Phygital describes a connected customer experience across physical and digital settings. In email marketing, email can help continue an experience that began in a real-world place or interaction—but an email campaign by itself is not phygital. For example, someone might scan a QR code at an event, visit a useful page or sign up, then receive an email that carries the interaction forward.
What does phygital mean?
Phygital combines physical and digital interactions in a connected experience. Wided Batat’s customer-experience framework focuses on how people move between those settings while receiving continuity in value. That makes phygital more than simply using several channels: the interactions should relate to one another and serve the customer’s journey. The term is not used consistently across the literature, so it is best treated as a useful framework rather than a universally settled operational definition. Batat’s phygital customer-experience framework discusses the concept.
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How can email be part of a phygital experience?
Email can be one touchpoint in a broader sequence of brand interactions. A 2026 article on phygital experiential marketing includes email among the places customers encounter a brand and emphasizes that experiences form through a series of interactions. That supports email’s role as part of a connected journey, not the claim that any email blast is phygital. The 2026 article on phygital experiential marketing provides that context.
A store or event example
- A retailer places a QR code on a store display or event handout.
- The QR code takes the customer to a useful digital page or an email sign-up.
- A follow-up email provides relevant information that continues the experience rather than merely repeating a generic promotion.
Here, the physical display or handout, QR code, digital destination, and follow-up email are connected parts of the example. QR codes are one possible bridge from a physical interaction to a digital destination. This is an illustration of the concept, not a reported or tested campaign case. The source on QR codes describes their use as a phygital technology.
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What makes an email journey meaningfully phygital?
- A real-world connection: Start from a physical moment, place, object, or service interaction—not just a digital campaign with “phygital” in its label.
- A clear transition: Give the customer a good reason to move from the physical setting to a page or email, and make the next step understandable.
- Continuity of value: Make the email relevant to what the customer just did and useful in its own right.
- Low friction and accessibility: Consider whether the customer can access the digital destination easily and whether another route is available if scanning a QR code is inconvenient.
- Measurement across the journey: Decide how to assess the connected experience, including the physical entry point and subsequent digital interactions, without assuming that a particular format will perform best.
These are design goals, not a guarantee of higher conversions, sales, loyalty, or satisfaction.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What does the evidence say about phygital email performance?
The available sources explain the broad concept and support email as a touchpoint, but they do not provide a direct experiment comparing phygital email formats or email-specific performance statistics. They therefore do not establish a particular lift in opens, sales, retention, or customer satisfaction.
Luca Corinaldesi’s 2025 review searched Scopus records from 2014–2023: it identified 81 records and screened them to 46 peer-reviewed articles. The review characterizes the literature as predominantly qualitative, with a focus on European settings and especially retail and tourism. Those figures describe the review’s selection process, not campaign effectiveness, and the findings should not be generalized to every email program. Corinaldesi’s 2025 review describes the scope and characteristics of this literature.
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