EyeSee Insights (2018)

Research Preface / 03 Innovation and market research Transforming the industry / 13 Do we need a Copernican revolution in market research?

Delivering the most reliable research / 21 Which method works best?

Packaging and shopper Hero (image) of the year / 29 Case study: Does packaging design need a hero?

The latest shopper insights / 37 Everything you didn’t know about the design of in-store displays E-commerce Decoding the product page / 45 Why Walmart’s product pages drive 14% higher sales than competition Boosting category sales / 51 Amazon’s category pages are 16% less liked but boost 32% more sales Online advertising Tackling Millennials with Twitter / 59 How behavioral tools can help marketers reach the distracted generation

Preface Innovation and market research

03

Do you know who bought the first commercial computer in the 50s and used it for civilian, non-governmental purposes? Nielsen. Who coined the ubiquitous business term ‘market share’ in the 30s? The same guy, Nielsen, did. Unfortunately, the exciting innovation-driven beginnings do not reflect the current state of the industry.

1

Case in point – Van Westendrop’s sensitivity meter was introduced in 1976, over 40 years ago, and, apart from the occasional brush-ups1, it is still widely used in the same way today.

Likewise, Rensis Likert invented the Likert scale which is, today, the most consistently-employed research tool with only minor fluctuations in the standpoints/opinions on the data debate surrounding its misuse2. This scale presented a true breakthrough when it was introduced in the 1930s. So, what is the future of an industry that continues to rely on tools from almost a century ago?

2

The question is: is there space for market research in the future?

“The purpose of market research3 is to gather data on current and potential customers. The collected data aids in the business decision-making process. This, therefore, reduces the risks involved in making these decisions.”

3

Companies still need data to make decisions. Big data is already providing insights about an array of questions on market research and it does so in a superior fashion in terms of speed, datapoints and with other measurement parameters. However, because of digitalization, we live in a world where data is abundant and where there are still questions which big data cannot resolve for us on its own. In most cases, the combination of big data and market research – used to interpret the overwhelming amount of information – is far more effective.

05

Although management and strategic consulting help guide companies in their market decisions, market research addresses increasingly more strategic questions. This is evident in the emergence of different teams within companies who serve as market research, big data and advisory providers.

Even with the help of big data, and its potential for growth, it is very unlikely that market research will be taken over or absorbed by big data. We are, however, at a point where we need to consider re-inventing market research itself in order to better serve the rapidly-evolving world. We have been relying too much on old methods and frameworks which have become less and less relevant – this is our own doing and completely unrelated to the big data trend.

Re-inventing market research in terms of technology and frameworks When EyeSee entered the market research industry five years ago, everyone was talking about innovation but the words did not translate into action. Over the last few years, the situation has begun to change and we have, in fact, witnessed innovation in the form of new approaches and methods that have helped push the industry further. The same is true with System 1 and 2 – both trends being parallel and the attitude about both trends, changing in favor of System 1. *

Process is the combination of facilities, skills and technologies used to produce, deliver and support a product, or provide a service

There are multiple types of innovation: process*, product and business model. Process innovation is the least flashy but not necessarily the least impactful. It mainly deals with delivering the same product in a faster or cheaper way. One of the most well-known industrial process innovations was made by Henry Ford while the market research equivalent of that type of innovation is Automation, led by Zappi (although automation has been around for decades in other industries).

Product innovation comes in three different forms: 1) The development of a new product; 2) An improvement on the performance of the existing product; 3) Adding a new feature to an existing product.

07

There is not always a clear-cut line between product and process innovation, and it mostly depends on the targeted segment. EyeSee started off by introducing webcam-based eye tracking targeting segments that used survey-only approaches. From this perspective, webcam-based eye tracking is product innovation. However, more and more companies that previously relied on conventional eye tracking – which requires a central location as well as a lot more time and resources – made the switch and adopted our webcam solution. Essentially, webcam-based eye tracking also became process innovation. This evolution was documented by Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christenson a couple of years ago as part of ‘disruptive innovation.’ The phrase describes a process by which a product or service takes root initially in simple applications, with no consumers, and then relentlessly moves up the market, eventually displacing established competitors. He used the digital hardware device market (computers, laptops, cell phones, tablets, etc...) as an example.

Product innovation is important for market research in three additional ways: (1) testing new research questions (e.g. effectiveness of online videos, online hero product image, etc…), (2) researching current questions in a better way, (3) improving mental framework – how to add System 1 way of thinking/thought process to our current frameworks for evaluation.

These three areas of innovation also present the key for 2019. In this publication, there are examples of EyeSee case studies and findings from 2018 which serve as valuable guidance for those interested in innovation and impact. In the first two texts, we advocate for shifting the mental framework in market research as a basis for improvement and positive change. While the first text titled ‘Do we need a Copernican revolution in market research?’ deals with System 1 and 2, and how to measure them, the second text makes a case for how behavioral and conventional methods complement, rather than compete against each other to provide consumer insight with the highest predictive value.

09

Market research can lead to change within companies The publication also features a segment of texts discussing relatively new research questions. E-commerce and social media have been around for a while, but still a lot of companies are only starting to explore these areas and rely on this type of research. We meet clients on a daily basis who launch a TV commercial on YouTube or test online videos as they test TV commercials, despite them being fundamentally different (i.e. TVCs can really be manipulated but online videos need to be ‘earned’).

In shifting the paradigm, research plays the role of: (1) Proving that application is important (2) Demonstrating how it needs to be done But as with any change, it comes slowly. The shift from TV to social media advertising was far from timely. Why? Companies cannot shift major budgets because they do not know, or vouch for, the impact of the ‘new.’ So, the change comes bit by bit and sometimes at the expense of the first mover’s advantage. Market research can therefore provide data to make these transitions faster.

Also, research could help us understand the key drivers of impact. Investing in social media but relying on TV ads for social media purposes does not make sense. For most categories, using standard package shots on e-commerce sites does not make sense either as they have repeatedly proven too small for visitors to see the package claims. New research on Hero images and experimental pack shot designs gives us a clear picture of what does and does not work.

The last set of texts featured in this publication taps into using behavioral research for strategic questions (and innovation). System 1 was mainly used for tactical questions such as ad, packaging and other testing.

However, it has bigger potential in impacting strategic decisions. In line with this, the final text looks into a number of strategic questions that we tackled for our clients.

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Transforming the industry Do we need a Copernican revolution in market research?

09 13

Market research has become notorious for its lack of innovation in methods and tools. Is it time to take a leap of faith and transform the way we conduct research? key words: research, methodology, innovation, behavioral economics While the scientific and technological innovations have penetrated almost every area of business, market research (with few exceptions) has been hung up on methods that were developed several decades ago. The main issue with these methods is that they focus solely on insights derived from researching the conscious mind while, in fact, most purchase decisions are processed in the subconscious part. Analyzing only conscious behavior does not provide sufficient insights to making the right business decisions.

With this in mind, it is about time we had a Copernican revolution in insights.

Raising consciousness on subconscious behavior The use of behavioral methods in market research can be attributed to the founding fathers of behavioral economics – Herbert Simon and Daniel Kahneman. The latter is well known for his book “Thinking, Fast and Slow,” where he proposes a dichotomy between two modes of thought.

Kahneman’s “System 1” is fast, automatic, frequent, emotional, stereotypic and subconscious, while “System 2” is slow, effortful, infrequent, logical, calculating, and conscious. The book delineates cognitive biases based on each type of thinking.

So far, market research has only dealt with “slow thinking,” i.e. System 2; the “fast thinking” theory represented by System 1 was unfairly neglected, despite the increasing number of studies proving its importance. This leads us to the question: is the industry ready for a change?

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Input

Senses

Vision Sound Touch Taste Smell

Process

Output

System 1 non conscious

System 2 conscious

Action

Action Fast Parallel Automatic Effortless Associative Slow Learning

Thinking Slow Serial Controlled Effortful Rule Governed Flexible

Virtual shopping

Updated behavioral framework for deeper understanding of the decision-making process Measuring System 1 and 2 is necessary, but to understand and measure the decision-making process more clearly, we must improve two components: (a) input – data acquisition for making a decision and (c) output – the behavior.

4

Input is an important, yet often minimal, requirement for marketing communication. It indicates the information our senses (i.e. sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch) obtain. One of the key senses in marketing activities is vision – if shoppers do not see the package, they will certainly not buy the product. Approximately 83% of available information is processed by sight while half of the human brain4 is devoted directly or indirectly to vision.

Furthermore, the latest findings show that we are wired to process entire images in as little as 13 milliseconds5.

5

Measuring the output and behavioral process is important, yet behavior itself is what counts. The main goal is to discover the links between findings in (a), (b) and (c) phases, so that valid predictions of future purchase behavior can be made.

A major part of the consumer decision-making process – some say up to 90% of it – actually takes place in the subconscious part of the brain, aka System 1. Therefore, measuring the subconscious can increase predictive power as these insights provide information on how different marketing content stimulates the brain, whether it evokes emotions and how those emotions impact final purchase behavior.

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Input

Process

Output

Senses

System 1 non conscious

System 2 conscious

Action

Eye tracking

Brain imaging technicques: Facial coding Implicit Association Test (IAT)

Survey

Virtual shopping

FC

RTM

Questionnaire

VS

Eye tracking

KPIs per method Method

Description

KPIs

Eye tracking of pack in shelves

Shoppers are exposed to several shelves and instructed to click on products that they want to buy while we track their gaze. Afterwards to search for a specific product.

KPI 1: Pack visibility: How many shoppers see the package?

KPI 2: Pack stand out: How fast do they notice the package?

(KPI 3: Findability: How many shoppers find your product? How fast?)

Eye tracking of pack stand alone

Package design is shown in full screen.

Every 7 seconds another package is shown.

KPI 4: Brand visibility: Percentage of shoppers that saw the brand KPI 5: Visibility of other pack elements

Virtual shopping

Shoppers are exposed to multiple interactive shelf images and asked to shop the categories.

KPI 4: Brand visibility: Percentage of shoppers that saw the brand KPI 5: Visibility of other pack elements

Questionnaire

After the eye tracking session and virtual shopping trip, respondents fill out a survey including open-ended questions, forced choices, 7-point Likert…

KPI 8: Brand/product recall (open and closed ended ) KPI 9: Product characteristics/benefit recall (open and closed ended) KPI 10: Uniqueness (Likert scale) KPI 11: Message accuracy and simplicity (open ended and likert scale) KPI 12: Likeability (Likert scale + forced) KPI 13: Brand attributes (Likert scale) KPI 14: Package attributes (Likert scale)

Implicit association (optional)

An image is shown and respondents need to classify as fast as possible in one of the 2 categories. If two concepts are associated, the speed will be faster.

KPI 15: Attribute/pack fit: relatedness between the pack and attribute

Facial coding (optional)

The shoppers’ facial expressions are tracked to measure the emotional connection.

KPI 16: Positive emotional connection

Which methods can be used to measure framework?

The most renowned scientists are those who come up with completely new theories, however, a lot of scientific breakthroughs come from the invention of new measurement tools that (dis)prove, and help to further fine-tune, those theories.

Is it farewell to traditional market research?

Are behavioral insights the tool we have been looking for? Evidently, it is not the case, as “fast” and “slow” thinking work together at any given moment in time. By disregarding System 2, we would be basing our conclusions on incomplete data, making the same mistake conventional researchers make now. Therefore, including both systems in the framework is the key to more reliable insights.

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Delivering the most reliable insights Which method works best?

21

Objectives vs. research methods for package testing Eye tracking and survey are the optimal combination for the majority of research questions Eye tracking

Virtual store

Survey

RTM

Facial coding

1.a

Breakthrough: Identify the package design that breaks through the clutter in a competitive environment

Best method

1.b

Findability: Customers’ ability to locate the package on the shelf

Acceptable method

1.c

Key area visibility on a package: Determine on which package design the predefined most important elements are seen most

2.a

System 1 (automated thinking): Which elements are associated with the package? What do they feel? (desirability)

2.b

System 2 (effortful/deliberate thinking): Message recall, simplicity, product characteristics

3.

Purchase intent: Will shoppers buy the product?

Very good method

Combining multiple methods – whether it is System 1 or 2 – is much more effective in its predictive power than by only using one method.

Different methods often measure different variables which explain only part of the puzzle, e.g. eye tracking measures attention, survey understanding, etc. Therefore, using multiple methods help provide a bigger picture. But why is this so important? key words: predictability, research, methodology, combination Why do multiple methods make sense? They measure different variables.

6

In the chart below, you will find an overview of methods measuring key performance factors for packaging. Eye tracking6 is the best for measuring visibility, survey for likeability and virtual shopping7 for purchase intent.

Although you can try to measure purchase intent with a 7-point Likert scale, that will only give you a 0.2 out of 1 correlation with purchase behavior.

Virtual shopping boasts a 0.8 out of 1 correlation8.

There are plenty of behavioral methods that can be combined with conventional questionnaires:

7

8

• Eye tracking: measuring eye gaze, i.e. eye movement in order to determine where the person is looking; • Facial coding: measuring emotions through naturalistic and spontaneous facial expressions; • Brain-imaging techniques: functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), magnetoencephalography (MEG), electroencephalography (EEG), positron emission tomography (PET), etc.; • Biometric reactions monitoring (heart rate, skin conductance) which depends on the level of emotional excitement; • Implicit association test (IAT): exposing the subconscious associations that respondents are not able, or not willing, to self-report; • Virtual shopping simulation: used to re-create actual shopping experiences; 23

EyeSee perspectives: Any combination of methods is better than just one method Impact

Gut feel

Impact

Survey

Eye tracking

RTM

Virtual Facial shopping coding

Other

Gut feeling

Survey

Eye tracking

RTM

Virtual Facial shopping coding

Other

9

10

These methods have proven to predict impact better than surveys alone in marketing research: • Eye tracking: an increase in package visibility by 10% can lead to an increase in sales by 2% • Facial coding can predict viral potential of videos 2x better than surveys alone9; • Virtual shopping has a correlation with real market shares of 0.8-0.9510.

Adding multiple methods creates a bigger picture If package testing11 indicates a high purchase intent, but it is not seen, or it is highly visible but people are not interested, then it will not sell. You need to have both high visibility and interest.

There is a correlation between the methods (high attention might indicate high interest), so their joint effect –1+1– is not 2 but, rather, 1.5. The table below shows the combined predictive value of different methods, assuming an overlap of 0.7.

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What does that mean in practice? In validation studies, we noticed that surveys could accurately predict the success of 6/10 ads in a pool of good and bad ones. Eye tracking could vouch for 7/10 ads, facial coding for 7/10 ads, and virtual shopping for about 8/10 ads. However, by combining these methods, we are able to select the good ads 9/10 times.

In a hypothetical situation, a $10 million ad budget might result in a $30 million sales uplift if the campaign is successful. In the worst-case scenario, there will be either a negative impact or no impact at all. You can increase your chances with testing – using surveys, for instance, can lead to an $18 million uplift, based on the survey’s predictive power. On the other hand, combining different methods may increase the uplift to $27 million!

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Method / predictive power

Correct prediction

Average sales uplift

Survey

6/10

$18MM

Eye tracking

7/10

$21MM

Facial coding

7/10

$21MM

Virtual shopping

8/10

$24MM

Combined

9/10

$27MM

This summary clearly shows that relying solely on questionnaires will not provide accurate data on the impact of a campaign. A combination of complementary methods offers more reliable insights and, consequently, leads to better business decisions.

27

Hero (image) of the year Case study: Does packaging design need a hero?

29

Standard Packshot

Cambridge Hero Image

Spotlight Hero Image

$7.42

$7.42

$7.42

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Our tests have shown that the Hero image design performs better across most categories in regards to visibility, shoppers’ interests, product type identification and purchase intent in direct preference. key words: UX, online shopping, pack shot, Hero image 12

When it comes to optimizing packaging designs, online channels provide much more freedom to CPG companies than traditional retailers. This wave was started by Unilever and the University of Cambridge12, who had developed Hero images – e-commerce product photos designed to provide a clear and readable alternative to conventional pack shots. This product image optimization is designed to enhance the online shopper’s journey and help them recognize four key elements (brand, variant, format and size). In that way, the risk of buying the wrong product is minimized while online sales conversion can be significantly increased.

The EyeSee team developed an alternative to the Unilever & Cambridge solution – Spotlight Hero image which highlights the product’s most distinct feature, e.g. variant.

To understand the importance of this emerging practice in online product visualization, EyeSee conducted an online packaging study.

The primary objectives of the study are to determine: • Whether Hero images are better than standard package images for online purposes • Which type of Hero image is better – Cambridge or Spotlight Study design • • • • 31

500 US online shoppers Stimuli: 42 package designs; standard, Cambridge and Spotlight variant Monadic test, 3 cells Method: eye tracking, virtual shopping, questionnaire

Cambridge

Spotlight

7 Hero Images Context

No Hero Images

Standard Packshot

Eye tracking output: Percentage of shoppers who saw the product Impact on Sales & Visibility of Hero Images 15%

5%

Visibility uplift on desktop

Sales uplift

The packages were tested across six categories: cereals, dog treats, body wash, dish care, toilet paper, and pain reliever. Each respondent was introduced to all six categories, but the sample was divided into three cells, one for each type of packaging.

The benefits of Hero images Our tests have shown that the Hero image design performs better across most categories in regards to visibility, shoppers’ interests, product type identification and purchase intent in direct preference. In the example below, we can see that both Cambridge and Spotlight Hero design have shown better results in terms of visibility (in the Dish care category) than with the Standard package design (by 15% and 5%, respectively).

Furthermore, Hero images are seen, on average, by 15% more shoppers.

Considering this, Hero images can significantly boost sales by attracting more attention. Hero images have 5% higher visibility than Standard package designs viewed on a desktop (with greater potential when viewed on a mobile device because of the smaller screen size) and can increase sales by about 15%.

By making the right product content immediately visible, you can provide shoppers with the reassurance they need to complete the purchase; Hero design is more purchase motivating than Standard package design.

Cambridge Hero design yields a 35% bigger purchase intent than Standard while Spotlight Hero image leads to a 20% higher purchase intent in the Pain reliever category.

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Cambridge

Spotlight

7 Hero Images Context

No Hero Images

Standard Packshot

Purchase intent in direct preference: Pain reliever Hero images can significantly boost sales (>>15%) Impact on Brand Equity 87% 50% 22% Increase in size, quantity and volume recall with Cambridge design

Increase in benefit recall with Spotlight design

Preference over Standard Pack Shot

Hero image design increases the importance of information (size, quantity, and volume) identification by up to 50%; almost five times more brand recall with Cambridge Hero design, thus shoppers are more aware of the brand.

Only 10% prefer Standard package design over Hero in direct preference.

Conclusion By keeping all this in mind and continuously experimenting with new packs shots design, you can ensure impact and competitive advantage. The first movers to adopt the Hero images will be the ones to benefit the most in making their products distinctive.

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The latest shopper guidelines Everything you didn’t know about the design of in-store displays

37

IMPULSE

PROMOTION

BRAND EQUITY

NEW PRODUCT

NEW PRODUCT

1

IMPULSE

2

PROMOTION

3

BRAND EQUITY

4

Smurfit Kappa developed comprehensive guidelines and EyeSee tested over 400 POS materials with more than 60,000 shoppers in 15+ countries worldwide to help companies maximize the effectiveness of this marketing tool. key words: shopper, marketing, POS, graphic design, in-store promotion 13

Although they are a POS classic, displays13 are still a trending topic in in-store advertising. When used well, in-store displays can boost product visibility by more than 20%; on the other hand, suboptimal displays can squander 25% of their potential.

Smurfit Kappa14 has developed design guidelines for effective displays based on 50,000 shoppers and 50 specialized designers from all over Europe while EyeSee has tested more than 400 POS materials with over 60,000 shoppers in 15+ countries worldwide. Our main takeaway is that there is no one-size-fits-all recipe but, rather, the look of the display should reflect its purpose.

14

How to know if your display is effective Below, you can see two distinctive displays – both effective in respect to their role. The role of a display can be linked to a particular phase in the product lifecycle: • • • •

39

New product – to attract the shopper and create awareness about the new product; Promotion – to sell extra products in a short time frame; Impulse – to boost sales with shoppers who had no purchase intent; Brand equity – to improve brand loyalty and reinforce the brand in shoppers’ minds.

15

16

To understand the shoppers’ decision-making process in each of these phases, our platform analyzes the three steps of the path to purchase – attraction, engagement and conversion. These translate to seeing the display, liking it and buying the product. These steps were measured using a combination of conscious and subconscious methods15: online eye tracking16 provides data on the general gaze pattern and elements seen first; survey gives a glimpse into consumers’ opinions and preferences while virtual shopping17 gives insights on sales, category growth and market share; facial coding18 tells a story about consumers’ emotions while reaction time measurement determines the connection between a brand and a certain attribute.

This research approach sheds light on: 1.

2.

3.

4.

17

18

41

Stopping power – the number of shoppers who notice the display; Share of quantity – the number of shoppers who buy the product; Likability – evaluation of likeability based on a 5-point scale; Brand perception – evaluation of brand perception based on a 5-point scale.

Examples of optimized displays – size, graphics and structure

Activation type P2P phase

Attract

Engage

Convert

New product

Disruptive design*

Create positive emotions

Explain the value and user benefits

Promotion

Show brand flag and reason to buy now / more

Link design to event / occasion

Predesign pricing

Impulse

Be sizeable and in the right location

Present products so they’re easy to see

Show pleasure of using

Brand equity

Disruptive design (movement, sound, light)**

Create positive emotions

The goal is not necessarily conversion but standing out in shoppers’ memory

*However, keep in mind that line extensions should be linked to the parent brand. ** Digital assets, like screens, could increase attraction – and maybe even engagement– if they can be used to explore products.

Understanding the impact of design Companies often make the mistake of overlooking the structure of the display and only focusing on the graphics. In fact, achieving the highest degree of visibility is not the key issue because the very nature of displays is to be more visible than regular aisles. Making the most of that visibility is what matters.

All parameters – size, structure and graphics – can be tested separately to determine their individual impact. For the most objective results, it is recommended to exclude branding as some consumers will opt for their favorite brand regardless of the display.

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Essentially, the path to purchase is always the same so the executions should be fine-tuned to fit the phase of the product cycle. On the left is a short overview of the design guidelines for each stage.

Interested in learning more? Have a look at our webinar on-demand19 on the Path to Purchase Institute website.

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Decoding the product page Why Walmart’s product pages drive 14% higher sales than competition

45

Product pages are one of the key elements of e-commerce websites.

Their design does not vary too much across platforms but our research has revealed the fine points than can boost the conversion rate of these pages. key words: product page, e-commerce, UX testing, website design With online shopping booming, significant growth opportunities are opening up for retailers and brands. To take advantage of this potential, companies need to invest in a clean and streamlined user experience but some webpage elements are more important than others. It was found that product pages are one of the key factors that can make or break your online sales.

You may think of a product page as an equivalent of picking up a product with your hands and mulling over the purchase. Many questions emerge during this thought process but most of these activities take place in the subconscious part of the mind of which we are seldom aware. By changing features of the product page, we can influence both conscious and subconscious aspects of the decision-making process.

To unveil the basic elements that drive conversion on these pages, our team conducted an eye tracking study analyzing the leading retailers’ product pages – Walmart, Amazon and Target. The research showed that, after browsing their product pages, shoppers are 14% more likely to buy the product from Walmart than from the other two retailers. Our goal was to pinpoint/identify the elements that correlate with purchase intent and offer recommendations to both retailers and their client companies.

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We conducted our study in partnership with the panel company Lightspeed.

The 300 online shoppers recruited were asked to browse two product pages of their preferred online grocery store while the EyeSee team tracked their eye gaze. We chose popular brands within two large categories: Colgate (toothpaste) and Tide (laundry detergent). Afterwards, the online shoppers were asked to choose the products they would prefer to buy.

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After seeing the product page, Would you be interested in purchasing the product?

Product page

48%

44%

50%

Product page

57%

50%

41%

53%

47%

46%

Average

Eye-tracking heatmaps: red signifies higher attention and green, lower attention.

Share of time spent on a page

25% 20%

18%

16%

15%

14%

10%

7%

5% 0%

Product images

Suggested products

Check out area

Headline

5%

Additional photos

Walmart’s 14% sales conversion advantage More than half of the shoppers (i.e. 53%) who land on the Walmart product page also end up purchasing the product while only 47% of Amazon - and 46% of Target-based shoppers make the purchase after browsing the product page. What drives this 14% advantage?

Although all three pages have essential elements that help to drive successful online sales, Walmart’s product page has slight advantages: • Larger product image; • Visible and user-friendly “add to cart” section; • Visible and user-friendly “size” and “quantity” options.

Walmart shoppers spent up to 70% more time browsing product images Eye tracking enabled us to measure the amount of time online shoppers spent gazing at different elements of the product pages. At Walmart, they paid much more attention to the product image: 23% out of the total time spent per page with much lower rates on Amazon and Target pages (i.e. 14% and 17%, respectively).

Given its larger size, design and proximity to the product image, the “add to cart” section yielded a greater number of views as well. Furthermore, Walmart’s “add to cart” option is considered to be much more useful for, and relevant to, the purchase decision than the same section on other websites (30% better than Amazon and four times better than Target).

(Product) image is worth a thousand words Product picture is the most attention-grabbing element of the product page.

It is the first-to-be-seen and the-longest-looked-at element, taking up around 20% of the total time dedicated to the overall product page. This section is one of two areas considered the most useful and relevant to the purchase decision.

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Boosting category sales Amazon’s category pages are 16% less liked but boost 32% more sales

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Number of columns

5

4

3

Size of image

Small

Big

Biggest

Descripition

Significant

Most

Almost none

Similar to product pages, the layout of category pages has a significant impact on product visibility and sales. Surprisingly, likeability is not the most relevant factor – our case study reveals what is. key words: category sales, e-commerce, UX testing, website design Online sales continue to surge but have retailers cracked the code when it comes to the consumers’ online moment of truth? Some may be closer than others… which brings us to the (surprisingly) large impact of product category pages.

In a large-scale e-commerce study, EyeSee found that when online shoppers land on the category list, they buy, on average, 32% more products on Amazon compared to Target and Walmart. However, shoppers evaluated their shopping experience at Walmart and Target as 16% better than their experience with Amazon. Why is that so?

Study design • • • •

300 online shoppers 3 retailers: Amazon, Walmart, Target 4 categories: cereals, detergent, tooth paste and beverages Methods: eye tracking, virtual shopping, survey

Category pages and retailers It is interesting to note that the category pages on Amazon, Walmart and Target are different in terms of variations in their number of columns, sizes of images and the amount of descriptions.

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Average number of products bought per product list 1.4 1.2 1 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0

+40%

+25%

• • •

Columns: with more columns, shoppers can see more products per row “above the line.”

Image size: larger images are clearer and resemble the in-store product. However, this also means less columns and products to be shown on the screen.

Description: longer descriptions provide more information and an opportunity to present more purchase triggers. It is questionable however as to how many people actually read the description.

32% more products bought on Amazon On average, online shoppers bought 1.19 of their products from Amazon, 0.85 from Walmart and 0.95 from Target. Amazon’s higher purchase level is consistent in different categories. The biggest gap for Target is in the beverage and detergent categories while Walmart comes close to Amazon in the cereal category.

28% more products are seen on Amazon…

One of the reasons for Amazon’s better performance is that online shoppers see more of their products (13.3 compared to 10.1 on Walmart and 10.6 on Target). It could have been expected that online shoppers would see more products on Walmart as the products are packed closer together even though the drop-off rate per row is much higher.

The advantage of a lower drop off rate is that the products in lower rows get a better chance of being seen. Of all the products that are seen, only 26% are in the first row while 58% of all the products that were bought, were in the first row. This provides CPG companies the opportunity to disrupt the online path to purchase in lower rows.

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Average

0.85

1.19

0.95

Cereal

1.09

1.19

1.16

Detergent

0.60

0.95

0.66

Toothpaste

0.69

1.16

1.12

Beverage

1.00

1.46

0.84

…but the shopping experience was rated 16% less positive Although Amazon reaches higher sales volumes, only 61% of their shoppers evaluated the experience as positive; 71% of the shoppers evaluated Walmart as positive and 73% for Target, respectively. As many studies have shown; liking is not the same as buying.

Recommendations Although the products at the top are more visible and seen for longer periods of time, the products in lower rows are still seen. However, communication is crucial: the message needs to be very clear considering you only get a split second to communicate the product’s benefits.

In some cases, advertising at the top of the product page might help. In our previous studies, the effect of advertising varied greatly from retailer to retailer (or layout to layout). Further experimentation with the category page layout is encouraged given that the size of the image, number of columns and amount of description of the product have a significant impact on category sales.

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Tackling Millennials with Twitter How behavioral tools can help marketers reach the distracted generation

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Twitter and EyeSee analyzed different advertising setups using the latest technologies that track people’s emotions and gaze via webcam. key words: social media, digital marketing, Millennials The transition from traditional to online media channels has changed the rules for advertisers – especially when the target group is the Millennials (or Generation Y), the generation behind one of the biggest disruptions in media consumption. How can marketers make sure their content doesn’t go unnoticed by the “distracted generation”?

Getting through to the mobile-first generation During the sixties and the seventies, television was one of the most important mediums for disseminating information, delivering entertainment and fostering socialization. Half a century later, we find that 47% of Gen Xers and Millennials do not watch traditional television while every third household does not hold a cable or satellite subscription. The smartphone has become the new pivotal gadget and now we have multiple screens vying for our attention.

Shifting the research spotlight to the subconscious 21

Although Millennials have distinct consumer habits, they are as “bad” at self-reporting as any generation – they struggle with articulating their emotions, they are afraid of social judgment and cannot always grasp the actual reasoning behind their actions. However, remote behavioral research methods – such as eye tracking21 and facial coding22 – can provide information on how different marketing content stimulates the brain, whether it evokes emotions and how those emotions impact final purchase behavior.

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Marketers have merely moments to make an impact.

While scrolling through social media, it is impossible to devote more than a split second of attention to each content piece. This means that marketers 61

have a very short time frame to make an impression. What’s more, they are not only competing with other brands but with updates from friends and followers, media outlets and many others.

However, this is exactly why news feeds can work in the advertisers’ favor, as ads are placed between very engaging content. Here are the recommendations that have been unveiled by Twitter and EyeSee in their joint research: 1) Context matters. Millennials demand a seamless user experience and do not appreciate being interrupted. Thus, marketing messages need to be “woven” into relevant context – for example, a sports brand ad in a sports news feed. According to Twitter and EyeSee, this can increase stopping power by a whopping 42%, lead to an emotional engagement uplift by 24% and drive 26% more action. If the advertiser is not relevant to the feed, the creative solution still needs to fit into the relevant surroundings.

2) Maximize branding. Consumers are interested in the source of the message, so using clear, visible branding in posts can positively affect ad credibility, brand image and the likelihood of purchase intent. The same goes for CTA – a simple, direct message will effectively boost consumer-brand interaction.

3) Product as a creative element. Storytelling is vital for successful advertising, but not more important than the product itself. For example, a family holiday celebration might elicit emotion but showing a person receiving and/or un-wrapping a product can actually increase ad impact.

Rather than creating the perfect scenery, marketers should focus on highlighting the product within the right context.

Behavioral research methods help create content that will reach the customer in the information jungle. Marketers can now rely on concrete data that shows how people consume content and the ways in which it impacts their decision-making process. The marketing game has new rules – fortunately, there are new tools as well.

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