Last Updated on September 13, 2024
There are tons of online stores and ecommerce sites out there competing against each other, offering the best products and discounts possible. As a startup ecommerce business operator, what are your chances of success against those doing similar businesses? Do you have an innovative idea that can turn around your fortunes? Or do you bet on a special selling point that your competitors lack?
Here’s one idea that could make a serious difference to your business – understanding your buyer’s psychology. Now this can be an extremely difficult task. Understanding your buyer’s psychology or customer behavior can be more difficult than preparing your annual budget, filing your business taxes or auditing your inventory. There are several factors that influence a buyer’s decision and these can be hard to understand. Your customer’s behavior can be influenced by different elements like pricing, convenience, peers, images, reviews/content and many other factors.
To help you solve this mystery and to understand your buyer’s mentality better, here is a helpful guide.
The Choice of Device
The device your customer uses when shopping from your site is a good indication of your buyer’s urgency. Andy Ching of Bing, believes that 70% of mobile users who search for products online end up buying them within one hour. People looking for automobile parts on their mobile phones, for example, end up buying them most of the time, as opposed to desktop or laptop users. The latter usually tend to compare several sites or search for products with leisure intentions.
The logic behind this is very simple – shopping for products on mobile phones is cumbersome and not too enjoyable. Buyers often prefer to shop on mobile phones when there is urgency or an immediate intention to buy.
Contents / Product Reviews play a major role in influencing the psychology of buyers
Modern online buyers are seeking detailed information about the product they wish to buy, before making a choice. The need for good content and reviews is felt more today than it has ever been. This is primarily because of two reasons:
- Today, most gadgets, apparels and accessories are available in many different types, prices, and features. Take for example a simple rice cooker; buyers would love to know the different varieties of rice cookers available and read different rice cooker reviews before purchasing one. Moreover, online reviews are readily available for most products.
- Buyers are more interested in purchasing products that meet their needs, rather than products with generic benefits, that have little to do with their daily lives and personal situation.
Therefore, ecommerce business operators should focus more on offering product transparency. Video reviews are great. By helping a customer relate your product with their own personal lives, you will witness better conversions. Encourage your customers to share their experiences or review their new product, thereby helping other buyers.
Making communication easier
Many customers like to have personal conversation with a representative before buying a product. They believe that a representative can listen and understand their needs, help them with recommendations and make the entire process of purchasing a smooth one.
Shoppers these days want it quick and easy. While some people like to email the details, others like to have a live chat, while there are few customers who like to call and talk. A smart e-commerce operator would offer all these options to their customers. If your customer finds it too hard to make communications, he would simply hit the X button and go to your competitor’s site. And that’s the last thing you need as a growing e-commerce operator.
Emphasizing on Social links
Buyers are generally happier purchasing things that are recommended to them by someone they know well or have trust in. So make sure all the major product pages feature links to social sites including Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest. Your productive customers will let their friends know that they’ve just bought an awesome product from your store. It is also a natural method to advertise or market your product. You can encourage your customers to share their shopping experience on social networks and also reward them for doing it.
Pushing your customers with seasonal or limited offers
The age-old method of expressing scarcity of a product like saying “Hurry Up”, “Limited Offers” or “Seasonal Offers” still works. Researches show that buyers are still motivated by the idea that they may lose out on something scarce or limited. Even today, marketers use this effect with different tactics to make buyers believe that certain products or offers may soon be gone.
Honestly, no online business or marketing technique is effective enough to read their customer’s mind, behavior, habits or mood. However, paying heed to some of the clues suggested above can help you reduce abandonment of shopping carts, increase conversions and also boost repeat purchases. All the Best!!