Studying retail design through a cross-cultural perspective

Abstract

This paper proposes an approach to doing research in retail design, based on theoretical viewpoints and methodologies close to the realm of interior architects and retail designers. In particular, it focuses on the question how to study customer experiences with regard to actual stores’ retail design with the help of the Experience Web. The authors use the Experience Web to discuss the results of a cross-cultural study on customer experiences, whereby the authors, both from their proper cultural background, immersed themselves in twenty-three actual retail environments located in different Belgian shopping cities. We argue that the research method of ‘subjective personal introspection’ (SPI) generates valuable exploratory perspectives on the study of customer experiences, which can be particularly relevant in the early stages of a qualitative, interpretive research process. According to the authors, SPI’s potential lies in uncovering subjective and complex meanings that people attribute to experiences.