How does the brain help us decide when shopping online? And how is the brain subject to marketing strategies without us brain-owners not even realizing it?

Online shopping has become a central part of modern life, but the hidden processes that drive our choices remain largely unexplored.

This study explored how reviews, discounts, and quantity discounts influence the way our minds perceive and evaluate products at a neurobiological level.

How the brain and eyes decode shopping choices together
To investigate these often subconscious processes, the study paired brainwave analysis using EEG measurements with eye movement tracking.

Participants viewed a mix of utilitarian products like kettles and flash drives, alongside pleasure-focused or hedonic items such as plush toys and music albums.

Visual cues such as reviews and discounts captured attention faster than the products themselves. Remarkably, participants often processed these cues using their peripheral vision rather than directly focusing on them.

Early brain responses showed that these marketing elements demand less cognitive effort than the products they accompany, suggesting a seamless, almost automatic, processing mechanism.

Attention, Emotion, and the Power of Discounts
The researchers found that utilitarian and hedonic products evoke different types of brain activity.

For utilitarian products, quantity discounts generated the quickest and most substantial engagement, while reviews evoked a sense of security, dampening emotional responses.

Hedonic products, on the other hand, elicited stronger emotional reactions to discounts, as indicated by larger pupil sizes—a sign of heightened affective response.

The study revealed that emotional processing plays a more significant role in hedonic consumption, while utilitarian shopping leans on practical, cognitive considerations.

An interesting little detail (that says a lot about us humans) was that the pupil size was significantly different for discount when comparing utilitarian versus hedonic ...

Brain-marketing
This research not only highlights how we process online shopping cues but also paves the way for more tailored marketing strategies.

For example, emphasizing discounts for pleasure-focused products or quantity deals for practical items aligns with how the brain naturally evaluates these choices.

By understanding the neurobiology of attention and emotion in consumer behavior, more consumer-friendly and scientifically grounded marketing practices can be made, offering benefits for both sellers and buyers in the digital marketplace.

About the scientific paper:

First author: Michal Pšurný, Czechia
Published in: Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, November 2024
Link to paper: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/human-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2024.1411685/full