Garim Lee, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)

Assistant Professor, Merchandising,

Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design

Affiliated member, Cognitive Science Program

Biography

Rooted in retail merchandising and consumer psychology, my research interests are Digital Consumer Behavior, AI-Assisted Retail Technology, Personalized Advertising, and Online Consumer Communication.
I like to dig deep into unexplored aspects of consumer psychology in the retail landscape. I majored in Apparel Design while I was an undergraduate, studying various topics including design, aesthetics, and fashion marketing. My interest in research on consumers and merchandising bloomed when I was a design intern at National Geographic Apparel Korea. I worked to assist in developing design ideas targeting the young generation. At that time, I realized how understanding the target consumers’ characteristics is the key to achieving business objectives. Utilizing social media and online distribution channels such as Musinsa and Wconcept was beneficial, because the target was the young generation who actively communicated online and absorbed online information throughout their decision journey. This experience led me to start my academic career in order to study the dynamics between the online consumer environment and fashion consumers’ decision-making process.