The current times we live in are some of deep transformation. From the rise of digital
technologies to the increased realisation of the importance of health, the pandemic has
revolutionized human behaviour. According to EyeSee Research (2020), the year following
the pandemic, 2020, fostered the rise of the wellness economy, an economy where consumers
have an increased focus on wellbeing and health when it comes to their purchase of consumer
goods. Such consumers also tend to have strong environmental preservation values. With the
rise in the usage of information technologies such as e-commerce web sites, our decision
making now strongly occurs in virtual environments (Djurica and Figl, 2017). Hence, with the
increase of choices made in online environments, and the upbringing of new consumer
expectations in an economy generating profit from wellness, it has become the duty of e-
commerce designers and marketers to better understand and influence the online consumer.
The discipline of behavioural economics, which originated in the 1970s, can offer designers
and marketers valuable insights into consumer behaviour. It led to the concept of nudging, a
practice aiming to help humans to make the best decisions. In the rising wellness economy,
marketers role is to respect the new expectations of consumers and to use nudging in a way
that encourages the choice of consumer goods that contribute to their wellbeing or respect the
environment. Such online choices are influenced by the design of the choice environment in
which information is presented (Schneider, vom Brocke and Weinmann, 2016). This has led to
an increased realisation of the effects of digital nudges in online environments which can
enable marketers to lead users to desirable choices and respect new consumer motivations
(Schneider, vom Brocke and Weinmann, 2016).
