The physical store provides a shopping experience that can't be replaced by digital means. However, the combination of the two has infinite potential and it's called the phygital shopping experience. In a retail context, phygital marketing is about finding the right amount of digital technology to incorporate into the store, to offer the shopper a unique shopping experience. Moreover, phygital marketing is a recent discipline that lacks practical and theoretical information. This study aims to contribute to the conceptualization of the latter through a netnography, and by linking the practice of phygital marketing to the behavioral science concept which is “the pain of paying.” This expression refers to the negative emotions felt during the process of paying for a product. Thus, a thematic content analysis opens the way to define a competitive advantage through phygital marketing.
Top1. Introduction
The physical store provides a shopping experience that can’t be replaced by digital means. However, the combination of the two has infinite potential and it’s called the phygital shopping experience. In a retail context, phygital marketing is about finding the right amount of digital technology to incorporate into the store, to offer the shopper a unique shopping experience. Moreover, phygital marketing is a recent discipline that lacks practical and theoretical information.
By blending digital and physical spaces, Amazon Go's cashier-less checkout model removes traditional payment pain points and financial friction from the shopping experience. We examine how this impacts customer psychology and spending habits—enabling seamless purchases but also potentially “mindless” overspending. Our analysis explores the pros and cons customers identify regarding Amazon Go's automated checkout capabilities, including concerns around data privacy, personalized pricing, and the manipulation of shopping behaviors through intuitive commerce technologies (Bouhtati et al., 2023). More broadly, this case study discusses implications for emerging digitally enhanced stores that seek to influence psychology and shape behavior by reducing payment friction in blended digital/physical retail environments. Despite the extensive research on the consumption experience, the role of the pain of paying in the shopping experience has been overlooked. The POP is the negative feeling or discomfort that arises when people pay for goods and services. This feeling has been shown to have a significant effect on consumers' decision-making, purchase intention, and satisfaction. Therefore, it is essential to investigate the role of POP in the shopping experience to provide a better understanding of consumers' behavior and design effective strategies to enhance their experience.
So, how does the pain of paying influence the shopping experience in the context of phygital shopping, and what strategies can retailers adopt to mitigate its effect and improve consumers' experience?
This study aims to contribute to the conceptualization of the latter through a netnography, and by linking the practice of phygital marketing to the behavioral science concept which is “the pain of paying” (POP). This expression refers to the negative emotions felt during the process of paying for a product. Thus, a thematic content analysis opens the way to define a competitive advantage through phygital marketing. We conducted a netnographic study analyzing online customer conversations about Amazon Go stores across forums, blogs, social media, and reviews. Our focus was on how the cashier-less, automated checkout model removes barriers and pain points around paying for purchases. This in turn may enable mindless spending and unplanned purchases in-store. Our findings suggest the “grab and go” experience strips away psychological transaction costs and payment rituals which typically create natural consumer friction and spending obstacles. By allowing shoppers to simply take items off shelves without formalized checkout processes, Amazon Go appears to eliminate the pain of payment cues that can curb impulsive purchasing and set customer spending boundaries.
To address our research question, we analyze in this paper respectively the theoretical and conceptual framework (1), the methodological approach adopted following our conducted netnographic approach (2), the results of the empirical study and the recommendations and implications of the research (3).