The Psychology of E-commerce

As a psychologist, I come across numerous insights into the behavior of humans found in (web)design, neuroscience & usability research and many other sources. Some familiar sources of inspiration are “Influence” by Robert Cialdini (@robertcialdini) and the Mental Notes Carddeck from Stephen Anderson (@stephenanderson).

Here is my place to share these insights with you, and my suggestions on how to apply these theories on e-commerce websites.

“Psychology E-commerce Tips” overview
Here is an overview of the tips so far (in alphabetical order):

• Aesthetic-Usability Effect August 13, 2010
• Affect Heuristic August 25, 2010
• Anchoring and Adjustment August 8, 2010
• Authority figure August 18, 2010
• Autonomy September 13, 2010
• Availability cascade November 6, 2012
• Bandwagon effect October 6, 2010
• Chunking November 2, 2010
• Conceptual Metaphor August 11, 2010
• Contrast September 10, 2010
• Curiosity November 8, 2010
• Framing effect September 17, 2010
• How Color Persuasion Works November 22, 2011
• Hyperbolic discounting November 15, 2010
• Immediate Feedback August 30, 2010
• Interloper effect October 15, 2010
• Limit choices August 20, 2010
• Limited Access (Private Sales) August 16, 2010
• Loss aversion October 11, 2010
• Make it fun! January 12, 2011
• Mere exposure effect October 8, 2010
• Need for Assurance January 5, 2011
• Ownership Bias September 29, 2010
• Positive mimicry August 27, 2010
• Product series November 4, 2010
• Reciprocity August 10, 2010
• Recognition September 3, 2010
• Recurring events August 23, 2010
• Reminders September 28, 2010
• Scarcity September 8, 2010
• Sensory Appeal October 4, 2010
• Social Proof September 6, 2010
• Social Status August 9, 2010
• Status Quo October 13, 2010
• Subliminal Stimulation September 23, 2010
• Tell a Story September 1, 2010
• Time is relative September 27, 2010
• Value Attribution August 12, 2010
• Visualisation October 31, 2010