When was the last time you chose the stairs over the lift or escalator? For most people, the answer is rarely.
Recent research from the University of Peking in Beijing, replicating earlier findings from the University of Montreal, found that people overwhelmingly favour the path of least resistance when navigating built environments. When a lift or escalator is available, stair use declines, unless the easier option is deliberately made less convenient. The reason is simple: humans naturally gravitate towards reducing effort.
Now, consider how many features of the modern retail environment are built on the same principle. Ramps. Elevators. Wide aisles. Clear signage. Step-free access. High-contrast labels. Intuitive layouts. Ample seating provision. Public transport connectivity. Most of these began life as accessibility measures and ‘curb cut’ design choices; introduced initially to remove barriers for disabled people. But today, they are comforts expected by most shoppers, by default. That makes them not only commercially viable, but essential.
The reason is simple; the easier a space is to navigate, understand and move through, regardless of a person’s physical, sensory or cognitive ability, the more likely they are to engage with it.
Movement: walkability and connectivity drive footfall
Walkability and connectivity are commonly discussed only as design concepts, but many of the features that improve them are also accessibility features.
Walking routes with strategically placed seating, for instance, provide an area for just about anyone to decompress; including disabled people, older adults, families, mothers with prams, temporarily injured people.
Elevators were similarly introduced as an accessibility feature, but are now frequently used by older adults, shoppers carrying more bags than they can handle, as well as people who just prefer the easier option. The latter represents most of us.
In both instances, what were once accessibility and connectivity considerations have transformed over time into a mainstream expectation.
Now, let’s talk public transport. Disabled shoppers have historically been among the most dependent on public transport connectivity, but non-drivers, older adults, young people/students, and everyday consumers all benefit from connectivity to commercial spaces simply because it provides convenience.
When your premises are near a station or well-served bus stop, three other things usually follow: you attract stronger talent to the area, you see more customers, and you simplify logistics. Public transport, (as the Arch Co. notes in their article Lease Smart) connects all three.
E-commerce might have changed the game for physical retailers through competitive pricing, one-click purchases, and home delivery, but the one thing it cannot do is provide a holistic and pleasant outdoor experience, for which walkability and connectivity act as the bridge.
Filling in this gap is a growing prevalence of new mixed-use developments and town centre renovation projects, which demonstrate a deliberate shift toward creating more walkable, interconnected, accessible physical environments. Projects such as Chester Northgate and Bury Market, which bring together leisure, entertainment and retail uses within a compact area that can be navigated on foot, demonstrate how walkable, mixed-use developments can revitalise established town centres. Combined, they each attract millions of visits from both local residents and visitors from further afield, with many likely to be disabled people. Chester Market, in particular, has been visited over seven million times since it opened in 2022, and added value to the City itself as a tourist destination.
Well-designed mixed-use developments like these, which integrate step-free access, wider pathways and concentrated amenities, are part of a wider trend to create more navigable environments, not simply to accommodate disabled people, but because most people don’t want to experience friction during their leisure time.
Exposure: visibility and layout drive product engagement
Humans are inherently visual creatures, and a well-planned store layout is a silent salesperson. Items positioned at stores in prominent locations, particularly along aisles where shoppers are most likely to engage visually, are the most likely to attract attention and encourage interaction. While travelling along that path, physical retail provides shoppers with the convenience of being able to inspect items before purchasing, which is especially important for those with cognitive disabilities, but is a preference for everyone; because clear, intuitive layouts reduce cognitive effort.
Furthermore, thoughtful pathways and sightlines are advantageous because they allow stores to direct shoppers naturally through their entire inventory. Providing an easy, navigable in-store experience like this creates stronger brand memory, supports long-term loyalty, and can also lead to shoppers speaking to actual salespeople in-store, who will be able to provide specific expertise, real-time answers to queries, and personalised recommendations, inspiring further spending. Moreover, the ability to carry out a tactile and sensory evaluation of a product reduces anxiety, naturally increasing confidence in spending.
Disabled people often anticipate inaccessibility when shopping in physical environments by default, but through good design choices, commercial built environments can inspire loyalty, encourage repeat visits, and ultimately increase revenue out of repeated and consistent interest. The AMAR (Andalas Management Review) highlighted last year that when it surveyed the decisions of 400 consumers, accessibility, interpersonal interaction, store policies, and physical aspects, jointly predict 61.9% of the variance in consumers’ repeat purchase decisions. Further research from the Urban Land Institute, has also supported the idea that longer dwell times are associated with higher spending.
Purchasing: navigational ease and familiarity drive unplanned purchases
When shoppers understand a store’s layout and know where products are located, they are more likely to develop a mental map that guides their browsing behaviour. This highlights a fundamental principle of retail design: customers cannot purchase products they do not know are available. Design considerations such as prominent packaging, meaningful product organisation, and sensory-led colour mapping are all inclusive design features which inherently reduce friction for disabled people, but their effect can be felt across entire customer bases when executed correctly.
For instance, if a person is spending less energy working out how one aisle differentiates from another, they are more likely to notice, evaluate, and ultimately purchase items that were not part of their original shopping intent. In other words, accessibility for some acts as a powerful persuasion tool for others.
Research from The Journal of Retailing and Consumer services supports the link between familiarity and purchasing behaviour, finding that customers who are familiar with a store spend less time and effort searching for products and rely less on environmental cues for navigation. As a result, customer attention becomes available for other forms of in-store stimulation outside navigation.
The Commercial Argument
Many of the accessibility features originally designed for disabled customers are the same features that encourage engagement and purchasing across the wider population. The same high-contrast, large-target, low-friction design of product labels serves in equal parts the older shopper, the parent with a pram, and the distracted commuter. Shelving with an optimal height, reach range, and considerate lighting serves both the bargain hunter, the time pressed professional, and the routine shopper.
For disabled people, implementation of these considerations serves a direct need, which comes with its own separate commercial argument. But to everyone else, it strengthens what is already widely accepted as one of the strongest commercial drivers; convenience, which becomes the deciding factor in retail purchases when price and quality differences are marginal.
Price and quality are, of course, instrumental, but those factors flex with the customer’s economic situation in a way that friction doesn’t. As disposable income increases, consumers become less sensitive to price and more sensitive to friction. In these contexts, accessibility becomes increasingly important because it saves time, effort and cognitive load.
The luxury and hospitality industries are our most clear examples of this. For customers with significant disposable income, spending decisions are often influenced less by price and more by the quality, ease, and pleasure of the overall experience, as noted in the 2026 edition of The Wealth Report. This means that features such as step-free access, intuitive layouts, clear signage, adequate circulation space and logical wayfinding are not just accessibility measures, they are also convenience measures.
In practice, the distinction between accessibility and convenience is often artificial; many of the features that remove barriers for disabled people also make environments easier and more attractive for everyone else.
A study conducted last year by Shopify and Visualsoft surveying 2000 shoppers determined that a third (33%) would willingly pay more for a consistently seamless retail experience, with that willingness doubling among younger adults, rising to 61% among 18–34-year-olds.
That tells us that for many consumers across age groups, accessibility is a universal preference. And for affluent (usually older) consumers, whose purchasing decisions are often constrained more by time than money, accessibility increasingly becomes an expectation.
Simply put, accessibility reduces friction for everyone, and is what makes a space worth returning to time and time again . That’s what makes it a commercial strategy as much as an inclusion measure, and why it needs to become synonymous with convenience, which has long been one of the most consistent predictors of financial success.
What We Do
At Direct Access, we help commercial enterprises of all sizes create accessible, inclusive, and frictionless built environments by combining legislative expertise, decades of best-practice accessibility knowledge, and the lived experience of disabled colleagues who bring real-world insight to our accessibility audit reports.
If you’re looking to create a space that is inclusive, accessible, and designed to maximise customer engagement, our award-winning access audit and consultancy teams are here to help. Get in touch today.