The journey’s front runners An investigation into how sportswear retailers employ experience creation strategies to form engaging consumer decision journeys

In modern day retail, the quest for dominance has become increasingly dependent on providing superior customer experience to the competition. In the omni-channel environment, it is no longer sufficient to provide a smooth customer experience that is complete without friction; consumers now expect retailers to create a memorable, personalised experience that cannot be matched by the competition. Sportswear is a significant retail sector to explore in light of this experience creation objective, given that sports retailers consistently top the charts for consumers’ favourite brands and that consumers hold higher brand passion and loyalty to sportswear vis-à-vis other retail sectors. This research took theoretical explanations behind motivations for sports consumption and embedded these within the wider framework of consumer experience in the consumer decision journey. With this framework, this research set out to investigate how sportswear retailers employ experience creation strategies in order to create engaging consumer decision journeys. For the purposes of this study, 8 experts working in the field of sportswear were interviewed. Their responses were analysed using theory-based thematic analysis in order to learn in-depth industry insights into how sportswear retailers consider and implement experience creation into their customers’ decision journeys. Most significantly, this research revealed that sportswear retailers design and employ experience creation strategies to tap into the experiences, emotions, and lifestyles associated with sport, especially if products have a performance element to them. Whilst many retail sectors search for external inspiration to enhance their customer experience, sportswear retailers need not look further than using sports experiences as a guiding principle. Sport is in itself an experience product category, meaning that sportswear retailers have been granted a lucrative experiential foundation around which to design experience creation strategies. Sportswear retailers’ ability to actively create memorable, personal experiences for their consumers could go towards explaining the augmented levels of passion and loyalty involved in sportswear, as well as the increasing integration of sportswear into daily attire.