Eye Tracking To Transform How We Interpret Shopping Habits

Tweet

 

               This Guest Post Was Written and Compiled by Jamie.

Eye Tracking To Be Used To Interpret Effectiveness Of In-Store Advertising And Packaging:

The shopping environment as we know it may well see a rapid change within the coming years, as technology such as neuromarketing seeks to aid the shopping experience for consumers, whilst providing the top brands with information on how to effectively appeal to those who buy their products.


Virtual Shopping
Virtual supermarkets piloted by brands such as Tesco in areas including South Korea’s subway, sees consumers scanning grocery products utilising smartphone images to update an online shopping cart, for which the goods would be delivered to the home of the shopper the next day, reducing time spent shopping, whilst also being able to view the products yourself, as an improved form of the online shopping experience.

This appears to be the future of the consumer shopping experience, which has satiated the appetite of global brand superpowers and megastores to utilise what’s being labeled as neuromarketing technology to improve the shopping experience for those in-store.

It also allows a more detailed reading on favoured brands and products by customers, which in-turn should help to reduce unnecessary bulk buying by store owners, and thereby help companies target markets with streamlined advertising and packaging for more effective selling strategies.


Neuromarketing Technology
Neuroscientists believe that as much as 90% of human behavior is subconscious and emotionally driven, leading to the seemingly rational consumer data collected by leading brands as potentially ineffective for improving quality of future products. This explains why one day you may decide to buy cornflakes over frosties cereals, which depends on contextual mood at the time rather than any informed decision of the former being a better product.

Technological companies such as Tobii, who conduct research into eye tracking technology, have advocated that eye tracking of consumers is imperative for understanding the real reasons why someone may be attracted to a particular product. If making a split second purchase decision in a hurry, visually attractive packaging designs are likely to draw a shopper’s gaze.

The Future of Market Research
Cost effective eye-tracking glasses currently being tested by companies such as Tobii include the ability to decipher data visualisation in the form of heat maps from a shopper’s gaze, with complex packaging requiring a full eye scan of the information, while more minimal packaging design enables the shopper to quickly zone in on key details for a more straightforward shopping experience.

Due to the heightened costs of current computer screen based camera eye tracking technologies, at present such mobile eye tracking solutions are only likely to be used sparingly by researchers as a compliment to conventional market research techniques, but the retail environment as we know it could change drastically in the future should wearable tracking technology become more commercially available from innovative companies such as Tobii.


Jamie blogs about health for online glasses retailer Direct Sight.


You Might Also Like:
 Why People Prefer to Shop Online
Get A Purse For Every Outfit With A Coupon Code