From channels to conversations: leveraging integrated customer data for interactive marketing in fashion retail

Purpose In fashion retail, high product uncertainty for experience goods complicates online purchasing journeys. This study investigates how integrating online and offline customer data transforms this challenge into an interactive marketing capability by focusing on the temporal dynamics of cross-channel engagement and the moderating role of brand loyalty. Design/methodology/approach We use a large-scale dataset from a leading South Korean fashion retailer, capturing 2,174,103 transactions from 800,267 customers across 844 brands. Employing generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation, we model the customer journey as an iterative process. We distinguish between the short-term act of switching and long-term accumulated experience while conducting a multi-group analysis to test the moderating effects of brand loyalty. Findings Results reveal a key temporal dynamic where the short-term act of switching is associated with a lower purchase amount, reflecting transactional friction or price-seeking behavior, yet accumulated experience is positively associated with long-term value. Importantly, the study identifies loyalty as a buffer effect, where high-loyalty customers are significantly less negatively affected by the friction of channel switching, while low-loyalty customers engage in more price-driven, opportunistic switching. Research limitations/implications The study focuses on a single country and industry context, which may limit generalizability. Future research could test the framework in other retail sectors and cultural settings, and extend it to pre-purchase engagement data such as browsing and social media interactions. Practical implications Managers should use integrated online-offline data systems for real-time, interactive marketing. The intervention must be tailored to loyalty: for high-loyalty customers, firms should avoid price discounts and instead offer experience-driven perks like exclusive access or personalized styling. For low-loyalty, price-sensitive switchers, managers should use immediate, price-based interventions like dynamic coupons to convert the sale. Social implications The widespread adoption of integrated customer data, as studied in this paper, raises significant societal concerns. While this deep tracking enables real-time personalization, it creates critical challenges. Society must address the ethical considerations of data privacy, transparency, and algorithmic fairness to ensure that the governance of integrated customer data is managed responsibly. Originality/value The study’s primary contribution is a temporal interaction model that separates the transactional friction from the value of accumulated customer experience. It advances interactive marketing theory by reframing brand loyalty from a passive outcome into an active moderator that facilitates value co-creation by shielding customers from the costs of multi-channel navigation.