Psychology of E-Commerce: How to Sell Online
How this course will help your career
What you will learn
- How decisions are made, and which part of the brain is really the web designer’s customer
- How to create an online environment in which people feel part of a larger group, where they are grateful for your service, and show that through purchasing your products and services
- How to know where someone's attention will be focused on your site, and how to make use of even the shortest attention span to generate sales
- What the psychology of choice is, and how you can harness it
- How to use storytelling for content that focuses on the clients and builds their commitment
- How to tap into the subconscious drivers that underlie many purchasing decisions
- How a coherent narrative can make it easier for your customers to engage with you and stay engaged
- How to keep your customers coming back in an ethical manner, thus generating repeat sales
- How to design for sharing, the next big thing in online selling
“Customer engagement is the direct route to every important business objective. It’s the pathway to everything good that a business could want.”
— Customer Experience expert Micah Solomon in Forbes
Online competition is fiercer than ever—and if you want to create a website that outperforms industry benchmarks in a big way, it’s vital that you know how to utilize your design skills to keep users engaged. The more engaged users are, the more likely they are to turn into paying customers—people who will buy your products and services time and time again, remain loyal, and ultimately become ambassadors for your brand both on- and offline.
Executing e-commerce successfully isn't easy: 69% of users abandon their shopping carts before checking out, according to Baymard Institute, a UK-based web usability research organization.(1) That’s quite scary; what about the good news? Well, Baymard also found that many of the problems with e-commerce are solvable with changes to design.
There are many factors in designing great e-commerce experiences. You must know how to capture someone’s attention and present your goods and services in the optimal way. If you want customers who are committed, you’ll have to tell engaging stories and know how to build a long-term relationship.
In order to do all that, you will need to acquire and apply knowledge in human psychology. If you understand how your customers think, you can design for their needs. This course is based on tried and tested psychological techniques that bring together content and design so as to deliver hands-on advice for how to improve your web design and increase your customer engagement.
Gain an industry-trusted UX Course Certificate
You earn a verifiable and industry-trusted Course Certificate once you complete the course. You can highlight them on your resume, CV, LinkedIn profile or your website.

Our courses and Course Certificates are trusted by these industry leaders, who have taken up company memberships with the IDF:
Who should take this course
This is a beginner-level course, suitable for anyone wanting to take an online business to the next level:
- UX designers looking to design persuasive experiences to improve the conversion rate of e-commerce sites
- Project managers interested in building online businesses that engage shoppers
- Software engineers seeking to gain an understanding of psychology, sociability, and design
- Entrepreneurs who want their online shops to take off and perform better than the competition
- Marketers looking to improve the entire sales funnel by adopting a user-centric approach
- Newcomers to design who are considering making a switch to UX or web design
Courses in the Interaction Design Foundation are designed to contain comprehensive, evidence-based content, while ensuring that the learning curve is never too steep. All participants will have the opportunity to share ideas, seek help with tests, and enjoy the social aspects afforded by our open and friendly forum.
Learn and work with a global team of designers
When you take part in this course, you will join a global multidisciplinary team working on the course and the exercises at the same time as you. You will work together to improve your skills and understanding. Your course group will be made up of an incredibly diverse group of professionals, all of whom have the same objective—to become successful designers. It’s your chance to learn, grow, and network with your peers across the planet.
37 Cart Abandonment Rate Statistics Baymard Institute
Lessons in this course
- Lessons become available at a schedule of one lesson per week.
- Lessons remain open for you forever and have no deadlines.
- There is no time limit to finish a course.
- You have permanent access to your course material, answers, and classmates for the entire duration of your membership.
- Estimated time to complete: 18 hours 12 mins spread over 10 weeks.
Lesson 0: Welcome and Introduction
Available once you start the course. Estimated time to complete: 47 mins.
Lesson 1: The Subconscious Mind – The Customer of Design
Available once you start the course. Estimated time to complete: 2 hours 55 mins.
Lesson 2: Introducing Social Validation
Available anytime after Dec 29, 2019. Estimated time to complete: 2 hours 19 mins.
Lesson 3: Design to Grab Attention
Available anytime after Jan 05, 2020. Estimated time to complete: 1 hour 18 mins.
Lesson 4: Choice is Not All That it Appears
Available anytime after Jan 12, 2020. Estimated time to complete: 2 hours 38 mins.
Lesson 5: It's all About Them, Gaining Commitment
Available anytime after Jan 19, 2020. Estimated time to complete: 1 hour 55 mins.
Lesson 6: Build Similarity and Then Make them Afraid to Lose
Available anytime after Jan 26, 2020. Estimated time to complete: 1 hour 43 mins.
Lesson 7: Learn to Tell a Story
Available anytime after Feb 02, 2020. Estimated time to complete: 1 hour 38 mins.
Lesson 8: Integrity Matters, Long-term Relationship Building
Available anytime after Feb 09, 2020. Estimated time to complete: 1 hour 33 mins.
Lesson 9: Sociability and Going Viral
Available anytime after Feb 16, 2020. Estimated time to complete: 1 hour 36 mins.
Lesson 10: Course Certificate, Final Networking, and Course Wrap-up
Available anytime after Feb 23, 2020.
Learning paths
This course is part of 2 learning paths:
How others have benefited

Hsin-Jou Lin, United States
“My major is Psychology and I'm now working in e-commerce. I've learned about from college, but don't have a chance to apply on real world. This course provides a step-by-step lesson for me to apply Psychology to my work.”

Fernando Martinez Carreon, Mexico
“Well, I've started with one of the courses and felt it was fair to write once again just to say you that you are a great team of human, cognitive and pedagogy centered professionals. I'm really glad that I've become a member and have all of these tons of information for self-paced learning, the content I read it's great so far!”
Natalie Verdon, Australia
“How wonderful.......I am looking forward to all I can learn and share with the community. You have a brilliant site and wonderful offerings.”
How to advance your career with IDF courses
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Attend lessons at your own pace
Each week throughout the course, you get access to a new lesson, but you can move through the lessons at your own pace. This means you can learn before you leave for work, or in between breaks — in as little as 15 minutes per day.
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Network online and offline
Network with your fellow course-takers online, through discussion forums inside lessons. You can also connect with your peers offline via IDF’s Local Groups. Local Groups connect you with other designers around your city who share the same passion in UX design as you.
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Advance your career
Get a verifiable and industry-trusted Course Certificate once you’ve scored at least 70% on a course. Highlight your Course Certificates on your résumé, your LinkedIn profile, or your website to showcase your newly mastered skills.
Start advancing your career now
Become a member to take “Psychology of E-Commerce: How to Sell Online”. Take any other IDF UX courses at no additional cost. Take a concrete step forward in your career path today.