What role do visual branding elements play in driving consumer trust and purchase intent in both digital and physical marketplaces?

Abstract

This research looks at how consumers' trust and intent to purchase are influenced by the visual branding components across both online and physical retail environments. Color, logos, and human images, and even packaging, have been studied separately, but less research has been conducted on the combinations and differences between offline and online contexts of them. The study began to address this gap in the research by employing a mixed-methods study: qualitative data were gathered from semi-structured interviews with 5–6 participants to learn about participants’ perceptions of branding, and quantifiable data were obtained from the survey of 50 respondents to assess evidence of consumer preferences. This analysis builds on some of the existing scholarship, such as Pelet and Papadopoulou (2012), who looked at how the color of a website can influence consumer mood, memorization, and intent to purchase. Zhang and Huang (2024), as well, showed the importance of using human images in the retail offline context, while Clement et al. (2025) stated that packaging design is a more holistic trust cue. The analysis showed that both color and logo clarity on the website are trusted cues regardless of the type of strategy used, particularly in a digital context, where impressions are visual, and impressions are typically the only means of assessment (van Rompay et al., 2021). In opposing spaces, physical packaging and environmental cues were identified as the most impactful, corroborated by Clement et al.'s (2025) findings regarding the efficacy of intentionally embedding packaging design cues across different products sold in physical environments. Ultimately, the study indicates that consumer trust and intent to purchase develop primarily from seeing multiple visual signals converge together, demonstrating the value of deploying a brand strategy that considers the context as a whole.