In March, I had the pleasure of speaking at the E-commerce Challenge conference in Warsaw, where I gave a presentation on applying behavioural economics to customer journey design and e-commerce technology decisions.

What I wanted to highlight most is that effective online sales – the kind that creates value on both sides – doesn’t come from looking at competitors. It comes from understanding people: their emotions, their non-obvious decisions, and the psychological mechanisms that shape what they buy (or don’t buy) every day.

In my work, I rely heavily on data – whenever there’s a problem, I go deep into the numbers. But I see data and technology as only half of the equation. The other half is understanding why customers make decisions: how they think, what they feel, and what either motivates or blocks them at different stages of the journey. That’s the perspective I aimed to bring into this talk – connecting decision psychology with real, practical e-commerce solutions.

During the presentation, I focused on three key behavioural economics mechanisms and mapped them to specific stages of the customer journey:

• Decision paralysis – at the discovery stage
  At this point, customers are often overwhelmed by too many options. I talked about the “paradox of choice” and why strong UX practices and thoughtful personalisation matter – from filtering and recommendation frameworks to clear offer segmentation.
• Prospect theory – at the consideration stage
  This is where decisions stop being neutral. Loss aversion, framing effects, and the way offers are presented all start to play a major role. I showed how elements like product bundles or promotional communication can directly influence decision-making.
• Mental accounting – at the decision stage
  At the final stage, customers rely on “mental accounting.” I explored how payment methods – such as BNPL, instalments, or micro-payments – shape how cost is perceived across different price levels.

I strongly believe that understanding human behaviour – in the context of data and technology – is critical today. It’s what allows marketing not only to drive profit, but also to create real value for customers. In a world increasingly focused on tools, it’s worth stepping back and asking how those tools actually influence human behaviour.

Thank you to everyone who attended – for your attention, thoughtful questions, and engaging discussion after the talk.