The international scene reveals how the world of retail is becoming more and more high-tech: is now increasing the design of digital instruments and platforms able to take the brand experience – once only achievable during the moment of purchase – out of the store. This new deal appears strictly connected to the new characters of current customers, a mix of two overlapping trends: on
one side ‘Generation C’ (as content) with a high interest towards participation and ability of creating and share contents thanks to the high-tech competence; on the other side ‘Generation Me’ with a narcissistic excess and a perpetual search of personalized offers, linked to a desire of making new experiences to share among a certain social group, possibly online.
At the same time the design of the physical points of sales is changing too: the digital component is turning from a mere ‘spectacular furniture’ (so simply aesthetical element) into a central factor of the store experience communicative project.
This paper is meant to give some guidelines about the socio-cultural and communicative dimensions of the online and offline changes, through the analysis of some cases started in Italy. Therefore it can be considered as a sort of map of the new territories of retail in Italy.
