Paco Underhill

Paco Underhill revolutionized understanding of shopping behavior through observational research detailed in his bestselling book Why We Buy. As founder of Envirosell he speaks on retail strategy and customer experience design and translating shopper insights into profitable store layouts. Paco’s research methodology involves watching and filming thousands of shopping trips to understand actual behavior versus what customers claim in surveys. This anthropological approach reveals patterns invisible to retailers focused on product rather than shopping experience. Organizations value Paco’s insights on environmental psychology and how store design affects purchasing decisions. Small changes in layout lighting and product placement dramatically impact sales because shopping involves subconscious processes responsive to environmental cues. His presentations address practical applications like decompression zones and butt-brush effect and gender differences in shopping behavior. Paco provides specific recommendations retailers implement immediately to improve conversion rates and average transaction values. Paco discusses evolution of retail in digital age and how physical stores must provide experiences online shopping cannot replicate. His frameworks help retailers rethink store purpose beyond transaction completion to experience creation and community building. What makes Paco’s work valuable is grounding in observation rather than theory. His insights come from watching real shoppers in real stores making his recommendations credible and actionable for practitioners skeptical of academic concepts. Beyond retail applications Paco addresses broader themes of human behavior and cultural differences in consumption and how demographic shifts reshape markets. His global work reveals shopping patterns that transcend cultures and those unique to specific markets. Paco discusses customer journey mapping and touchpoint optimization and creating seamless experiences as customers move between digital and physical channels. His expertise helps organizations design omnichannel strategies based on actual behavior. His consulting work spans industries beyond traditional retail including banking healthcare and hospitality showing universal applicability of human-centered design principles he pioneered in retail context. Retail organizations and consumer brands and service businesses and anyone designing physical spaces where customer experience affects outcomes find Paco’s behavioral insights essential for creating environments that feel right to customers even if they cannot articulate why and that produce measurable improvements in conversion satisfaction and loyalty.

Keynote speaker Paco Underhill is the founder and Managing Director of Envirosell, a New York based research and consulting firm with offices around the world. Underhill has spent more than 25 years conducting research on the different aspects of shopping behavior, earning his status as a leading expert and pioneer in the field.  Paco helps companies understand what motivates the behaviors of today’s consumer.  His research shows how today’s retail world is ruled by factors such as gender, “trial and touch” and human anatomy.  He is an insightful and captivating speaker, who frequently presents to trade associations and professional groups about the methodology and findings of his research.

Speaker Paco Underhill and Envirosell have been profiled by major publications, such as, The New Yorker, Fortune, Fast Company, Business Week and Smithsonian Magazine, and have been featured on ABC’s 20/20, and CBS’s 48 Hours.  Paco is a regular contributor to NPR and BBC Radio.  His columns and editorials have appeared in the New York Times, London Times, Wall Street Journal, and the Christian Science Monitor.  His first book, Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping has been published in 25 languages, and has sold more copies than any other retail book in history.  His second book, entitled Call of the Mall: The Geography of Shopping, was released in February 2004 by Simon & Schuster.

• Founder of Envirosell, a New York-based research and consulting firm with offices around the world
• Leading expert and pioneer on consumer behavior
• Helps stores, banks, consumer product manufacturer’s, cultural institutions, and public and commercial space developers understand what motivates the behaviors of today’s consumer
• Spent more than 25 years conducting research on the different aspects of shopping behavior
• Envirosell and Underhill have been profiled in major publications, such as The New Yorker, Fast Company, and The Christian Science Monitor
• His book Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping has been published in 24 languages.  His second book Call of the Mall was released in February, 2004 (paperback release 1/03/2005

Consumer Behavior

Retail Trends

Shopping Patterns

Positioning

Financial and Banking consumer trends

The Consumer of the 21st Century

Marketing