An extensive study of 2348 individuals’ preferences for digital touchpoints sheds light on the perceived importance of websites, email, search engines, chat, social networks, photo and video content communities, discussion forums and blogs. Latent class analysis reveals four distinct segments: anti-digital, anti-social media, majority, and digital channel enthusiasts. A detailed look at the characteristics of the segments, including their technology readiness, internet use, and demographic factors, shows that the greatest difference across the segments lies in their overall technology readiness. We find that functional touchpoints (email, websites, and search engines) are the preferred digital touchpoints among all the segments.

Introduction

Retailers are increasingly transferring their services to digital channels. While for some retailers, digital channels complement conventional brick-and-mortar stores, for other retailers they have enabled completely new business models. Digital channels provide clear advantages for both retailers and customers. Through digital channels, retailers can be more efficient and reach appropriate customers at lower costs (Grewal et al., 2017). For customers, digital channels enable faster service and better-tailored and more beneficial offers, resulting in better-informed decision-making overall (Grewal et al., 2017). However, retailers face the challenge of deciding which digital channels to allocate marketing resources, as there are considerably more channels today than in the past. For instance, approximately 500 million tweets are sent every day on Twitter, and more than one billion hours of videos are watched every day on YouTube. These services are two examples of digital channels, which are defined as digital contact points and media through which individuals and firms interact (Neslin et al., 2006). As with all firms, retailers are in the middle of a digital transformation, and they need a profound understanding of how customers interact with retail environments through multiple channels (Verhoef et al., 2015; Dholakia et al., 2010). This understanding is fundamental to making decisions about how to allocate money and marketing resources between digital channels. Today’s customers switch across different channels and consume content through multiple devices. Therefore, retailers require a deeper understanding than ever before of individual channel preferences and individual touchpoints in a purchase journey. Here, we use the term customer touchpoint to mean “episodes of direct or indirect contact with a brand or a firm” (Baxendale et al., 2015; Verhoef et al., 2015) that individuals can initiate, e.g. through search engines, websites, email or social media.