From understanding buyers’ eye movements to measuring brain activity when we’re shopping, decision science is becoming a market research norm. Author Phil Barden sheds light on the methods and approaches used by Decode Marketing to understand why people do the things they do.

Push for a pizza, swipe for a cleaner and tap for a taxi. The rise of apps like Uber is facilitating the culture of ‘I want it, and I want it now’. For digital-savvy city-dwellers from London to Beijing, everything you need – from your dinner to a ride home – is just an app away.

Only 0.6% of online shopping is driven by social media, compared to e-mail, which drives 27%. Can Facebook’s Buy button, integrated into newsfeeds, encourage people to spend more when they're on social media? And are retailers really welcome on such a personal platform?

As the smartphone becomes an increasingly useful way to make purchases online, research shows that mobile shopping drives more impulse buys than any other platform. The Europe-wide study found that of 13.5 million mobile shoppers, 42% regularly buy ‘on impulse’ via smartphone.