DATE

26 January 2025

DATE

September 2024

DATE

26 January 2025

Decathlon’s Store Experience Study

This UX case study investigates how Decathlon’s in-store experience is deliberately designed to influence user behaviour. From the absence of store maps to behavioural nudges like dump bins and product tiering (100/500/900), we explored how layout, signage, and categorisation guide customer journeys.

UX/UX Design

UX Research

Roles

UX Researcher & Behavioural Design Analyst

User Experience, Service Design, Retail Psychology

Tools

On-site Observation, Heuristic Evaluation, UX Metrics Framework

View Medium Article

Designed to Wander

A cinematic UX walkthrough of Decathlon’s physical store, highlighting how spatial layout, product tiering, and behavioural nudges shape the customer journey.

Designed to wander: Decathlon’s Store Experience Study Article

Browsing in Decathlon is about exploration. Unlike stores like Ikea, which guide customers along a fixed, linear path, Decathlon’s layout encourages wandering. Without maps or clear aisle categories, customers must search for what they need, exposing them to a wider range of products. This strategy is supported by carefully placed commercial areas:

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Front entrance of a Decathlon Store

Imagine this: you pop down to your local sports store looking for a pair of goggles for your next swim session. You enter the store, but there’s no map, no “Swimming goggles here!” sign, and endless shelves and bins filled with affordable, everyday items. By the time you check out, you’ve spent three times more than you intended — and maybe even forgotten the goggles altogether.

This experience is no accident. It’s the result of carefully crafted design decisions focused on browsing, choosing, and checkout. These touchpoints are at the heart of any retail store and were the focus of our study at one of Decathlon’s outlets. Decathlon’s store experience is calculated, with deliberate thought behind every aspect — from product placement and layout to visuals and signage. Even the lack of a directory is an intentional design choice.

Rough Floor Plan of a Decathlon Outlet

Browsing

Dump Bins on the left, Promo-wall on the right

Dump bins filled with affordable, everyday items like towels or umbrellas.

Promotional walls showcasing best-sellers at the start of every aisle.
Quick Check Out walls near the exit with last-minute items customers might grab impulsively.

These tactics play on loss aversion, a behavioural principle where people prefer to avoid missing out on opportunities rather than saving money. While this design helps customers discover new products, it raises ethical questions about fairness. Does removing maps and using strategic placements enhance the shopping experience or trick customers into overspending?

The success of this browsing design could be measured by:

The total time customers spend in-store.
The number of sections visited during their trip.
The average number of items in a shopper’s basket at checkout.

Image of product sign and a “500” Indicating this is for intermediate users

Choosing

Once customers find the product category they are looking for, they face the process of choosing. Decathlon simplifies decision-making by categorising products into levels such as:

100: For beginners.
500: For intermediate users.
900: For professionals.

Each product also features price tags with technical details like waterproof ratings or breathability. This approach reduces choice overload, a bias where people struggle when faced with too many options. By streamlining decision-making, Decathlon lowers cognitive load and makes the shopping process more efficient.

Furthermore, a key design choice is the ability to test every product available. From Bicycles to basketballs, you can feel, touch, and try everything the store has to offer. This greatly assists in assuring product choice when choosing and also employs the Endowment Effect which increases the perceived value of a product after trying it, creating an emotional attachment and increasing purchase likelihood by creating a sense of temporary ownership.

The effectiveness of this design could be measured by:

The average time customers spend in a single aisle.
Customer satisfaction surveys assessing ease of decision-making.

This raises another ethical question: should designers focus on simplifying choices to make shopping easier or allow customers to decide without subtle nudges? While simplifying choices benefits customers by reducing confusion, it might also limit their perception of available options, subtly steering their decisions.

Checkout counters full people

Checkout

Checkout at Decathlon is designed to be quick and frictionless, thanks to contactless RFID scanning. Customers can simply drop their items on the counter, and everything is scanned instantly. This system not only saves time but also creates a seamless final impression of the shopping experience. However, combining frictionless checkout with the Quick Check Out walls near the counters could encourage unnecessary impulse purchases.

Measuring the success of the checkout design could involve:

Analysing the average time it takes to complete a transaction.
Gathering customer feedback on the convenience and speed of the process.

Summary

Overall, Decathlon’s store design is highly effective at driving sales and enhancing convenience. However, its reliance on behavioural principles like loss aversion and choice overload raises concerns about fairness and transparency. Does the design genuinely improve the customer experience, or does it exploit psychological tendencies to maximise profits? While some customers may appreciate the convenience and discover useful items, others might feel manipulated into spending more than they planned.

Designers have a responsibility to balance business goals with ethical considerations, ensuring that their strategies build trust and empower customers. Decathlon’s approach is a powerful example of how design can shape behaviour, but it also prompts reflection on whether these tactics serve customers’ best interests or prioritise profit at their expense.

By evaluating browsing, choosing, and checkout through both ethical and practical lenses, we can better understand the impact of these designs and move toward a more balanced approach in retail spaces.