Persuasive Digital Interfaces and Consumer Purchase Intention: The Role of Cognitive Biases in Online Retail Environments

The evolution of technology has led to the evolution of shopping, and it’s become much more persuasive and influential in the decision-making process of consumers in the digital world. This study was designed to explore the effect of scarcity cues, urgency cues, celebrity endorsement, social proof mechanisms and deceptive pricing on the purchase intention in an online shopping context. The data collected from 186 participants was analyzed quantitatively through a statistical analysis and qualitatively through a thematic analysis, thus applying a mixed-methods research design. All persuasive digital strategies were found to be effective at boosting purchase intention. Social proof (M = 4.44), celebrity endorsement (M = 4.37), and scarcity (M = 4.27) had the highest mean purchase intention scores, respectively; however, Bonferroni-corrected pairwise comparisons showed only the difference between social proof and scarcity was statistically significant (p = .039), and the differences involving celebrity endorsement did not reach significance after Bonferroni correction. Most notably, the awareness of hidden-fee pricing was related in the positive direction to purchase continuation (ρ = 0.661, p < .001), the opposite of the prediction, indicating there is no resistance to the practice of hidden-fee pricing when it is known, with important consequences for consumer protection policies. The qualitative analysis also revealed that the factors of trust, popularity, emotional appeal and perceived value significantly influenced consumer decision-making. The study focuses on how persuasive digital interfaces can affect consumer behaviour online psychologically. The results have a significant implication for designing platforms ethically, consumer protection policies, and digital literacy programs in digital retail settings.