Integrating physical and digital retail through adaptive experience and infrastructure blending

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented disruption to the global economy, supply chains, and our social lives. The retail industry was one of the hardest-hit sectors. While people could no longer visit brick-and-mortar stores, they turned to digital shopping and e-commerce scaled to new heights. In the aftermath of the pandemic, these two conflicting environments – the physical store and the digital space – are now being holistically integrated to create an enhanced customer experience. Retailers need to explore how to effectively blend physical and digital infrastructures by adapting them across their customer and employee journeys. With this research, we present a design-based management approach to explore how to achieve this experiential and infrastructural integration.