Designing Sensory Communication in the Digital Era: Between Tangibility and Virtuality

This critical review examines sensory communication across physical environments and digital retail channels in the fashion retail sector. It defines “the digital” within a set of e-commerce interfaces, social platforms, and immersive XR/virtual environments, and frames the analysis through semiotics, multisensory perception, material experience, and media theory. The paper argues that current digital experiences complement rather than replace materiality: digital touchpoints amplify access, attention, participation, and decision support, while physical retail remains central for embodied verification and multisensory atmospheres. The analysis concludes with a design framework that maps sensory goals–attention, trust, memorability, desire, belonging to specific touchpoints and outlines compensation strategies and sustainability-conscious implications to consider in the pre-design phases.