The last couple of years have demonstrated that life can go on by sitting home and shopping online. In fact, research shows that shopping online may make you live shorter: research and neuroscience has demonstrated through a series of findings, that it is not the disposition or a low fat gluten free diet that keeps people healthy. It is their emphasis on close personal relationships and face to face interactions.

How much you interact with people as you move through your day? How many people do you talk to? And this means both your weak and your strong bonds in life, an assistant at a shop may be? So not just the people with whom you are close to or mean a lot to you, but also the people with whom you might not be getting along or a sales assistant, the postman or the person that prepares the coffee for you. These interactions according to research are the strongest predictors of how long you live.

According to a 2019 Harvard University Study, an active social life may help you live longer. Therefore, it is important that you socialize with others in an environment and you interact physically. So the real question is, if we are spending more time online than on any other activity including sleeping – why distinguish between interacting in person and digital interaction? For example, why is it becoming inherently more important to go out physically shop vs shop online? Through MRI, it was evident that brain was reacting positively by meeting a person in person and certain brain areas were becoming much more engaged when interacting with a live partner. Our bodies signal that we are thinking, feeling, sentient human beings in that we are much more than an algorithm.

In short, Face to Face contacts release a whole cascade of neurotransmitters and like a vaccine, they protect you now in the present and well into the future. So simply making eye contact with somebody, shaking hands, giving somebody a high five, is enough to release oxytocin which increases your level of trust and lowers your cortisol levels. So it lowers your stress! And of course dopamine is generated which gives us a little high and kills pain – it is like a naturally produced morphine.

Shoppers fall in different categories from young, mobile, affluent, digitally connected to senior citizens. The one fact remains nonetheless is that environments where neurotransmitters are high can lead to more susceptibility and receptiveness to advertising. That is why, physical shopping along with mall advertising can offers brands the perfect environment for brand building or sales activation campaigns.