05/10/2017
eBay`s `The Art of Shopping` Looking to Revitalise the Online Shopping Experience
eBay teamed up with Saatchi Art to open its doors for the public to understand the art of shopping in a two-day experience which has just closed on Mortimer Street, London. The experience which closed today – 5th October 2017 was designed to give shoppers (and, subsequently, sellers) a better understanding of the buying experience and perhaps learn something about themselves as a shopper.
Electroencephalogram Headband
Visitors were each given an electroencephalogram headband to wear, which monitored their reaction to a range of exhibits. From these reactions, it tells you what inspires you in the shopping world. eBay were looking for a better understanding and comparison of their so-called `beige` shopping to colourful, `inspired` shopping.
Neuroscientific research was conducted by eBay at looked at `beige` vs `inspired` shopping - which can result in either fatigue or a prolonged `high` in the brain. Teamed with MyndPlay – leaders in data tech, eBay could get a great insight into how British people can get the pleasure back into shopping.
The experience uses a wide range of colourful products which are offered by some of eBay 200,000 business sellers in the UK – proving to be a useful showcase for these products as well.
Different Shoppers
The research shows that British shoppers generally fall into one of two categories – inspired shoppers and shop-y cats.
The inspired shoppers were those who are intuitive with their shopping, buying things that they really want. Data shows that 84% of the inspired shoppers had a prolonged mental high when they had bought an item that they really wanted.
Shop-y cat shoppers, in contrast are those who buy items mainly so that they can fit in. 49% of the population are self-confessed `shop-y cats` and they only experience a short `high` at the time of checkout. What`s more, the research shows that 82% of the `shop-y cats` also felt pressure whilst browsing, and this increased mental fatigue every 10 mins by 30%.
The Future
People who took part in the experience then received a print out of the data which was collected about them – including details of potentially `inspiring` buys specific to them. eBay are hoping that they can help shoppers to begin to get more enjoyment out of the shopping experience and start to turn `shop-y cat` buyers into inspired ones.
If eBay can be successful at this, they will start seeing great results not only for them, but also for the thousands of businesses which sell on their platform.