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The Impact of Supermarket Layouts on Female Shopping Behavior: A Spatial Configuration Analysis

As supermarkets continue to evolve into hybrid spaces for both consumption and social interaction, understanding how spatial design shapes shopper experience has become increasingly essential. This study investigates the impact of supermarket layout—specifically free-flow configuration—on female sho...

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Main Author: Fahmy, Yara
Format: Thesis
Published: AUC Knowledge Fountain 2026
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access_status_str Open Access
author Fahmy, Yara
author_browse Fahmy, Yara
author_facet Fahmy, Yara
author_sort Fahmy, Yara
collection Thesis
description As supermarkets continue to evolve into hybrid spaces for both consumption and social interaction, understanding how spatial design shapes shopper experience has become increasingly essential. This study investigates the impact of supermarket layout—specifically free-flow configuration—on female shopping behavior within the New Cairo context. Recognizing women as primary decision-makers in household purchasing, the research adopts a gender-informed lens to uncover behavioral patterns, navigation preferences, and layout perceptions. Employing a mixed-methods approach, the study integrates macro-scale online surveys (N = 173 female shoppers) with micro-scale data, including behavioral observation and path tracking of 65 female shoppers, post-shopper interviews, and spatial configuration analysis using Visibility Graph Analysis (VGA). Statistical techniques are employed, including ANOVA, cross-tabulation, correlation, and regression, to examine associations between spatial attributes and shopper behavior. A comparison of potential movement versus actual movement highlights how spatial configuration influences shopper flow. Multiple regression analysis identified through vision and visual clustering coefficient as key predictors of shopper movement, collectively explaining 49.6% of the variance (R2 = 0.495). Based on these findings, a predictive model was developed to estimate shopper presence throughout the retail space. The results advance both theoretical understanding of space syntax in retail contexts and provide evidence- based methodologies for retail layout optimization, confirming that spaces with enhanced visibility and integration attract significantly higher shopper traffic. The study concludes with design recommendations to enhance layout legibility, optimize product visibility, and support inclusive retail environments tailored to female shoppers.
format Thesis
id oai:fount.aucegypt.edu:etds-3608
institution American University in Cairo (Egypt)
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:35:56.457Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from AUC Knowledge Fountain — bepress
publishDate 2026
publishDateRange 2026
publishDateSort 2026
publisher AUC Knowledge Fountain
publisherStr AUC Knowledge Fountain
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source_str AUC Knowledge Fountain — bepress
spelling oai:fount.aucegypt.edu:etds-3608 The Impact of Supermarket Layouts on Female Shopping Behavior: A Spatial Configuration Analysis Fahmy, Yara As supermarkets continue to evolve into hybrid spaces for both consumption and social interaction, understanding how spatial design shapes shopper experience has become increasingly essential. This study investigates the impact of supermarket layout—specifically free-flow configuration—on female shopping behavior within the New Cairo context. Recognizing women as primary decision-makers in household purchasing, the research adopts a gender-informed lens to uncover behavioral patterns, navigation preferences, and layout perceptions. Employing a mixed-methods approach, the study integrates macro-scale online surveys (N = 173 female shoppers) with micro-scale data, including behavioral observation and path tracking of 65 female shoppers, post-shopper interviews, and spatial configuration analysis using Visibility Graph Analysis (VGA). Statistical techniques are employed, including ANOVA, cross-tabulation, correlation, and regression, to examine associations between spatial attributes and shopper behavior. A comparison of potential movement versus actual movement highlights how spatial configuration influences shopper flow. Multiple regression analysis identified through vision and visual clustering coefficient as key predictors of shopper movement, collectively explaining 49.6% of the variance (R2 = 0.495). Based on these findings, a predictive model was developed to estimate shopper presence throughout the retail space. The results advance both theoretical understanding of space syntax in retail contexts and provide evidence- based methodologies for retail layout optimization, confirming that spaces with enhanced visibility and integration attract significantly higher shopper traffic. The study concludes with design recommendations to enhance layout legibility, optimize product visibility, and support inclusive retail environments tailored to female shoppers. 2026-02-10T08:00:00Z thesis application/pdf https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds/2555 https://fount.aucegypt.edu/context/etds/article/3608/viewcontent/Yara_Ahmed_Thesis.pdf Theses and Dissertations AUC Knowledge Fountain supermarket layout female shopping behavior spatial configuration shopper clustering mixed methods visibility graph analysis Architectural Engineering
spellingShingle supermarket layout
female shopping behavior
spatial configuration
shopper clustering
mixed methods
visibility graph analysis
Architectural Engineering
Fahmy, Yara
The Impact of Supermarket Layouts on Female Shopping Behavior: A Spatial Configuration Analysis
title The Impact of Supermarket Layouts on Female Shopping Behavior: A Spatial Configuration Analysis
title_full The Impact of Supermarket Layouts on Female Shopping Behavior: A Spatial Configuration Analysis
title_fullStr The Impact of Supermarket Layouts on Female Shopping Behavior: A Spatial Configuration Analysis
title_full_unstemmed The Impact of Supermarket Layouts on Female Shopping Behavior: A Spatial Configuration Analysis
title_short The Impact of Supermarket Layouts on Female Shopping Behavior: A Spatial Configuration Analysis
title_sort impact of supermarket layouts on female shopping behavior a spatial configuration analysis
topic supermarket layout
female shopping behavior
spatial configuration
shopper clustering
mixed methods
visibility graph analysis
Architectural Engineering
url https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds/2555
https://fount.aucegypt.edu/context/etds/article/3608/viewcontent/Yara_Ahmed_Thesis.pdf
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