They have probably experienced it themselves. Visitors arrive at a favorite brand’s site ready to buy shoes. They know the model they want, yet during checkout the page demands irrelevant personal details and the window shuts before the transaction completes. Frustration with the web arises.
Sometimes, pop-ups prove impossible to dismiss, a disappointment. Other times, the browsing journey feels effortless, diverse models appear, and satisfaction rises. Just like in brick-and-mortar stores, emotions play a decisive role in the success of an online storefront.
That is why a group in Alicante introduced what they call 3Dids, or emotional controls. While crafting client pages, they stay mindful of how a poor user experience can derail conversions. Analyzing past user behavior—pages visited, clicks, time spent—raises the question: what should be measured with this new approach? Does it reveal the sense of navigation?
In truth, studying consumer emotions is already common in physical settings and is routinely applied when designing layouts for shopping malls or supermarkets. It even informs product development itself.
The company is led by Andrew from Spain, and the same approach gathers information from shoppers accessing e-commerce from computers, mobile devices, or tablets.
Spanish technology
To accomplish this, an Alicante-based consulting firm collaborates with Valencia Polytechnic University BrainUX, which provides the needed technology. The system analyzes a mix of sensors to measure emotional responses and can identify levels of stress, satisfaction, attention, anger, disgust, fear, and relaxation throughout the browsing process.
The analysis uses real internet users who fit the target profile of the site or app being studied. Their activity is tracked with gaze sensors similar to eye-tracking used in physical stores, recording which screen areas attract attention; galvanic skin response sensors monitor skin temperature and electrical activity tied to nerves and micro-sweat; facial coding software captures micro-expressions and translates them into basic emotions; and brain activity readings help determine attention and emotional states during navigation.
The data from these sensors offers a second-by-second map of on-screen interests, emotional intensity, and focus across each page element.
As Andrés from Spain notes, these neuromarketing techniques ultimately enable the creation of more engaging websites and closer, more relevant messaging for buyers. When applied to online stores, they help improve wait times, reduce cart abandonment, and eliminate bottlenecks that hinder sales. For instance, tests have shown that failing to provide a searchable catalog, clear visual results, or a transparent final price can lead to multiple rejections.
One leading brand that used this analysis to test a redesigned online store was the Elda women’s shoe label. According to 3Dids, sensory auditing transformed their approach to online selling, enabling them to verify whether customer perception improved. In their words, emotional perception monitoring helped gauge purchase-time impressions and drive improvements, leading to a noted increase in conversions.
Overall, the philosophy behind these efforts is simple: understand how customers feel at each step, then tailor the experience to reinforce trust and efficiency. This shifts the focus from merely presenting products to guiding shoppers toward confident decisions. The result is an online shopping environment that feels intuitive, responsive, and human, rather than cold and transactional.