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Comment by krapp | Hacker News Reader

>I don't understand why it took COVID to make companies realize that "hey, a large part of your clientele don't want to wander your aisles."

Because making shoppers wander the aisles leads them to buy more things than they intended to. There's a reason best-selling items are always placed at eye level.

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>Because making shoppers wander the aisles leads them to buy more things than they intended to. There's a reason best-selling items are always placed at eye level.

And the dairy or automotive sections are nowhere near the entrance. They want you to impulse buy some cookies or a $5 DVD on your way to get milk or an oil change.

Ehhh I like to peruse the apps for new stuff I've never tried before. It's easier to impulse shop in an app than it is to bounce back and forth between aisles.

For example you might see a novel ingredient in the ethnic food section of the app, go look up a recipe that includes it, add all the rest of the ingredients all without putting on pants.

Not only that, there is real money made in in-store product placement (end caps) etc.

Less foot traffic, less money.

What prevents that from happening in a web-based experience?

They try. For example Instacart shows you "recommended" items at multiple places in the shopping flow. However I think there is some sort of limit here because it feels more explicit. If I search for something it is obvious when you are putting results that don't match in my way. In the store it is easy not to realize that the things that you want are intentionally spread out.

Mostly, limited visual field. Screens aren't able to lure you in through peripheral vision

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