The Psychology of Online Sales: The Beginner's Guide

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How This Course Will Help Your Career

Selling online 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 online stores are solvable with changes to design.

How do you design to capture someone’s attention and then focus that attention where you want it? Also, once you've attracted potential clients to your website, how do you present your goods and services so that they will buy them? For that, you will need to acquire and apply knowledge in human psychology—how to design to persuade the subconscious mind, compete with competitor sites so as to grab your users’ attention, and retain your customers in order to build a long-term relationship. These may sound like a huge range of skills to take on; happily, though, this course covers every aspect you’ll need. It's based on tried and tested psychological techniques that bring together content and design so as to deliver increased sales and increased profits.

We have designed the lessons in this course to help you overcome barriers to online selling. By gaining an understanding of how your customers think, you will have the knowledge to drive sales with the confidence to know that your web design is working for you and your customers.

What you will learn

  • How decisions are made in the brain via the subconscious mind, 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 to generate sales rather than turn customers off
  • How to use powerful wording choices for content that focuses on the client and builds their commitment to a purchase from you
  • How to tap into the subconscious drivers that steer people into buying a product or service.
  • 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

Who should take this course

This is a beginner-level course suitable for those from any walk of life who want 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
  • Anyone who is intending to set up his/her own online business, product, or service

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.

1 37 Cart Abandonment Rate Statistics, Baymard Institute

Gain an Industry-Recognized UX Course Certificate

Use your industry-recognized Course Certificate on your resume, CV, LinkedIn profile or your website.

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Our courses and Course Certificates are trusted by these industry leaders:

Our clients: IBM, HP, Adobe, GE, Accenture, Allianz, Phillips, Deezer, Capgemin, Mcafee, SAP, Telenor, Cigna, British Parliament, State of New York

Lessons in This Course

  • Each week, one lesson becomes available.
  • There’s no time limit to finish a course. Lessons have no deadlines.
  • Estimated learning time: 37 hours 32 mins spread over 10 weeks .

Lesson 0: Welcome and Introduction

To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 1 hour 43 mins.

Lesson 1: The Subconscious Mind – The Customer of Design

To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 5 hours 13 mins.

Lesson 2: Introducing Social Validation

To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 4 hours 39 mins.

Lesson 3: Design to Grab Attention

To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 3 hours 10 mins.

Lesson 4: Choice is Not All That it Appears

To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 6 hours 35 mins.

Lesson 5: It's all About Them, Gaining Commitment

To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 4 hours 17 mins.

Lesson 6: Build Similarity and Then Make them Afraid to Lose

To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 2 hours 52 mins.

Lesson 7: Learn to Tell a Story

To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 3 hours 17 mins.

Lesson 8: Integrity Matters, Long-term Relationship Building

To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 2 hours 49 mins.

Lesson 9: Sociability and Going Viral

To be scheduled. Estimated time to complete: 2 hours 56 mins.

Lesson 10: Course Certificate, Final Networking, and Course Wrap-up

To be scheduled.

How Others Have Benefited

Swetlana M Patil

Swetlana M Patil, India

“Influencing customers subconsciously by using the "no strings attached" trick was really interesting. Will definitely use that soon!”


Yvonne Doll

Yvonne Doll, United States

“I enjoyed the old, new, mid brain stuff and while I'm very familiar with techniques like reciprocation, having some of the micro details there about the types of things to give away that actually work is pretty cool.”


Ajith Bava

Ajith Bava, India

“I have implemented the things which I learned so far in this course in a small clearance sale campaign in our website. It was a simple webpage and I tweaked the design by applying the knowledge I gained so far. And the result was amazing, we had a very good turnover and the page performed so well in terms of User Experience.”

How It Works

  1. Take online courses by industry experts

    Lessons are self-paced so you’ll never be late for class or miss a deadline.

  2. Get a Course Certificate

    Your answers are graded by experts, not machines. Get an industry-recognized Course Certificate to prove your skills.

  3. Advance your career

    Use your new skills in your existing job or to get a new job in UX design. Get help from our community.

Start Advancing Your Career Now

Join us to take “The Psychology of Online Sales: The Beginner's Guide”. Take other courses at no additional cost. Make a concrete step forward in your career path today.

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