Why ecommerce brands are missing a trick?
true's strategy team explains why we explored the subject of "The value of emotion in ecommerce" for our recent Marketing Week Whitepaper.
Why ecommerce brands are missing a trick?
Ecommerce has come a long way in the twenty years we’ve been designing and building digital experiences. As the field has matured, digital marketers have gained access to far richer analytics data and far more sophisticated tools for improving performance. Every click, scroll and conversion can be tracked and optimised to within an inch of its life. But with the relentless focus on data, we feel one crucial design element often gets overlooked: human emotion.
Because shopping is an emotional experience. The decisions we make as we research, evaluate and compare products are a function of both our thoughts and our feelings: feelings about the world around us, the people we think we are and the people we want to be.
Traditional bricks-and-mortar retailers get this. They obsess over in-store experiences, consider the way in which products are merchandised and how they can use imagery, sound and lighting to create a mood that makes us more likely to connect with the products and, ultimately, make a purchase.
In comparison, the ecommerce experiences seem a little flat.
The Current State: A Sea of Sameness
Inspired by UX-best practice and .gov-inspired design conventions, digital experience designers have fallen into the trap of conformity, churning out cookie-cutter platforms devoid of personality. Many e- brands have sacrificed their character on the altar of efficiency and ‘frictionless’ designs.
Looking across different categories, we see that, regardless of a brand's niche or market position, the online shopping experience often feels eerily similar: white backgrounds, square boxes, white product shots, standardised product listing pages and predictable CTAs. In this sea of monotony, brands forfeit the opportunity to connect with their audience and stand out amidst the noise.
Looking beyond conversion metrics
Inspired by Alex Murrell’s ‘Age of Average’ article, which lays out the ways in which industries tend to converge around a set of homogenous design conventions, we want to explore the impact of experience design on the emotions of online shoppers. Can bolder, more distinctive design choices elicit more powerful responses? Does it pay for ecommerce brands to stand out?
Partnering with Odaptos, a cutting-edge AI-powered user research tool, we set out to objectively examine the impact of UX and UI design decisions on the emotional connection between users and brands in the ecommerce.
Our aim? To help brands understand more clearly the emotional journey of their ecommerce customers and the tools they have for shaping it.
Our whitepaper delves explores the role of emotion across different drinks brands' platforms, shedding light on a comparatively under-researched topic. Download the whitepaper here to find out more about our research and findings.
