where phygital is most of the time utilized to refer to multichannel, crosschannel, or omnichannel strategies. This view limits its application and provides only a narrow view of the enormous potential of phygital. Instead, phygital should be viewed as a comprehensive framework for better managing customer experiences. Such a framework guarantees a continuum in value delivery by connecting offline and online offerings. Instead of confining phygital to the channel logic, which has been dominant so far in marketing and retail, we propose the phygital customer experience (PH-CX) to be a new holistic framework that examines the dynamics created by customers’ shifting from physical to digital settings or vice versa. The PH-CX framework identifies the fundamental driving forces, connectors, and pillars of the phygital customer experience strategy to help managers design compelling customer experiences. This is done by fluidifying the journeys of customers from online to offline and inversely, along with capturing consumers’ values and responding to their tangible needs (e.g., their needs for quality) and their intangible needs (e.g., their emotional needs).