The Application of Self-Determination Theory in the Market

As the total revenue of the digital market grows every year, the transactions and the communication between the customers and the shops depersonalizes more and more. The relationships that used to form in the bounds of the local market of each shopper, seems to decline or even vanish over the years, leading to make most of the individuals feel that they are small individual units with no impact at all.

Based on the self-determination theory, the three innate needs, of autonomy, competence and relatedness can bring satisfaction, create the feeling of connection and belonging, engage and motivate the users on most of the social groups that it applies. The application of this theory on the digital market could possible resolve the issue of the minimized and discredited role of the shopper. A mechanism osculated on the existing e-commerce platforms that provides solutions for the three basic needs of the self-determination theory could be the missing and forgotten attribute of the modern digital market.

The project of my thesis provides stage to the modern customer and fulfils all the needs of the self-determination theory, by adding modulated actions based on the existing e-commerce platforms. The user can feel autonomy by expressing their opinion on altering an attribute on specific products, get related with other users and form groups that could possibly act as teams that express a cause and finally users can compete each other, either as individuals or as teams.