Across industries, customer experience has become inseparable from orchestrating hybrid journeys, in which physical environments, human interactions, and digital interfaces mutually shape value creation. What many organizations now face is not simply “adding technology” to existing touchpoints, but governing an integrated ecosystem in which experiential continuity, personalization, and engagement must coexist with usability, operational coherence, and ethical expectations. A phygital ecosystem.

In this context, Luca Corinaldesi’s article, “Phygital: a systematic literature review,” published in the Italian Journal of Marketing, consolidates and clarifies what “phygital” contributes to marketing and management scholarship and, crucially, what it implies for practice. Building on Batat’s phygital customer experience (PH-CX) framework, the article extends the framework and provides a helpful synthesis of prior studies, also indicating avenues for further research.

For managers, the relevance of this review lies in the interpretive “map” it offers: a structured way to diagnose where a phygital journey creates value, where it leaks value, and which levers (connectors and experiential pillars) are being over- or under-emphasized relative to the intended experience. It also makes visible why phygital design cannot be treated as universally transferable.

The interview that follows is an opportunity to deepen and contextualize these contributions through the author’s perspective on what the review’s synthesis means for organizations engaging in phygital transformation.

You outline eight principles for designing phygital experiences. How can managers leverage your insights to design phygital experiences for their consumers?

Managers can leverage these insights by integrating physical and digital touchpoints into a consolidated, seamless customer experience, treating the phygital offering as a unified omnichannel system rather than isolated touchpoints. To achieve this, managers should deploy in-store technologies such as digital mirrors only when they align with specific customer needs and experiential goals, while simultaneously humanizing digital interactions through personalized advisory services to build trust. Engagement can deepen via multisensory, haptics-enriched digital content that uses proactive storytelling to transform customers from passive observers into active participants.

Furthermore, managers can pair convenience with customization to support both extrinsic and intrinsic value. Finally, incorporating co-creation opportunities and embedding ethical practices, such as sustainability, can foster stronger emotional connections and secure an enduring competitive advantage.

Your findings show tensions (such as immersivity vs practicality). How should managers handle this trade-off in everyday decisions?

Managers should handle the trade-off between immersivity and practicality by calibrating their strategy to their specific industry. While immersive storytelling can boost engagement in AR-enabled heritage tourism, and hedonic immersion enhances phygital retail experiences, efficiency-critical environments such as banking must prioritize speed and functional clarity.

To navigate this, managers should adopt a customer-centric design perspective, assessing whether a technology primarily supports goal achievement, meaning smooth task completion and satisfaction, or enables goal-surpassing effects, meaning enhancing or transformative experiential outcomes, while avoiding goal-limiting impacts. For example, can embed convenience as “new comforts,” such as mobile checkout or contactless payment, so the journey stays seamless without undermining luxury’s hedonic and status goals. Ultimately, the balance depends on aligning technologies with the sector’s emotional and functional logic.

Your review shows that most phygital initiatives come from retail and tourism. What practical advice would you give managers in less-studied sectors (like healthcare, education, or wellness) who want to adopt phygital strategies?

In healthcare, managers can use immersive tools such as AR to visualize procedures for patient education, which may help reduce anxiety by improving understanding, while ensuring the interaction is accessible and low-effort for vulnerable users, accounting for cognitive and physical limitations and uneven digital skills. However, they must strategically manage these platforms to ensure that digital tools complement rather than replace professional care, preventing destructive practices in which users avoid offline help.

In education, managers should prioritize resilience and inclusivity. Digital twin–based simulations can support flexible hybrid teaching, while virtual delivery can extend participation among remote learners when access barriers are addressed.

In wellness, managers can design a phygital value continuum by connecting real-world activity to wearables and a virtual coach that provides data-driven feedback and weekly goal review.

Copertina: Foto di Pete Linforth da Pixabay