Master in Beyond Shopping at Elisava Barcelona School of Design and Engineering

The Master in Beyond Shopping at Elisava Barcelona School of Design and Engineering focuses on the design of contemporary commercial spaces that respond to changing consumer behaviour and emerging technologies.

The Master in Beyond Shopping prepares students to design innovative shopping experiences and develop a strategic and critical perspective on contemporary retail. It explores how commercial space design is evolving in the post-digital era.

The course offers pioneering training to understand and design the future of shopping from a holistic perspective, integrating commercial space design, experience design, cultural and technological analysis and retail strategy. It responds to an era where shopping is being redefined by AI, e-commerce, digital platforms and evolving consumer trends.

The programme addresses the transformation of commercial spaces from simple points of sale into cultural and emotional environments where people build identity and relationships with brands. It takes a multidisciplinary approach, combining anthropological research, service design, brand narrative and phygital design to create omnichannel experiences.

Students will work with methodologies used by innovation agencies, including AI-supported research, synthetic users, experience conceptualisation, retail space design, UX/UI and the development of journeys that connect the physical and digital worlds coherently.

The Master Beyond Shopping is also an experimentation laboratory where students can imagine and build the next generation of phygital shopping experiences.

School: Elisava Barcelona School of Design and Engineering
Course: Master in Beyond Shopping
Type: Postgraduate
Location: Madrid, Spain
Course dates: September 2026 to July 2027
Application deadline: 15 July 2026

Find out more about the course and apply ›

person touching jewellery display
Students explore consumer trends and retail innovation

What will I learn during this course?

– Understand shopping as a transforming cultural and technological phenomenon
– Research consumer trends
– Design contemporary commercial spaces

What are the requirements?

– An official undergraduate degree or equivalent
– Applicants without a university degree are eligible to apply through proven professional experience or by proving significant knowledge in the relevant study area (these applicants will receive a university specialist certificate)
– Supporting documents, submitted in PDF format and in the same language as the programme, must include a CV, letter of motivation, portfolio (or link to a digital portfolio/personal website) and a passport (non-EU applicants) or national ID (EU applicants)

What facilities and resources are available?

– Specialised workshops and laboratories
– Outdoor spaces
– Conference rooms
– Exhibition rooms
– Multi-purpose classrooms
– Other educational spaces in different parts of the city

person standing in front of jewellery display
Students develop concepts for physical and digital retail experiences

What career prospects can I expect upon graduating?

Students will be able to establish careers as commercial space designers, trend researchers and retail professionals.

Who teaches this course?

– Nacho Martín, course director

people gathered in a building
The course takes place in Madrid, Spain

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