Experience has emerged as a research topic in marketing, as a result of the efforts many retailers have made in creating experiential offerings. The academic literature on experience first focused on antecedents and the search for an experience, and on the outcomes of experience, before investigating the actual content of an experience. Retailers’ strategies can be analyzed using frameworks based either on consumers’ participation in the production of the experience or on the extraordinary or ordinary aspects of an experience. The integrating model developed in this research helps to capture the consumer’s shopping experience in virtual as well as physical shopping environments.

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The notion of consumption experience still suffers from a lack of conceptualization. This inductive study, based on the analysis of life narratives, is an attempt to remedy the problem. It identifies four dimensions of a consumption experience. The «praxeological» dimension is action related. The «hedonico-sensorial» dimension concerns a sensorial and thymic evaluation of the context. The «rhetoric» dimension deals with the meaning of an experience. The fourth dimension highlights the relationship with time. These dimensions contribute to a better conceptualization of an experience through remembrance and consequently to closer contact with the client. They can be considered as levers for action to create or strengthen the competitive edge attached to an experience offer.