The Shift from Financial to Non-financial Measures During Transition into Digital Retail – A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Researchers in the retail domain today propose that, in particular, complex and non-financial goals such as 'customer experience' represent the new imperative and leading management objective in the age of Digital Retail, questioning the role of conventional financial measures such as revenue. However, there is no evidence in research showing the corresponding and necessary shift from financial measures to nonfinancial measures as subject of interest in recent years. This article aims to reveal the development of financial versus non-financial metrics used in retail research in the last ten years and thus highlight the transition from conventional retail into Digital Retail from a metrics perspective. A systematic literature review, conducted on the basis of 80 high quality journals, serves as the research method of choice and sheds light on the various range of metrics used in the last ten years of retail research. More importantly, the results still show a major focus on financial measures despite indicating a rising awareness of non-financial, more complex and intangible measures such as 'customer experience' or 'customer satisfaction'. While this finding supports proposed shift towards non-financial measures in current retail research in one side, it also shows a lack of research focusing on non-financial objectives in retail, in comparison to financial measures.

Scenario-Based Requirements Elicitation for User-Centric Explainable AI

“…Digital platforms in retail and banking have enabled customers to experience convenience through personalization and tailored technologies for shopping and performing transactions [1][2][3][4]. However, the convenience is also accompanied by the danger of frauds [5,6].…”

Visualising Trade-offs of Objectives in Omnichannel Management: A Mental Model Approach

“…Of course, conflicting goals are true for any business in general; however, in an omnichannel context, realising customer experience is of particular importance as the customer is the core of any activity out of an omnichannel strategy (Gademann & Brandt, 2016). This is also evident through an increase in the role of "customer experience" as a concept of interest in recent retailing research (Cakir et al, 2019). More importantly in this context, "channel integration" is key to align the above-mentioned objectives.…”

“…Customer experience developed to the most critical aspect in the retail industry today (Brynjolfsson et al, 2013;Piotrowicz & Cuthbertson, 2014;Verhoef et al, 2015) and represents the leading management objective (Lemon & Verhoef, 2016) as well as is a strategic objective of non-financial nature (Cakir et al, 2019). It is defined as "a multidimensional construct focusing on a customer's cognitive, emotional, behavioural, sensorial, and social responses to a firm's offerings during the customer's entire purchase journey …" (Lemon & Verhoef, 2016, p.71).…”

“…Channel integration is key to achieve omnichannel retailing and seamless transition across channels (Bijmolt et al, 2019). Following an omnichannel approach can be beneficial as studies show that channel integration is positively related to retail performance (Pauwels & Neslin, 2015;Cao & Li, 2015)once realised.…”

Omnichannel Value Chain: Mapping Digital Technologies for Channel Integration Activities

“…Retail sector is experiencing an influx of innovative methods and technologies to enhance and reform the customer experience [15,64]. Along with this influx, there has been a huge change in the information technology (IT) provision, technology cost, and access to technology.…”