Blurring luxury: the mediating role of self-gifting in consumer acceptance of phygital shopping experiences

Abstract

The question of how to maintain allure and exclusivity while digitizing luxury brands is a pressing issue. A potential solution is to launch new retail formats that allow luxury shoppers to blur physical and digital (phygital) channels through mobile devices. Luxury shoppers, then, can use their newfound “powers” to fantasize and indulge in store atmospheres through mobile-mediated activities. To that end, this article investigates whether self-gifting, a hedonic shopper behaviour, can drive the acceptance of phygital shopping experiences alongside status-seeking and fashion opinion leadership (OL). To test this prospect, the research design employs an industry consultation and an empirical study. In Study 1, design thinking is leveraged to develop and pre-screen realistic interaction intentions on technology executives in the apparel industry (N = 50). This consultation yields nine interaction intentions that enable shoppers to build communities, break the rules, and alter the division of labour within retail stores. Then, Study 2 involves collecting online survey data from a luxury panel (N = 321) to test a structural equation model. The results show that status-seeking and fashion OL are positively associated with interaction intentions towards phygital shopping experiences. Meanwhile, self-gifting is a generative mechanism for interaction intentions, which mediates fashion OL and partially mediates status-seeking. Therefore, hedonic experiences such as self-gifting and the support of fashion influencers are critical to advance luxury shoppers towards accepting phygital shopping experiences. Yet, status-seeking is needed to a lesser but still important degree to maintain exclusivity in luxury stores.