Shopper Behaviour and Decision-Making in Retail Environments

Summary of Funding:
• Funding from Industry Partner: £20,000
• Knowledge Transfer Partnership: £200,000 (Under Review)

Project Details:
In collaborations with a global retail partner, my ongoing work analyzes high-frequency clickstream and transactional data to understand how digital content architectures shape the consumer journey. One project, currently in data collection, investigates how interactive hero-image hotspots alter early-stage navigation by shifting consumers from traditional scrolling to more targeted clicking pathways. This makes it possible to assess whether hotspot-based navigation guides customers toward higher-value information, reduces search effort, or changes the sequence of content they engage with. A second project, also currently in data collection, evaluates how the structure of in-page content affects information processing and conversion. This includes whether product information should be visible by default or revealed through a ‘show more’ interaction, and how different modules, such as comparison tables, videos, augmented reality features, and user-generated content, perform across product categories that vary in complexity, price, and consumer involvement. This line of work aims to understand how website interface design influences consumers’ attention, cognitive load, and downstream choice, while providing prescriptive insights to optimize product-page design for brands and retailers.