Channel as a Choice Architect: Why Where We Buy Shapes What It’s Worth
Let’s get one thing straight: where a customer buys is just as important as what they buy.
Whether it’s tapping through a mobile app, browsing Amazon at midnight, or walking into a store, the channel defines the experience, the decision-making process, and ultimately, the price customers are willing to pay.
When choice architecture is tailored to channel, it captures attention, elevates perceived value, and reduces price sensitivity. Same product, different channel, completely different outcome.
🧠 Channel Shapes the Psychology of Choice
In the book Nudge, behavioral economists Thaler and Sunstein, found that subtle shifts in how choices are presented can dramatically influence what customers choose. In most industries, channel is the frame.
Channel sets the stage for expectations, attention, and trust. It shapes what a customer finds fair, premium, risky, or convenient. This is context sensitivity in action. Channel influences how customers perceive value and what they’re willing to pay.
🖥️ E-Commerce Websites: Comparison is King
Think Amazon or Walmart.com. Customers land here in search mode. Price filters, customer reviews, and “was $199, now $129” anchors dominate the experience.
This is the land of choice overload. Too many options and too much transparency push customers to optimize price over brand. In one classic experiment by social psychologists Iyengar and Lepper, shoppers that were presented with 24 flavors of jam were far less likely to buy any flavor of jam than those offered just 6 choices. Online marketplaces often face this dilemma. Customers that have too many options often feel less satisfied and are more likely to delay purchase.
In this setting, brand differentiation is diluted, and price becomes the primary decision factor. Winning brands prioritize high-ranking product listings, use strikethrough pricing and bundles to anchor value, and optimize reviews and SEO to stand out in a comparison-heavy environment.
📱 Branded Apps: Frictionless, Yet Framed
Now, compare that to apps from brands like Nike, Sephora, or Starbucks. Here, the environment is tightly curated. You’re not browsing 100 versions of the same thing. Instead, you’re moving through a more curated, frictionless experience.
Customers on branded apps tend to spend more, with higher AOVs and repeat purchase rates compared to other digital shoppers. They are less likely to comparison shop and more likely to engage with “members-only” discounts, product drops, or point-based rewards. This aligns with research on commitment devices and goal-gradient effects, where branded apps and embedded loyalty programs increase perceived value by signaling exclusivity and progress toward rewards. Value is framed in emotional and experiential terms, not just price.
Leaders here design app-exclusive bundles, serve personalized pricing and loyalty offers, and streamline the experience to reinforce brand value over price.
📟 Touchscreens and In-Store Kiosks: Deliberate Friction
Ordering kiosks at McDonald’s or Shake Shack don’t just speed things up. They strategically slow them down to introduce intentional friction.
Customers spend more per order at kiosks compared to the front counter. Kiosks prompt you to customize your product, add extras, and see pricing adjust as you go. The process is designed to slow down decision-making just enough to drive customization and upsell. Behavioral science supports this. The endowment effect and effort justification suggest that when customers configure their own order, they value it more. They are also willing to pay more.
Top brands that use in-store kiosks build dynamic menus that upsell extras, visually reinforce customization, and subtly slow the process to increase average order value.
🛍️ Traditional In-Store Shopping: Sensory and Impulsive
In a physical retail setting like Target or Best Buy, purchase decisions are driven by visual placement, packaging, and real-time availability.
Sensory experience dominates, and shoppers tend to overvalue items that are physically present due to availability bias. Eye-level placement, packaging, and even lighting influence purchase behavior. The human presence of a store associate can build trust or drive urgency.
Impulse purchases also surge here. The checkout zone is a masterclass in behavioral nudging. A well-placed endcap or cross-sell display influences choice more than price does. Tactile interaction with a product increases perceived ownership, which raises willingness to pay.
Successful brands secure eye-level shelf space, use bold packaging and urgency messaging, and train staff to guide customers toward higher-margin products.
🧑💼 Salesperson-Led Experiences: Guided Selling
Guided selling, a common fixture in B2B sales, is increasingly appearing in B2C environments. Think luxury retailers, car dealerships, or high-end fitness showrooms like Peloton.
Unlike online comparison shopping, guided selling shapes preferences in real time. When information is delivered verbally and interactively, customers focus more on benefits than price. A skilled salesperson walks the customer through tailored options, recommends upgrades or bundles, and builds perceived value before introducing price. The longer pricing is delayed, the more invested the buyer becomes in co-creating the solution. This not only increases average order value but also creates more flexible buyers who are anchored to the outcome and not the discount.
Winners in this model equip their sales teams with ROI tools, needs-based bundling, and discovery-led sales flows that emphasize value before price.
🧭 Pricing Starts with Channel Strategy
Channel isn’t just how you reach customers. It’s how you influence them. It influences how value is perceived, how pricing lands, and how confident a customer feels when buying.
Winning brands design channel experiences that guide decisions and unlock pricing power.
As you plan your channel strategy, ask:
• Are we creating experiences that make our prices feel worth it?
• Where can we improve value perception instead of changing prices?
• How can we better capture value in each channel we use?
Looking to align your channel strategy with your pricing? FintastIQ can help.
