Application of Digital Nudging in Customer Journeys – A Systematic Literature Review

More and more decisions are made on screens. Digital nudging attempts to guide users’ decisions on these screens. One relevant application area of digital nudging are customer journeys. Emerging research on this topic mainly analyses digital nudging on companies’ owned conversion screens (i.e. websites). However, in a multi-channel, multi-owner customer journeys (i.e. own website and search engine or social media) there is increasing need to guide users through various digital touchpoints along all stages of the customer journey. This paper examines existing research on the application of digital nudging throughout customer journeys. The literature review reveals that nudging has been considered in customer journey-related literature, but so far with little explicit cross-referencing to nudging and behavioral economics research. The scientific contribution of this paper comprises a synthesis of existing research, identification of research gaps and a research agenda to study the application of digital nudging along the customer journey.