Are hands more popular? Here are some tips for product display pictures

There is a recent report that contains an interesting survey. The report points out that when selling online, if there is a virtual touch such as a human hand touching the product in the product display picture, it will arouse consumers' curiosity and desire to buy more than the product alone.

Behavioral economists have previously shown that people value objects more if they own them, a concept known as the endowment effect. Marketers have used this concept to find that even if consumers just touch an item in a store, they will want to own it.

Therefore, based on this psychological concept, the researchers investigated about 4,535 posts from four companies on Instagram. Among these posts, 43% showed products with hands, such as grabbing a Starbucks latte against the background of autumn leaves, or opening the latest Samsung smartphone with hands, etc. And these posts with body or hand touching the products received about 65% more likes than pictures without virtual touch .

In order to obtain more accurate results, the researchers also recruited 144 students and asked them to wear headphones and conduct a scenario simulation experiment.

The students were taken to a simulated sportswear store, where they could look around the virtual store 360 ​​degrees. Then a red T-shirt appeared on a rack. For one-third of the students, they could see a virtual hand touch the T-shirt, while for one-third of the students, they only saw a cursor appear on the T-shirt.

After the simulation, the researchers asked the students how much they would pay for the shirt, up to $30. The students who saw their hands touching the shirt were willing to pay an average of 33 percent more than those who didn’t see their hands touching the shirt .

After various tests, the researchers found that when people "touch" a product, they are more willing to pay for it, even if the "hand" is just a blue cartoon hand.

Therefore, when shopping in stores, shop assistants often encourage customers to touch the products. As online shopping becomes more and more common, many businesses are trying to replicate the sensory experience of touching products in stores, such as formulating a relaxed return policy to allow consumers to try before buying. Studies have found that businesses that provide similar services will have higher sales than other businesses.

Many businesses also put a lot of effort into product images, such as adding hand models when taking photos, so that consumers can have a sense of "proxy satisfaction". Researchers say that when consumers see such images, they will have the illusion that the virtual hand is their own hand, which increases their psychological sense of belonging to the product, thereby increasing product sales.

Product display picture

Hand Model