Phygital Retailing in Fashion. Experiences, Opportunities and Innovation Trajectories

The digital and technological transformation, whose effects have profoundly influenced the last two decades, and which has recently undergone a sudden acceleration, changed how fashion brands produce, sell and communicate and also how individuals come into contact with fashion, experience, share, and “consume” it. Within this framework, fashion has progressively embraced and incorporated technologies in the retail system opening up to new opportunities in terms of communication and distribution strategies, pushing towards an increased integration between physical and digital systems. In the light of current consumer dynamics, the omnichannel approach is evolving into a phygital one, with the progressive merging of the material and digital dimensions. Retail spaces are undergoing a process of proliferation and integration of channels, multiplication of messages and narratives, increase of services resulting in a new "augmented" scenario. Assuming a design perspective, the paper aims to investigate the nature and the impact of digital transformation in fashion retailing, with a focus on in-store technologies and their relationship with spaces and the customer journey, identifying, starting from the most recent fashion retail concepts, some possible scenarios, and innovation trajectories.