Measuring Consumer Engagement in the Brain to Online Interactive Shopping Environments

Abstract

Online shopping environments are becoming more interactive as technology advances. As a result, it is necessary to explore marketing theories and neuro scientific explanations to why this is the case. A reviewed approach of consumer engagement to online interactive shopping environments is considered in this chapter. The online interactive elements of traditional fashion websites that are considered includes; social media, browsing and videos. Measurements of consumer engagement are reviewed via marketing consumer engagement theories (CE) and a cognitive neuroscience technique using an Electroencephalogram (EEG) (A non-invasive procedure measuring the brain's electrical activity). ASOS.com, the U.K. top fashion online pure player, is used as a preliminary research study, the results demonstrate that engagement is significantly different in social media, video and browsing tasks and browsing for jackets online elicits more engagement. Originality of this research stems from the novel way to look at engagement and the ability to combine traditional and non-traditional marketing methods thus addressing emerging fields of the future such as virtual shopping.