See the best psychological methods to increase eCommerce store sales and grow your website store purchases by adding simple changes to your online shop.
We are all aware that the field of online shopping is constantly growing before our eyes. Some numbers to put things in perspective:
- In the US, online sales currently account for (only) 14% of total retail sales;
- In Europe, this number stands at 17%.
- 65% of all Internet users made at least one purchase in 2017 (about 1 billion+ users);
- An average user in the US spends $1900 on purchases during one year. In Europe, this stands at $1800.
- The primary traffic sources to eCommerce sites: are organic, e-mail, and PPC.
Increase eCommerce Store Sales
Ecommerce store owners are engaged non-stop in finding ways to improve their site and increase sales. Of course, it is possible to continue to bring in more traffic, but first of all, one should figure out how to improve the conversion to sales out of the existing traffic.
As a whole, I would say that most of the courses I took as part of my economics degree at Tel Aviv University were superfluous or out of touch with reality, except for one class that I felt was really to the point and which I thoroughly enjoyed – a Behavioral Economics course. Yes, Dan Ariely and all that hype around rational decisions. This opened me up to a world of understanding the users and figuring out what triggers the ‘electric currents’ that go through their brains when they carry out an action or a decision of one kind or another.
Recommended: Apart from Dan Ariely’s book, I recommend reading the book Hooked by Nir Eyal about how to form a habit of using your product and what drives people to get fixated on one product rather than another. In this article, I talk about five proven psychological principles that influence the decisions of surfers when buying online:
The Scarcity Effect to Increase eCommerce Sales
Know the story about the jars with the cookies? This is one of the more familiar stories that illustrate this principle, and it goes like this:
Stephen Worchel and his colleagues experimented in 1975 in which. They offered people two jars of cookies. One pot contained 10 cookies, and the other had only 2 cookies. The experiment results showed that most people preferred the cookies in the emptier jar. So, the one which contained 2 cookies) even though the cookies in the two pots were completely identical.
When something is scarce or difficult to obtain, we tend to want it more. You may also have heard about it as FOMO – Fear Of Missing Out or Loss Aversion. We spend or perhaps waste half of our time on Facebook and social media. Because we are afraid to miss out on some exciting update or news (although we know that it does not happen every minute). Another principle that goes hand in hand with the fear of missing out on something is Urgency.
Under this category, it is common to see sentences or phrases like: most popular, most sold, 12 people are now viewing this product. This product was purchased 22 times during the last hour, with the previous 5 units in stock. 3 hours before the offer ends, order within the next 27 minutes, and you will receive the product tomorrow, et cetera.
Reciprocity
I’m sure you’ve come across this quite often. You are offered something for free, like a guidebook / an eBook in the digital world or perhaps a new type of cheese in the supermarket in the physical world. In exchange, you are asked to leave your e-mail address (referring to the first type of offer), or you feel obliged to try a larger package of cheese (referring to the second type of offer)
Other examples: An online calculator for calculating something (for example, a mortgage), an app for tailor-made clothing items after you upload an image, quality content in a blog, et cetera.
The Framing Effect Increase eCommerce Sales
In a word – Context. If Jimi Hendrix were alive today and you had the opportunity to see his show, you would probably be willing to pay quite a bit for a ticket. But if he were performing on the side of the street, you would probably have gone on walking, not noticing him at all. In other words, it all depends on the context and the specific situation.
What would you prefer? Low-fat ice cream containing 90% less sugar than the average ice cream? Or an ice cream containing 10% of the moderate sugar content? Most people asked would choose the first option. The same goes for a question like plastic surgery with a 90% chance of success. Or plastic surgery with a 10% chance of failure. When we phrase something of this sort. We must consider the outcome (positive or negative) and the qualities we want to highlight.
The Anchoring Effect
The anchoring principle says that people’s decisions are influenced by the first information they are exposed to regarding a particular subject. They rely too much on this information, which becomes like an anchor hard to move.
When a question is asked, we encounter it a lot in our daily lives. Like how much a specific product would cost or how long it would take to get to a particular place. We get a sure initial answer that we would probably stick to later. If we go back to eCommerce stores, we may see this principle implemented where as soon as you enter a home page, you see a particular item with a discount price next to it and an original price crossed out.
If you search a little further on that site, you will likely find a similar product (perhaps identical) at the same price or even a lower price. This article is highly recommended for anyone wishing to learn more about this principle.
Assurance
This section concerns promises, risks, and creating trust and confidence among potential buyers.
If you look back at the first chart shown in this article about eCommerce sales growing, you’ll see that the second reason users do not complete their purchase online is that they do not trust it enough or do not think it is secure enough.
Another illustration: you go out for lunch in the middle of a working day. So, see a long line outside one restaurant. What would you think? This restaurant is probably good. This is why it has a long queue and people are willing to wait outside. You may call it herd behavior in this case. But also a “herd” of good reviews and responses could convince a customer. The same way a long queue outside a restaurant could.
Although Amazon and eBay are huge sites everyone knows, they continue adopting ways to increase assurance with buyers. How do you do that? As you can see in the chart above. Reviews, testimonials, and comments. Seller credibility (in the case of Amazon and eBay, for example), social proofs, verified testimonials with real faces, etc.
Create your brand awareness
Be everywhere. It would help if you had all of your pages SEO’d with great content and perfect images that have been tested. In addition, you must have a strong presence on Facebook, depending on your creation, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. Perform all channels to drive opportunities to your eCommerce site.
Utilize the full strength of digital marketing to get people to your site but then make sure it is straightforward for people to add to your cart – the more controls or actions it takes to checkout, the better likely people are to leave their cart.
Brand awareness influences trust (which moves sales), repeat purchases, and SEO. The more individuals know (and have confidence) your brand name, the higher your sales will grow.
To improve brand awareness, focus on quality. Create high-quality content, consider influencer partnerships, partner with other businesses in your industry, don’t neglect paid ads, and be active on social media.
