The Effect of Color Psychology in Ecommerce: Influencing Customers with Colors

The world would be very dull if human eyes couldn’t detect colors. Colors not only provide us visual information about our surroundings, but also affect our thoughts, emotions, and behavior.

Color psychology is the analysis and study of how colors affect people in different situations. The concept of color psychology is often discussed in the field of marketing and advertising.

We can all be sure that colors affect our emotions and decisions. It is something that most people have personally experienced. Whether we are purchasing a t-shirt or a vehicle, the color of the product plays an important role. Businesses try to use this to their advantage by using specific color combinations to attract their target audience.

Color psychology is especially essential in e-commerce because their entire mode of operation is online. Research has shown that the visual appearance of a website is what attracts visitors most.

The color combination and layout of your website will be a deciding factor in influencing the customers to purchase your product or services.

So let’s get a better understanding of how different colors affect customers and how online businesses can benefit from it.

Color Psychology and Its Effects on People

The first point that we want to establish is the effect of colors on people. It’s not something that is very well defined. There are no fixed rules to state that a certain color creates a specific reaction.

In a world of 7.5 billion population, everyone perceives colors differently. But research and general observation do provide us with some hints and analysis.

Many lists are available on the internet that shows the different emotions and reactions associated with colors. For example, most people associate blue with peace, red with alertness or danger, yellow with heat or brightness, and so on. Currencies around the world have different colors, and yet we mostly associate money with the color green.

But while these common color trends hold true for most people, we must also remember that many other factors come into play. People belonging to separate age groups, gender, and countries have varying color preferences. So, to truly understand the effect of color psychology, such factors must be considered.

The Benefits of Color Psychology in E-Commerce

In E-commerce, the primary interaction between the business and its customers is through the website. And the website is a visual tool. A customer’s decision on whether to purchase a product or not is totally dependent on what they see on the site. That is where color psychology comes in handy.

Firstly, it’s important to understand one thing – using proper color combinations doesn’t guarantee immediate results. Just because you changed your website background from white to blue doesn’t mean that your sales will hit the roof in a day or two.

The effect of colors on people is subconscious and not instantaneous. And since there are no fixed guidelines, so finding the best color combination for an e-commerce site is a matter of trial and error.

However, to make things easier, we have listed some useful techniques to help you pick the right colors for your e-commerce site.

Understand colors

Majorly, there are six main colors – violet, blue, green, orange, yellow, red. Among these, red, yellow, and blue are primary colors. Mixing these primary colors, we can get the other three – orange, violet, and green – which are called secondary colors.

Further mixing any one primary color with a secondary color will give tertiary colors. Black, white, and grey are called achromatic colors.

Mixing any color with white will make it a bit lighter, and it’s called a tint. Similarly, mixing a color with black makes it darker and is called a shade. When a color is mixed with grey, it’s called a tone. Tints are soft and light, shades are strong and bold, while tones are balanced – neither too dull nor too strong.

Understanding your audience and their preference

Now that you know about the basic color schemes, the next step is to analyze your audience. It’s best to divide your target audience into different demographics, such as:

Age groups: To target teens, youths, and a younger audience, it’s better to use bright and vibrant colors such as yellow or red. For adults, subtle colors like blue and green seem more attractive.

Gender: Some studies show that females are more attracted to tints, which are often dull or light versions of a color. Shades, the bold and dark variation of color, are more effective for males.

Type of market: Certain colors have become associated with specific products over the years. Black is the most common choice for high-end and luxury products. Blue is mostly used for professional products and services, while green often represents products that are organic or eco-friendly.

Using the right color combinations

With so many color options, finding the best combinations isn’t easy. Of course, there are some standard combination techniques, such as complementary colors, monochromatic combinations, etc.

But those are just general concepts, and the main idea is to create contrast. For example, you can pick a soft tint of green as your website’s background, then use red tint for fonts and buttons to attract the viewer’s attention.

Many sites, especially those focusing on fashion products, also go for a black and white combination for their websites. It gives a minimalist vibe and makes it easier for customers to browse the products without distraction.

You will have to experiment with different colors before you find out what fits best. Try checking out the websites of other competitors in the market, especially those who are popular, to see what combinations they have used.

The background of your website should invoke a positive emotion within the viewer. But it should not be distracting. That is why bright or eye-catching colors may not be suitable for backgrounds. Instead, such colors are ideal for texts, highlights, and descriptions, where you want to draw the audience’s attention.

The Next Steps

Most articles that talk about color psychology in terms of marketing and sales repeat the same things – how blue reflects peacefulness, or red grabs attention, or purple shows intellect, etc.

Instead of going the same route, we have focused on the underlying factors that will help you to create your own color combination for your e-commerce business. Make use of these tips to attract more customers, and boost your sales gradually.