On November 4 and 5, 2024, the Festhalle Frankfurt hosted This is Marketing, a conference and trade fair for online marketing. We were there as speakers and talked about neuromarketing and nudging in e-commerce on the E-Com Stage. Here you can read what it was about and what online stores can take away from it.
This is Marketing 2024: the event at the Festhalle Frankfurt
For the 2024 edition, the organizer had announced more than 5,000 attendees, over 150 exhibitors and more than 80 speakers. The program combined talks with hands-on workshops and plenty of opportunities to connect. Topics included:
- Conversion optimization and funnel marketing: practical approaches that help online stores generate more revenue from their visitors.
- Content strategies: from effective sales copy to email marketing automation.
- Social media marketing: proven practices for Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok.
- Recruiting and employer branding: how companies position themselves as attractive employers.
This is Marketing speaker: our talk on the E-Com Stage
Our talk was titled “Neuromarketing and nudging: how psychological triggers revolutionize e-commerce.” The announced speakers were Anas Elimani, founder and Managing Director of Labrigart, and Damian Bungart, founder of the toothbrush brands nano and mate. The room was full to the last seat, and many listeners followed the talk standing.
The core message: emotions play a part in buying decisions
The talk was about how psychological principles and targeted nudges influence user behavior. A nudge is a small push in the design that steers people in a certain direction without taking any option away from them.
People do not buy with their heads alone. Emotions and fast, intuitive impressions play a part, and successful online stores design for that.
The fly in the urinal: an example of a nudge
One highlight of the talk was the example of the fly in the urinal. A printed fly serves as a target, so less goes astray and things stay cleaner. We applied this principle to the online store: without clear visual reference points, users “miss” the next step. This applies to product selection as much as to adding items to the cart or checking out.
Three levers for online stores
The main topics of the talk:
- Eye-catching calls to action: clear visual signals show where to go next and guide users without being pushy.
- Emotional triggers: scarcity and social proof, meaning hints at limited availability or at what other shoppers do, can speed up decisions.
- Intuitive navigation: frustration-free navigation guides customers through the purchase without obstacles.
In our talk, we emphasized that success in e-commerce does not depend on traffic and ads alone. What matters is whether a store understands the psychological needs of its visitors and responds to them deliberately. The combination of practice and psychology sparked many conversations afterwards. We explain the design rules behind this in detail in the 10 usability laws for e-commerce.
Added from today's perspective: scarcity and social proof only belong in a store if real data backs them up. Under the German Act against Unfair Competition (UWG), it is always unlawful toward consumers to falsely claim that an offer is only available for a very limited time in order to prompt an immediate decision. It is equally always unlawful to submit or commission fake consumer reviews, or to claim that reviews come from customers who actually bought or used the product without reasonably verifying this (UWG, Annex No. 7, 23b and 23c). False statements about a product's availability can also be unfair as misleading practices under Section 5 UWG. This classification does not replace legal advice.
What makes This is Marketing stand out as an event
The lineup combined international speakers with well-known names from the marketing industry. Attendees took away knowledge and new contacts and got to know the exhibitors' technologies on the trade fair floor.
The mix in the audience was special: young startups met established companies, all united by the goal of helping shape the future of marketing.
Conclusion
This is Marketing showed how much potential there is in the industry. For us, the talk underlined how important psychological approaches are for success in e-commerce. If you are interested in current developments in online marketing, Frankfurt offers talks, networking and a trade fair in one place.
We also talked about UX and conversion optimization (CRO) at the Founders League masterclass at the Motorworld Munich. The organizer publishes the dates and program of the next edition of This is Marketing at thisismarketing.de.
