Music and online shopping, why not?

Music and online shopping, why not?

Edwin Antonian | 20/10/2011

It has been said that music can exert immense influence and charm us into to loosening our wallets / purses.

Experiments have shown how tempo of the background music influences the way people shop. Music can arouse and exert covert influence over the speed of our behaviour. The speed at which customers move around a store can be modulated by the tempo of the music played. The brain can subconsciously process and make conclusions about the complex representations of the music and act upon these without the conscious awareness of the listener. 

“You are what you hear - how music and territory make us who we are” - Harry Witchel

Whilst this has been a normal part of our everyday shopping experience, it has not yet crossed over to our mainstream online experience. In the past external factors such as download speed have constrained the use of music online, however this impact is slowly diminishing as faster download speeds are achieved.

So can music enhance the online experience? Why not! An easily integrated option is to offer a curated list of tracks for consumers to pick from and play while they browse the online catalogue/store. This will elevate the consumer experience and may heighten the customer’s desire to purchase items. A nice addition may be an option to purchase tracks at checkout which were listened to during the shopping experience.  

tags: e-commerce ,  Web Strategy