Sofie Moens

Sofie is a PhD researcher in Business Economics at Hasselt University and Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Sofie’s research focuses on enhancing the online shopping experience. She mainly conducts quantitative research (i.e., online scenario-based experiments).

Online shopping keeps growing. However, consumers cannot touch and test products before making a purchase, which can lead to uncertainty and hesitation. As a result, consumers often must imagine interacting with a product and how it feels. In her doctoral research, Sofie studies how this mental imagination can be used to improve the online shopping experience. She examines two types of imagination: automatic (which happens when seeing vivid pictures/descriptions) and deliberate (triggered by instructions). In addition, she investigates whether mental images in a webshop can be influenced by connections between different senses. For example, a lighter colour (vision) makes you expect a softer product (touch). In summary, Sofie’s research aims to examine the distinction between automatic and deliberate imagery and the role of sensory cues in shaping consumer perceptions and decisions in online stores.