PurposePrevious studies have considered customers' psychological responses to intelligent retail technology adoption, but have not considered how technology integration systems could promote the relationship between retailers and consumers. Based on the Stimulus–Organism–Response framework, this paper proposes a customer engagement model in a fully intelligent retail environment. The concept of the quality of intelligent experience is constructed from the perspective of customer experience, and the effect of the mechanism of smart retail on the customer engagement relationship is discussed.Design/methodology/approachUsing two surveys, this study analyzes 201 (in study 1) and 321 (in study 2) questionnaires by using structural equation model in partial least square software.FindingsThe analysis shows that the human–machine interaction, intelligent systems and the product content of the quality intelligent experience significantly impact customer engagement on smart retail.Research limitations/implicationsThis research was designed for general retail products, without distinguishing between different product types. Thus, it did not consider the moderating effect of product types.Practical implicationsThe findings enrich the intelligent retail technology field and provide operable guidance to help smart retailers improve customer relations.Originality/valueThis paper proposes a customer engagement model to describe how technology integration systems promote the relationship between retailers and consumers.