Inside the Mind of the Millennial Shopper: Designing Retail Spaces for a New Generation

Abstract

Challenges facing retailing abound. Retailers and brands are struggling to find new ways to appeal to shoppers. Yet, research has shown that the store's physical design plays a crucial role in whether a shopper enters a store and engages with a brand. The latest generation of shoppers, the millennials, are a powerful cohort representing 75.4 million individuals in 2016 and accounting for $200 billion in annual consumer spending. Although this generation is well known for online shopping, research has shown that the majority (75%) of their retail dollars are still being spent in brick–and–mortar stores. This has generated awareness in viewing the retail store as a tool for brand–building, motivating brands to reevaluate their store designs. This exploratory study seeks to understand the elements of the retail environment that catch the attention of the millennial shopper and their response to them. The methodology employed photo elicitation for data collection using personal smartphones that allowed the millennial participants to combine photography with captions, creating an annotated image bank of retail environments. This image bank revealed tangible and intangible dimensions of the retail experience that offer insights into the mind of the millennial shopper. The identified themes have design implications for both education and practice that can inform the process of creating dynamic, engaging retail environments for this generation.

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