Technology and digitalisation are rapidly changing the retail sector. The Salzburg University of Applied Sciences is responding to this change and is launching the new Master's degree programme ‘Retail & Technology ’* in the winter semester 2025/26.
From the 2025/26 academic year, there will be a new degree programme at the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences: the Master's in Retail & Technology will teach skills to actively shape the increasingly technologised retail environment - whether stationary, online or hybrid.
Robert Zniva
Initiator of the degree programme and Head of Research Business & Tourism
‘The degree programme is aimed at people with a business or technical background who want to expand their skills and adopt an interdisciplinary perspective. The Master's programme is designed as a part-time course, but is also open to students who are not currently working. Graduates of the Master's programme will play a key role in the industry in the future as bridge builders between commercial and technological tasks,’ explains initiator Robert Zniva, who teaches and researches in the fields of business and commerce at the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences.
Interdisciplinary expertise for the retail of the future
The Master's degree programme combines skills from the Business and Tourism and Information Technologies and Digitalisation departments. Students acquire interdisciplinary knowledge in order to future-proof stationary retail with digital solutions.
The programme has a modular structure and teaches academic principles and methods as well as a deep understanding of retail management and its current challenges in the first year. From the second semester onwards, the programme also focuses on technology in the retail environment. The Retail Data Literacy and Retail Technology Literacy modules, which teach the handling of data and technologies in the retail context, are the main focus of the programme. A central element of the Master's programme is the ‘Retail Living Lab’ in the second year of study: a two-semester project in which students use, manage and evaluate retail technology.
Applied research as the basis for teaching
Incidentally, the basis for the development of the Master's programme was provided by the Retailisation 4.0 research project at Salzburg University of Applied Sciences, which has been working intensively on the increasing technologisation of retail for more than three years and cooperates with retailers and technology companies both regionally and internationally. Applied research and the direct transfer of these results into teaching and thus into the training of future key employees in a central area of the Salzburg economy is therefore the primary concern of the programme.
Facts Master Retail & Technology:
- Form of study: Part-time
- Degree: Master of Arts in Business (MA)
- Application is currently possible