Inspiring Customers Early: How Social Online Touchpoints in the Pre-Purchase Phase Drive Customer Inspiration and Purchase Decisions

Christopher Schraml, Matthias Eggenschwiler and Thomas Rudolph
Additional contact information
Matthias Eggenschwiler: University of St.Gallen

No x7dsy_v1, OSF Preprints from Center for Open Science

Abstract: Inspiring customers is a powerful strategy for retailers to increase basket values and unplanned purchases. Based on Social Impact Theory and Shopping Goal Theory, this article examines how the socialness of the pre-purchase journey influences customer inspiration and purchase behavior. Analyzing 1,391 customer journeys, we find that higher socialness of the pre-purchase phase significantly boosts customer inspiration, but only when the touchpoints used are primarily online. Customers who feel more inspired through social touchpoints spend more (+7.3%) and make unplanned purchases more frequently (+24.5%). These findings highlight the opportunities for management to leverage targeted online touchpoint strategies in the pre-purchase phase to drive customer inspiration. To unlock this potential, companies should strategically realign their customer journey and omnichannel management with the goal of fostering customer inspiration.

Date: 2025-05-08
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://osf.io/download/68188406cf29ff98435ef8bb/

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:osf:osfxxx:x7dsy_v1

DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/x7dsy_v1

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in OSF Preprints from Center for Open Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by OSF ().