From shelf to screen–five guidelines for getting consumers’ attention when selling fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) online

With the rise of online retailing, consumers increasingly make purchase decisions based on small, thumbnail-sized product images, often displayed in grid formats. This shift introduces new challenges for packaging design, particularly for fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), because size, shape, and material of the packaging—physical cues that in-store consumers use to quickly identify the products they seek—are indiscernible in online stores. This paper offers five guidelines for designing graphic elements of packaging made for display in online marketplaces. The guidelines derive from interviews with five professional packaging designers (study 1) and subsequently tested with eye-tracking in a laboratory environment (study 2). Patterns of eye movements from 61 respondents revealed that packaging designed according to the five guidelines drew significantly more visual attention and had higher customer interactions. Implementation and implication for professional designers is debated in a final section together with needs for further research.