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How Color Influences Consumer Behavior

// July 7th, 2009 // 09. Miscellaneous, 11. Special Tips

This content was reposted from the Shopping Journal. You can see the original post here.

If you are a smart shopper, it is not that easy to persuade you to actually buy something. There is the science behind how the products are organized, labels are written and sections are ordered to guide you through to making a purchase. That’s a wealth of tricks based on psychological theories and practices that in the end “convert” you from a regular visitor into the buyer.

One of the most powerful methods to appeal to a potential buyer is applying color theory to (e)commerce. Has it ever occurred to you why you feel safer in one store and more energetic in another one? Have you ever noticed that landing on some web page you feel like clicking some button/link and keep browsing the site? While other pages prompt you to stay and keep reading? To some extent, this might be the choice of colors for the page elements.

Color is believed to be one of the most powerful elements of design for web sites, direct mail, ads, and other marketing materials. It carries meaning through associations and/or your body physical response. Color associates can vary from country to country but in Western culture they are basically the same.

So don’t let (online) sellers affect your decision by showing you what you want to see. Let’s see how color choice may affect your shopping behavior and habits – for you to be able to buy with a cool head.

Shopping Journal

As can seen from the above table, red and orange colors are most often used to encourage your action, i.e. to prompt you to buy something or subscribe to the newsletter (and become the customer later on).

Green and blue, on the other hand, are “supporting colors” that make you feel secure and safe thus entrust the seller with your money.

See how much Amazon.com wants to talk you into buying something using dark and light orange color:

More Examples from Around the Web

We Love Colors

Etsy

Threadless

re:modern

Vivavi

Overstock

Zappos

GreenShop

Moo

Newegg

Green Living

Header Image by Jeremy Brooks