Phygital retail

Understanding and optimizing the retail experience to support informed decisions in a context of information overload

Summary

This project analyzes how retail environments—whether physical, phygital, or digital—shape consumers’ psychological processes in a context of growing information overload (an increasing number of choices, technologies, and solicitations).

It aims to identify the design principles for more mindful retail experiences—that is, experiences that are both more conscious and more thoughtful, without overwhelming consumers. The goal is to strengthen consumer trust, improve decision-making quality and well-being, and enhance consumers’ autonomy and ability to act.

Topics to explore

• Cognitive load, information overload, and decision fatigue in digital retail experiences
• Consumer empowerment, perceived autonomy, and trust in retail environments
• The psychology of simplicity: clarity, readability, and reducing complexity in hybrid servicescapes
• Inclusion, cognitive accessibility, and diversity of user profiles in the context of retail digitization
• Stress, confusion, and perceived control in shopping experiences 
• Ethical point-of-sale design: from attention capture to attentional restraint
• Consumer behavior toward persuasive versus assistive retail interfaces

Partner Profiles

This project is aimed at retail stakeholders (retailers, brands, e-commerce companies), consulting firms and innovation/UX agencies, technology solution providers (retail tech, data), as well as industry associations, public institutions, and organizations committed to responsible consumption, all of whom wish to collaboratively develop more mindful customer experiences tailored to the challenges of information overload.