How Psychology Nudges Are Used to Make us Spend More

The Magic of Carpets with Ugly Patterns

Casinos use carpeted floors as it encourage customers to walk slower and stay longer. They use carpets with ugly patterns because they want you to find them unappealing in order to shift your focus towards the game tables or slot machines. Furthermore, many experts believe that eye-catching designs are intentionally chosen to contribute to keep players awake and alert. The intense patterns and colors stimulate the senses and keep the mind engaged, making it less likely that players will feel drowsy or fatigued.

Floored by Design: Walk this Way

Businesses also uses floor design to alter our behavior by e.g. using black and white tiles in busy areas such as walkways in malls. High contrast floors (like black and white tiles) can create a sense of movement or busyness. This might subconsciously influence our walking speed, which is by many thought to influence us walk faster between stores, so that more stores per time unit are visited in the mall. Some even postulate that black and white tiles (diagonally placed) makes our subconscious feel that the floor is too busy/visually noisy, and we want to escape that visually distorting sensation by walking into a store instead.

Carpeted floors encourage customers to walk slower and stay longer. Thus, department stores will often place carpets in areas where customers are more likely to browse and discover products that they did not initially intend to buy.

Duty-free stores e.g. in airports attempts to maximize sales by leading you to take long windy pathways in a serpentine layout. These are designed to expose you to a wide range of merchandise which increases the chance you will see something that catches your eye and leads to a purchase. This drives increase sales for the store. A study by aviation consulting group InterVistas found that duty-free shops arranged in a serpentine configuration achieve sales up to 60% cent higher than those in a more conventional pattern.

According to InterVistas, more sales are generated if a walkway curves from left to right with more merchandise and space on the right side because passengers are looking right (because most of us are right-handed and therefore are more inclined to look right) while (perhaps unconsciously) walking left.

Additional tactics by duty-free stores, besides layout, to encourage sales:

• Product placement: High-margin items are often placed at eye level or near the cash register.
• Promotional displays: Eye-catching displays with special offers can tempt customers.
• Limited-time deals: Creating a sense of urgency can encourage impulse purchases.

Flooring can also affect our judgement. If a “comfy” product like a duvet is placed in an area with carpeted flooring, we are more likely to judge the duvet’s comfort level negatively in comparison. Consequently, some stores will place the “comfy” items on hard floors to prompt us to evaluate the product based on its “comfy” and soft quality in contrast to its surroundings, which would make us more inclined to like it, and thereby buy it.

Making the Road Paint a Pretty Picture

The main street in Disneyland is painted in a specific pink color because it gives a subconscious vibe of lightness, play or playfulness, and it complements the surrounding greens, creating a visually pleasing and harmonious color scheme. This can make the surroundings foliage and overall scene appear more vibrant.

Milking the Customers

Grocery stores strategically place milk in the back of the store for a two-fold reason to encourage customers to buy more groceries:

1. Increased Exposure
   Milk is a frequently purchased staple item. By placing it far from the entrance, customers have to walk through a significant portion of the store to get it. This exposes them to a wider range of products, potentially leading to impulse purchases or reminding them of forgotten items on their list.
   
2. Planning Disruption
   Since milk is a necessity for many households, it often acts as a trip anchor. People plan their shopping trips around picking up milk. Placing it in the back disrupts that plan. While shoppers may still just be there for milk, the disruption can lead them to browse more and potentially add more items to their cart.