ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we illustrate the plethora of multimodal resources involved in online shopping, their specific registers, and the ways in which they create interfaces and interactions with audiences and customers. Essentially, we explore what happens when practices that used to be enacted in face-to-face interactions move online. Conceptually, we link this case to the discussion about ‘digital resemiotization’, that is, the transformation of everyday practices to fit digital and online modes of communication. As an empirical illustration of these ideas, we perform an in-depth analysis of Zalando’s online shop. We first reconstruct the different ‘registers’ that Zalando employs in their ‘online universe’ and draw first conclusions about meaning-making at https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315455013/f40f54ab-4227-41f7-ad6b-2d710edf4f28/content/www.zalando.co.uk">zalando.co.uk. Subsequently, we describe how shoppers interact with Zalando’s online universe by presenting the findings from eye-tracking experiments and follow-up interviews conducted with customers. These findings show that eye movements correspond to each customer’s specific goals, but are, overall, very similar among customers. We conclude the chapter with some more general conclusions about multimodality in organization and management studies.
