Co-creating value in retailing: the Eataly case

Value co-creation with customer and its impact on company’s value propositions represent fundamental issues within the SSME perspective, stressing the centrality of supplier-customer interactions in order to develop sustainable service innovation. Thus, in S-D logic, value co-creation is a concept that needs further in-depth examinations as regards two main topics: the alignments between the company’s value proposition and the actual customer value perception; the willingness expressed by customers to participate in the co-creation process. At present, retailing is going through a phase of strong redefinition of business formulas, in order to maximize the opportunities of interaction with customers by developing service solutions that aims at supporting the value creation process. In this paper, we examine an innovative business model in retailing, that interpret this trend. In our work specifically, we consider the Eataly innovative case, a brand-new retail formula that entered the Italian food market two years ago, bridging “retailtment” and “edutainment” concepts. Through this case, we want to pinpoint and better understand the interactions that mostly affect the customer value perception, the areas in which value co-creation can be more effective and consequently the key elements on which retailers should invest while developing new business models in this perspective. In order to fulfill the paper purposes we present the results of a research project, based on a quantitative analysis of 300 questionnaires submitted to Eataly customers during December 2008