Whether you agree or not, most people are visual creatures. The human brain is designed to process images many times faster than text. You may not realize it, but each color impacts your mood in a certain way. The fact that you have a favorite color is proof of this.
In light of how pivotal color is to creating images and perceptions, the colors you use in the design of your website should be carefully selected. If yours is an e-commerce website, you might be curious about the influence of color on your target customers’ decision to buy. You might be surprised to learn that according to psychology experts, the color of products makes up 85% of the decision to buy.
What Is Color Psychology?
Color psychology seeks to establish the degree to which color affects human behavior. How important is color to buyer behavior in particular? Up to 90% of impromptu purchase decisions have been found to be based on their color alone.
Knowing what colors will lead to a positive perception of your brand and influence buyers to choose your products over others will be beneficial to you when making marketing decisions. It will help you know what signature colors to use or which colors to include in your logo, for instance.
However, you need to remember that the effect of color will vary from person to person depending on their past experiences and their cultural background among other factors. You also need to bear in mind that one color can mean different things in different contexts. Green, for instance, can symbolize growth or environmental consciousness, but it is also known as the color of the dollar.
Colors and Sales
Here is a brief description of how different colors and the feelings they convey can be used to boost the appeal of your products.
- Red
Red is a good example of a color that evokes a variety of different emotions. As the color of blood, it brings up feelings of injury and war. But when the 14th of February rolls around, the whole world is draped in red in commemoration of the day of love.
Whichever of these feelings red evokes in you, there can be no denying that this color grabs the attention as few others do. This is why it is used on elements such as buttons and banners that highlight items on sale.
- Yellow
Another color that easily grabs the eyeballs is yellow. But it also has the ability to evoke more than one emotion depending on how rich its tone is and the colors it is combined with. A deep yellow combined with black is used to create the hazard signs associated with danger.
Lighter shades of yellow bring to mind the warmth of the sun and the happiness associated with it. Its ability to evoke positive emotions and catch the eye has made it the go-to color for ‘Add To Cart’ buttons in a large number of online stores.
- Orange
Orange is also ideal for conveying feelings of optimism. Coca-Cola has used this color to give its Fanta product an aura of fun and youthful vibrancy. The brightness of orange has been used by web designers to bring attention to buttons that lead visitors to place orders on items on a number of major e-commerce websites.
- Purple
Purple has, since time immemorial, been associated with opulence and luxury. For this reason, people in times past used it in abundance when dressing royalty or decorating their quarters.
In marketing terms, savvy marketers usually deploy purple for products that they intend to portray as high-end. You could use subtle touches of purple in an area of your site you wish to sell your higher-value items or an area only accessible to premium customers.
- Blue
Traditionally, blue was the go-to color for banks wishing to project an image of stability and trustworthiness. If you’re in the financial services sector, you can think of incorporating this color in your app’s interface or key components of your site.
Another quality commonly associated with blue is relaxation. Blue skies and seas will cue most minds to their last, or next, vacation. The websites of many service providers in the tours and travels naturally feature prominent pictures of these blue elements.
Choosing Your Own Palette
Getting the combination of colors that will trigger the desired psychological cues in the minds of your target audience requires a good amount of research. You need to get into the minds of potential buyers and find out what makes them tick. After that, you need to come up with a strategy to incorporate those crucial colors into your website branding to achieve the envisaged psychological effect.
As a small business getting started in the Big Apple, you may not have the capacity to achieve this in-house. You will therefore want to work with the best web development company in New York to determine the right mix of design elements for you. They will ensure that your site not only has colors that grab the eye, but will also entice visitors to make a decision to place an order.
