An Action-Based Approach to Retail Brand Engagement

Academics have embraced “engagement” and produced thousands of articles related to the topic. Despite the attention though, the literature remains confusing as to exactly what “engagement” is and what “engagement” is not. A brief history of evolution of academic perspectives on engagement, including both conceptual and empirical works, is provided to demonstrate the ambiguous nature of this topic. This chapter attempts to shed some light on delineating engagement through illustrations drawn from retailer activities that represent attempts to engage consumers. Specifically, the chapter focuses on Walmart's and Amazon's engagement tactics. The activities are classified using a theoretical taxonomy. In the end, the chapter intends to aid future engagement in engagement research.