The joy
and significanceof serendipity
in retailA report from FaireTable ofcontents

Serendipity and discovery today

5

Serendipitous spaces

12

Serendipitous community

22

Symbiotic discovery

34

Serendipity
anddiscovery
today
The cultural context ofserendipity and discovery,
and what it means for retail“In the rapidly changing world, information isabundant but rather chaotic. The adaptive powerof serendipity allows people to notice treasures
within the wild sea, but only for those who
understand how it works.”
Dr. Quan-Hoang Vuong1
Director of the Centre forInterdisciplinary Social Research

45Serendipity, or happy,
accidental discovery, is afundamental human joy—but it’s also key to retail.
It influences2 how satisfying,
meaningful, and memorable
people find a shopping experience,as well as whether they’re likely
to recommend or repeat-purchasefrom a given retailer. It’s a meansof building anticipation—
something that’s linked toheightened enjoyment3 of the
shopping experience, both as
it unfolds in real time and whenit’s remembered afterward.
It helps frame shopping not asa pragmatic affair to be ticked
off a to-do list but as a creative
achievement4. And today, the way
society practices shoppingis evolving to put more emphasis
on serendipitous discovery: People
are putting more time, effort, andweight than ever into the “seeking
inspiration5” phase of retail journeys.
But despite these values, much of
today’s cultural context—and retailcontext—is lacking serendipity.
On one level, serendipity wasanother casualty of the pandemic—
Covid dealt a blow6 to accidental
discovery, cutting spontaneity andin-person experiences out of the
shopping experience. But beyond

6the plot twist of the pandemic,
the influence of tech has beenchipping away at serendipity forsome time. Algorithms may have
revolutionized some of the morepractical aspects of retail, helping
retailers to better reach andserve their audiences, but whena shopping journey is less of apractical affair and more ofan emotional or identity-building
one (as it often is for consumers),
tech’s efficiency comes at theexpense of the delight people
take in their own discovery. Thisis leading to a growing sense of“algorithmic anxiety7” in society:
There was once excitement about
the product recommendation
economy, but, increasingly,
there’s less joy in it for consumers.

This is a phenomenon noted by cultural
critic Kyle Chayka8: “Besieged byautomated recommendations, weare left to guess exactly how they
are influencing us, feeling in somemoments misperceived or misled
and in other moments clocked witheerie precision. At times, the computer
sometimes seems more in controlof our choices than we are.”This feeling extends across everythingpeople shop for, from the clothes
they buy to the gifts they give to theentertainment they consume. It’sa familiar refrain: Music lovers, forexample, bemoan9 how Spotify’s
extensive song catalog somehow
feels less rewarding, emotional, andpersonal than the accidental musicaldiscoveries that predated the algorithm.
But now, off the back of the pandemic
and with increasing algorithmic anxiety,retail culture is evolving—trying toregain some of the serendipity that it
lost and that people crave. This reportfrom Faire dives deep into the role ofserendipity in retail, looking at spatial
design and sensory stimuli, communityand experiential discovery, and thecollaborative process by which retailers
share their taste with consumers.
Through these approaches, this report
breaks down how independent retailers
are uniquely positioned to offer curated,
community-centric spaces—all inservice of helping their customers bedelighted through discovery.

7

Surprise—a key tenet ofserendipity—
intensifies
people’s emotions
by about 400% .
10

8

9

Timeline
A brief timeline of cultural attitudes towardretail curation and discovery in shopping

Pre-1990s

Main Street browsing

Apart from mail-order catalogs and TV ordering, shopping iscarried out primarily on Main Streets and in local shops,
making it community-centric and leaving space for serendipity.

1992

The heyday of megamalls

Mall of America opens its doors to the public, marking an
era of shopping that foregrounds shopping-as-socializing andcommunal browsing.

2002

The era of online

E-retail had been on the rise for years, but 2002 was the launch of what’s
now Google Shopping (then known as “Froogle11”). E-retail promises theeasiest, most-optimized vision of shopping, meaning that discovery isdriven by the gospel of efficiency.

2018

IRL vs. URL

Brick-and-mortar shops reposition themselves in contrast to e-retail,with a focus on the experiential and social, like piercing pop-ups at
Topshop12 or floristry workshops at & Other Stories13.

2020

E-retail acceleration

Online shopping was already escalating, but it’s powerfully amplified
by the pandemic’s forced closure of shops. E-commerce sales account fornearly 18%14 of all retail sales worldwide, jumping from 13.8% the year before.

Today

Reevaluation

Post-pandemic, there’s a wave of renewed appreciation and nostalgia
for what’s been lost from previous retail culture. This backlash takes
the form of a move away from efficiency as the guiding principleof shopping, toward the values of artisan culture: craftsmanship,
local provenance, handmade items, and an emphasis on discovery.

10

11Serendipitous
spaces
How spatial design and sensory
experiences can enable
serendipity and discovery

Consumers
stay in a store
up to 51% longer inretail spaces withmultisensory cues .
15

14

15

The experience of in-store
discovery starts, naturally, withthe physical space of a shop itself.
In the broadest sense, stores
have the power to put people inthe mood to engage with them—
research16 has found that just being
in a store that makes people
feel at home, through, for example,
soft lighting or relaxing music,
can improve a shopper’s mood.
But the layout, features, and designof a store powerfully affect the retailexperience beyond just making
shoppers feel good. This idea—that spaces affect discovery—haslong been accepted wisdom17
in the corporate world, wherelayouts like the open-plan officehave been designed to spur moreinterpersonal “collisions.”

But this knowledge hasn’ttranslated as much into
the world of retail. Online
shopping struggles with
it: 48% of consumers18
say they’ve abandoned an
e-commerce site because
its offerings were poorly
curated. But in physicalshops, there’s more mind
being paid to the waythat aesthetics, frommerchandise placement16

to lighting and color,can be used not only toincrease the time spentin a store but to make fora better quality shopping
experience.
On a baseline level, this means
following the established wisdomof color and light: Shoppers spend19
more time in well-lit shops, where
they can inspect what they’relooking at, with cooler lighting moresuited20 to shops that require visualclarity (like electronic shops), while
warmer lighting is more suited togift boutiques and high-end goods
stores that angle more at a pleasant,luxurious experience.
But beyond just optimizing for a good
shopping experience, retailers arealso optimizing for discovery.
Those who want to make spacefor serendipity can design “triggerrich environments21”—an ambition
that can be worked into shops ofany size, from “curiosity-teasing”
layouts (for example, book covers
positioned so that they’re partiallyvisible on shelves, taking into accountthe direction people walk througha store) to “featuring imperfections”(for example, having certain items“misshelved,” like an eye-catchingpiece of jewelry draped in the books
or homeware section, to createa cognitive break from the wider
pattern of organization).

Terms to know
Trigger-rich environments
Shop environments that are designed topush people toward more active discovery
by “triggering” their sense of curiosity.

Multisensory cues
Information or stimuli in a store that taps
into senses beyond the visual—so anything
shoppers experience through touch, smell,taste, or sound.

Congruent cues
When all sensory cues (any design choices
relating to visuals, touch, smell, taste, orsound) in a shop work together in service ofa unified theme that represents the shop’s
brand narrative.

17

Beyond this focus on thevisual aspects of design,
the post-pandemic cultureof retail is placingemphasis on the multisensory experience ofbrick-and-mortar shopping.
While e-retail can compete interms of visual stimuli, it’s lacking
in the wider sensory canon ofwhat people feel, smell, and hear.
Research22 has found that adding
multisensory cues—those thatcomplement the visual—positively
affects shoppers’ emotions,purchase behavior, and length ofbrowsing more so than piling on
visual cues. This is in part because
senses like smell, sound, and touch
have more cut-through in a visuallysaturated landscape: Given thatmost shops are rife with visual
stimuli, adding scent in an otherwise
odorless shop, or music and voicein an otherwise quiet space, hasa more dramatic effect. Scent inparticular is well-suited23 for teeing
up exploration and discovery:
Pleasing smells enhance shoppers’
brand memory, risk-taking, varietyseeking, and curiosity.

18

But the holy grail of multisensory
retail is to weave cues together ina way that’s congruous24, meaning
all sensory aspects work together
in service of a unified theme
that represents the shop’s brandnarrative.
In its simplest form, this could
mean a furniture shop considering
what visual, sound, touch, andsmell cues would work in serviceof a theme like home, coziness, orfamily. And at its furthest reaches,it could mean retailers leaning on
multisensory design to create afictional world separate from thereality outside of the shop. Whencongruent cues create their own
narrative atmosphere, they invite
people to inhabit a character
rather than be just a shopper—
like Hunker25 a homeware retailer
whose showroom mimics theatmosphere of a dining room andgoes as far as hosting food anddrink evenings to let shoppers takeon the role of an elegant dinnerparty host.
These congruent cues, whether
low-lift or more complex, are a
powerful way of putting people ina mental state of exploration anddiscovery. Consumers stay up to
51%26 longer when congruent cues
beyond just visuals are added to aretail setting—and this ladders up
into purchase behavior.

CASE STUDY

P.F. Candle Co.,
Los Angeles
Founded in 2008, P.F. Candle Co.
is an independent home fragrancecompany owned and operated
by Kristen Pumphrey and Thomas
Neuberger. The Los Angeles–based
brand’s candles are inspired bymemories and designed to makecustomers feel good while elevating
their spaces. “Scent is a way to tell
your story in design,” said Pumphrey.
“It connects to the emotional partof your home’s design, the partthat you can’t put into words orcolor or form27.”
P.F. Candle Co. has two brickand-mortar locations, with its
flagship located in the Echo Park
neighborhood of Los Angeles. Bothretail spaces are designed to serve
the brand’s “California icon” aesthetic.
Multisensory elements including colorand music are intentionally selected
to align with this identity.

Consistency is key: The brand’s color
palette, or example, carries acrosstheir in-store design, marketing
materials, and website.
Unsurprisingly, scent is the mostimportant sensory element for P.F.
Candle Co. because customers often
visit with the intention of finding afragrance they love. “Feelings andemotion are deeply intertwined withscent—and scientists think the reason
is the proximity between the olfactory
gland and the hippocampus/
amygdala (the parts of the brain
responsible for processing memory
and emotion),” said Pumphrey28.
“Scent is basically hardwired toyour brain and doesn’t require you
to make sense of it to feel it.” At P.F.
Candle Co., customers can discoverfragrance, feel a connection with it,
and then take it home with them.
19

Tips for creating
serendipitous spaces:
First, design for clarity; then, design for curiosity.
Helping people understand how to navigate a space is tablestakes, like having good signposting and sufficient lighting.
Once that’s tackled, there’s room for guiding people off thebeaten path, with curiosity-piquing design that leads people
toward new discoveries.
Think beyond visuals.
Retailers’ impulse is to lean on visual stimuli, but diversifying intosound, smell, and touch enables shops to have a more powerful
effect while avoiding the sensory overload of visual clutter.
Use sensory cues to build a shop’s “immersive world.”
This doesn’t mean using elaborate, expensive, or large-scale
design features—it means starting with a shop’s brand identityand breaking it down into the sensory features that would work inservice of that, whether it’s simple scents, soundtracks, or layoutsthat guide people on a journey.

20

21

Serendipitouscommunity
The role of communityand social experiences inserendipity and discovery

Terms to know
Retailtainment
Experiences that combine entertainmentor leisure activities with the act of shopping,or feature entertainment experiences within
retail spaces.

89% of shoppers
trust recommendations
from people they knowover brand advertising,making peers thebiggest influence on
shopping decisions .
29

Third spaces
Social or community environments that are
separate from the two most common social
spaces of the home (“first space”) and theworkplace (“second space”)—for example,
cafés, community centers, or public libraries.

Social-experiential hub
A location where people gather for collective
entertainment or leisure experiences,like coffee shops or yoga studios.

24

25

The experience of shopping isn’t
just shaped by a store’s physicalspace—it’s shaped by who’s in it.
As retail culture evolves, the social
fabric of shopping is also changing.
Namely, retail is becoming morecommunity-oriented—and throughthis, discovery is becoming more ofa social act.

In the past several years, online
spaces have been the go-to arena
for community-building aroundretail—think the millions of members
in communities hosted by online
platforms like Reddit. But now,
offline retail spaces are increasingly
reshaping themselves to act ascommunity strongholds. This comesthrough in the makeup of Faire’s
retailers: In North America, nearly
25% of retailers who shop on Faire

26

use a single space as both a retailshop and community hub (forexample, a café-bookstore). Thesebusinesses typically source and sell
products that are complementary
to their social-experiential role ascoffee shops, yoga studios, salons,and more.
Looking at the swelling role ofshops as community hubs, there
are two powerful cultural forcesat play, both of which hint at what
shoppers are looking for fromretailers. Firstly, across countries,
the pandemic stoked lasting love forthe community culture that blooms
around local retail. In the UK, 57% of
consumers30 are more likely to shopwith brands that are supporting theircommunities, and 28% would pay
more for local products, while in theUS, 38% of shoppers31 say they wantto support their community andlocal creators.
Secondly, shopping is becoming
more intertwined with community
because people want to consult
their peers when buying. Especiallyin retail spheres that are more
emotional than practical, likeluxury and home decor, people arepaying less heed to what brands
and publications recommend andmore to the opinions and approvalof their communities32. It’s why
peer recommendations are moretrusted than anything else (89% of
shoppers33 trust recommendations
from people they know over brandadvertising, making peers thebiggest influence on shopping
decisions). As Highsnobiety’s
report34 on the new luxury consumer
notes, this suggests that “successful
brands no longer speak to, butrather through, their audience.”
All of this is laddering up into a
retail space where community
is central—both to a shop’s
broad identity and to people’s
experience of discovering products.
It comes through in the movetoward retailtainment: collective
entertainment in retail settings,
from candle-making workshops inartisan decor shops to communal
game viewings35 hosted by sporting
goods stores.
With effective retailtainment, sharedsocial leisure activities are the mainaffair—but products are naturally
dotted into both the atmosphereand the social fabric, letting people
discover collaboratively and withthe real-time feedback of peers.
Retailer and creative collective
The Silver Room angles at this byinviting customers to come infor DJ sets and book signings whileambiently interacting with the
shop’s retail goods.

27

The pandemic spurreda focus on local
community-based shopping,with 65% of shoppers
now preferring to buy goods
and services made in theirhome country .

If retailtainment is a more active andimmediate approach, there’s also
the passive and long-term approachof the “shop as third space.” “Third
spaces” refer to physical areasof a shared community beyond
the “first space” of the home and“second space” of work. These
were traditionally churches, cafés,clubs, public libraries, bookstores,
and parks—but with these typesof locales in decline36, especiallysince the pandemic, retailers have
stepped in to fill the void andhave found space to thrive in the
post-pandemic landscape. Shops
are being framed as purely hangout
spots, where it’s not retail orentertainment that is the main draw,
but the sense of camaraderie andknowledge-sharing.
This concept came into themainstream through big business,when Apple bet the success of
its brick-and-mortar shops on
becoming a Gen Z hangout space37.
But actually, in practice, it’s smaller
shops that are best placed to
execute this. As Edison Chen38,
co-founder and creative director oflifestyle brand Clot, has noted, thekey to shops-as-community-hubs

28

39

is for owners to be in dialogue with
their local community. “The curationof each store is heavily reliant on
local culture and local needs,”
said Chen, who recommends
surveying locals—asking community
members directly what they
love about their hometown andchampioning these points of pridethrough visual storytelling thatreflects the neighborhood, or asking
locals what a community is lacking
and shaping a shop’s social eventsto address those needs.

29

CASE STUDY“ When we think aboutbuilding a place where
people want to be, we findthat it makes a lot more
sense to think about where
somebody wants to spend
their time and not where
they necessarily want tospend their dollars.”Samantha David 40
President of retail developer WS Development

The Silver Room,ChicagoThe Silver Room, a retail spaceand creative collective founded by
Eric Williams in 1997, has been
supporting local designers, hosting
events, and building community
for over 20 years.
The importance of community was a
key driving force behind the buildingof the business. “I wanted to havea space that was at the intersectionof entrepreneurship and arts andculture,” Williams says. This vision
manifested itself in a shop withturntables where DJs can play aroundthe clock, an art gallery where friends
display visual art on the walls, andbook-signing events where writers
speak about their work. The shop

30

also serves as a retail space for selling
jewelry, clothing, bags, and more.
“Folks would come in for an event,and they would buy some jewelry.
They would come in for some jewelry,
and they would see a book signing,”
Williams says. “It was always a space
inclusive of everybody. And the place
is like a home for many people,
especially a lot of young Black
creatives.” People began visiting
the store not just from around thecity but from around the world.
Looking forward, he’s hoping tocontinue doing what The Silver Roomdoes best—creating a safe space forpeople from all walks of life to gather
and enjoy art, community, and culture.
31

“Serendipity is not simply
blindly stumbling onimportant phenomena or
simple trials and waiting
for luck to come—rather,
it requires highly insightfulquestions and searching forsolutions.”
Dr. Quan-Hoang Vuong 41

Director of the Centre forInterdisciplinary Social Research

Tips for creating
serendipitous community:
Give to—and take from—the community.
People want to support shops that are part of the local
ecosystem, and community interplay is the best way
to demonstrate this. This can go both ways: giving support
to the community (stocking local artists, hosting workshopsthat contribute to neighborhood needs) but also asking
things of the community (support, participation, input,
and opinions). This give-and-take shows embeddedness
in the local fabric.
Create opportunities for peer feedback.
Peer input informs purchases more than anything else.
Retailers can lean into this by, for example, creating an
in-store space where shoppers themselves can highlighttheir recommendations and greatest hits.
Enable collaborative discovery.
This can be on a small scale, with refer-a-friend discounts
or two-for-one deals encouraging social shopping—or on alarger scale, with retailtainment events, or shops designedwith appealing hangout spaces, rather than just direct
pathways that guide footfall through.

32

33

Symbiotic
discovery
How collaboration
between retailers andshoppers unlocks discovery

For dedicated retailers,a shop is at its core acollaborative enterprise:
Collaboration begins
between a retailer andthe brands it stocks
and continues between
retailer and consumer.
This philosophy shapes the role ofindependent retailers: Beyond being
curators, they are tastemakers, andin creating a shop, they lend theirtaste to consumers. It’s how Faire
customer Claire Tibbs speaks42
about her store, Humboldt House.
“We are a feminist goods store. We
opened in 2013 more as a vintage
store, and then we’ve slowly evolved
over the years. I have a queer artist
background, so a lot of my friends
are makers, and I started casually
featuring their work in the store.
Over time, that was the thing people
were really excited about.”
This collaborative relationshipisn’t just a hallmark of dedicatedretailers—it’s also a key condition
for serendipity. Research43 has
found that serendipity is a twosided process: an experience thatthe shopper him- or herself has toplay a part in, as well as having theirenvironment facilitate it.

36

Understanding serendipity as acollaborative experience—one that
requires shoppers to find the rightsetting but also bring the right
personal knowledge—sheds light on
its appeal. Psychology (specifically,
the concept of “psychologicalownership44”) tells us that people
feel more invested in things they’ve
put effort into. This explains thejoy of an unlikely discovery: Whensomeone unearths the ideal gift
for a tricky friend or the perfectpiece of homeware to tie together
an unfinished room, it feels like apersonal triumph, and they feel
more invested in their purchase.

But it’s more importantto understand serendipity
as collaborative points
to how discovery canbe used to enable amore fulfilling retailexperience—one thatcan build on retail’s role
as a signifier of identity,
status, and taste.

Terms to know
Psychological ownership
When consumers feel so invested in a productthat it becomes an extension of themselves.

Investment of self
When consumers contribute to the creation
or existence of a product (for example, bycustomization or brand-consumer collaboration
workshops) in a way that makes them feel greater
psychological ownership of that product.

37

The idea of “expressing who
you are”—an individual’s tastes,
preferences, and sense of self—
has always been a core motivatorfor shopping.

But how people project
identity and signify statusis evolving: Self-expression
is increasingly about
having (and flaunting)
not only the right things
but the right knowledge(“being in the know”).
As noted by Dr. Elizabeth
Currid-Halkett45, a consumer
economy expert and professor at
the University of Southern California,
today’s shoppers are less focusedon conspicuous consumption.
“This new elite cements its statusthrough prizing knowledge andbuilding cultural capital,” said
Currid-Halkett.

Because “good taste”
today is more about
demonstrating knowledge,
the ability to discoversomething is as
important as the ability
to purchase it.

38

There’s cultural cachet and status
in the act of digging through retailoptions, putting time and effort
into “the find.” (This is true for
shoppers but also for retailers—
it ties into the premiumizing of“human curated” in an algorithmic
economy: The consideration andcuration put in by both retailers
and shoppers is read as a mark of
distinction and value46.)
In this sense, effective discovery—
that which fulfills shoppers’ desire
for tastemaking—makes people
feel complicit in “the find.” Retailers
enable this by creating opportunities
for shoppers to take an active rolein the discovery process, whether
that’s creating customizable47
products and experiences that let
shoppers flex their taste or including
more information and storytelling48(for example, using color-codedlabels to signify features like
Black-owned, small batch, or
locally sourced to give shoppers
a deepening sense of being “in theknow”). Retailers may also be able
to draw upon a customer’s previous
purchases to help shape their “taste
trajectory” by offering new productrecommendations via personal
shopping appointments or similar
one-on-one guidance.

39

CASE STUDY“Today, the codes of status
are more implicit and more
contextual than they havebeen before. Material
goods have become diluted
in their power to show
status; instead,knowledge is currency.”
Dr. Elizabeth Currid-Halkett 49
Consumer Economy Expert and Professor of Public
Policy at the University of Southern California

Rare Device,
San Francisco
Rare Device is a woman-owned
artist-focused gift store and gallery
in San Francisco, California.
The shop was founded in 2005
by Rena Tom and purchased by
the current owner, Giselle Gyalzen,
in 2011.
For Gyalzen, curation is key to thebusiness. Every object in the shop
has a story. Products are selected
because they’re either handmade,well-designed, useful, beautiful, or allof the above. As part of the curation
process, Gyalzen familiarizes herself
with makers before selling their items
so she can share their stories with
the Rare Device community. “We lovebuilding relationships not only with40

our customers but also withthe artists and makers whomake the things we sell,” she says.
“We are proud to be a part of
supporting the livelihood of
up-and-coming and establishedtalent alike. We also love being able
to give them another platform toshow and sell their work.”
As a result of Gyalzen’s collaboration
with both makers and customers,
Rare Device is an environment
where shoppers have the opportunity
to discover, define, and develop
their tastes.

41

Customers who feel
fully emotionallyconnected to a brandor retailer are 52% morevaluable, on average,
than those who are justhighly satisfied .
50

Tips for creating
symbiotic discovery
Help, but don’t spoon-feed.
This feeling of self-satisfaction is dependent upon shoppers feelinglike they’re exerting their own taste and knowledge. Retailers
can enable this by drawing out shoppers’ sense of agency—
for example, by requiring people to make active decisions whennavigating a store (rather than having a prescribed layout), having
specific products that have to be requested by name, or featuring
products that can be customized or personalized.
Feature storytelling.
Both in brick-and-mortar and online, give people access to in-depth
knowledge about the products and artists that they’re engaging
with. By creating a retail landscape replete with “Easter eggs” of
information (for example, the origin story of a given artisan, theprovenance of local or sustainable materials, or the production
methods of handmade goods), stores can make space for fandom
and let people cultivate a distinctive “taste” through the brands,
artists, and items they choose.

42

43

“Modern status is conveyed throughstorytelling. Brands tell stories of their origin,
heritage, design, craftsmanship, or purpose
and appropriate the stories of people they arecelebrating. Consumers tell stories of how,where, when, and what they bought andthrough those stories provide meaning andcultural and social context to their purchases.”
Ana Andjelic 51
Brand Executive, Author of The Business of Aspiration,and one of Forbes’ “World’s Most Influential CMOs”

44

45

Feeling inspired to bringthese concepts to life?
Help your customers discover unique goods
by stocking your shop with Faire.

About Faire
Faire is an online wholesale marketplace built on the belief thatthe future is local—now more than ever, consumers are choosing
to support local shops over big-box chains. There are millionsof thriving small businesses in North America and Europe alone.
With our global community and the power of technology, Faire is
helping fuel the growth of entrepreneurs everywhere. Learn moreby visiting Faire.com.

Methodology
Faire’s cultural insights report was conducted through researchof reputable secondary sources—existing journalism and cultural
analysis, academic research and peer-reviewed studies, trend
and futures reports, and quantitative evidence—followed byoriginal analysis and brand case studies to illuminate culturalshifts and their applications to retail.

46

47

References
Serendipity and discovery today
1.

Vuong, Quan-Hoang, A New Theory of Serendipity, Sciendo,2022

25.

Hunker2.

Kim, Aekyoung, et al., “Serendipity: Chance Encounters in the Marketplace Enhance
Customer Satisfaction,” Sage Journals, 2021

26.

Helmefalk, Miralem and Hultén, Bertil, “Multi-sensory congruent cues in designing retail store
atmosphere: Effects on shoppers’ emotions and purchase behavior,” ScienceDirect, 2017

3.

Chun, HaeEun Helen, et al., “Savoring an Upcoming Experience Affects Ongoing andRemembered Consumption Enjoyment,” Sage Journals, 2018

27. “What we’ve been up to: February,” P.F. Candle Co., 2023

4.

Chayka, Kyle, “The Age of Algorithmic Anxiety,” The New Yorker, July 25, 2022

5. “Culture Culture Culture”, Highsnobiety
6.

Katter, Alice, “Powering a Culture of Serendipity,” Medium, 2020

7.

Chayka, Kyle, “The Age of Algorithmic Anxiety,” The New Yorker, July 25, 2022

8.

Chayka, Kyle, “The Age of Algorithmic Anxiety,” The New Yorker, July 25, 2022

9.

Larson, Jeremy D., “The Woes of Being Addicted to Streaming,” Pitchfork, 2022

10. Mills, G. Riley, “Leadership and the Power of Surprise,” Forbes; referencing Luna, Tania, and Renninger,
LeeAnn, Surprise: Embrace the Unpredictable and Engineer the Unexpected, Tarcherperigee, 2015
11.

Hani, Umme, “The A-Z of Google Shopping History,” CED Commerce, 2021

28. “What we’ve been up to: February,” P.F. Candle Co., 2023

Serendipitous community
29. “Most trusted advertising channels worldwide as of September 2021,” Statista
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