Virtual Environment as a Space of Shopping Center Customer Engagement

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of the article is to identify online customer engagement in shopping centers (SC). Design/methodology/approach: The research was based on secondary and primary sources. The secondary sources are the subject literature, while the primary sources were obtained through netnographic research carried out on the basis of the analysis of affiliate pages of the Facebook social platform and the Google review platform of the 25 largest Polish shopping centers. Findings: The frequency of publishing posts by shopping malls and areas of customer engagement were identified. The research results show large differences between shopping centers in terms of customer engagement in a virtual environment and identify areas of customer engagement in shopping centers on the internet. Research limitations/implications: The authors of the article are aware of the limitations of their research: the analysis of statements in social media does not have to overlap with oral statements in an offline real environment. Moreover, the research results presented should only be referred to the environment of Facebook and Google. However, the variety of social media is very large, and according to the literature on the subject, the type of medium can have a large impact on the CE phenomenon. The research could be expanded by making the analysis of the type of content published by shopping centers (e.g. news, entertainment posts, shopping posts, etc.), by dividing them into categories and drawing attention to the relationships between the type of content published and the level of engagement. It could also be interesting to identify the relationship between the level and areas of customer engagement and the generation of the shopping center. Originality/value: The analysis presented in the article is of great cognitive importance. As far as the authors of the article know, this is the first publication on the engagement of a shopping center customer. The obtained results may be helpful for managers of shopping centers: they draw attention to the scale and particular areas of this phenomenon