Can a face on pack help a brand stand out in grocery e-commerce environments?

Faces inherently capture our attention, allowing our brains to quickly determine whether a new individual poses a threat. This natural tendency has been leveraged by brands to attract consumer attention in advertising, but the contribution of a face to attract attention on pack has yet to receive much attention. In this study, we examine whether incorporating a face on product packaging enhances its visibility in online supermarkets. Our research indicates that unlike in advertising, faces do not have a significant positive effect on a packaging visibility in an online shopping context. The likely reason is that the reduction of facial image size to a thumbnail on screen renders them ineffectual as emotion communication devices. Therefore, there is no online attentional advantage that would encourage packs without a face to add one to their pack design, nor is there any disadvantage if packs take a face off their pack in an online setting.