Analyzing motivating functions of consumer behavior: Evidence from attention and neural responses to choices and consumption

Academia and businesses have shown an increased interest in neurophysiological methods, such as eye-tracking and electroencephalography (EEG), to understand consumer motivation. This research examines if these methods can predict the impact of motivation triggers, such as water deprivation, has on attention, brain response, choices, and consumption. Through experiments, results reveal that water deprived participants focused more on images of water and were more likely to choose and consume water. These findings suggest that neurophysiological methods can offer deeper insights into how motivational factors influence consumer behavior.

The full article can be found in at Frontiers in Psychology and it is also posted in the National Library of Medicine.

Motivating Events at the Point of Online Purchase: An Online Business-to-Business Retail Experiment

The point of online purchase refers to the location and conditions in which an online transaction takes place. It includes how products are presented to consumers and the means of completing the transaction. Understanding how the online setting and specific situations impact consumers behavior at the point of online purchase may improve online marketing efforts.

An online experiment was conducted to analyze the factors that influences purchases during the online buying process. Results show that the treatment group had a 39% conversion rate for up-sell offers. Which lead to an 87.94% increase in revenue compared to the control group. The findings of the experiment are discussed in relation to consumer behavior and rules governing inline purchases. For further reading, the full study can be found in the Procedia Computer Science.

What’s the “Thing” in Internet of Things (IoT) in Grocery Shopping? A Customer Approach

The Internet of Things (IoT) technology presents an opportunity for retail groceries to develop an infrastructure that makes physical things such as mobile phone, shopping basket, store shelves, digital display, and, even the product itself smart, allowing real-time interaction with customers both in the physical store and in the virtual store. This study explores how IoT can enhance value in retail grocery choice situations. To analyze IoT’s impact on consumer decisions, we conducted a conjoint experiment where participants purchased fresh salmon in a grocery store. The results demonstrated that compared to static information on price, expiry date, quality, and general offers, real-time information was the most influential factor. Moreover, quality ratings from other customers had the strongest effect, followed by personalized offers based on cart items, real-time expiry dates, and real-time pricing. The full study can be found in Procedia Computer Science.

Situational Factors Influencing Customers’ Credit Use Online: A Behavioral Economic Approach

This study, published in the Proceedings of the 51st Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, looks at how consumers use credit online, especially when choosing between practical (utilitarian) and enjoyable (hedonic) products. In a simulated shopping experiment with Norwegian university students, participants could either save money to buy a product later or buy it on credit for immediate access. Participants were split into two groups: one saw personalized credit information, and the other did not. Results show that as the wait time increased, people were more likely to buy on credit instead of saving. This behavior matched a pattern called hyperbolic discounting. Also, participants were more willing to use credit for enjoyable products than practical ones. Personalized credit details had a small effect, but findings suggest this could matter more with enjoyable products. This study highlights factors that influence online credit use and points to areas for further research.