The Internet is full with a host of shopping cart systems but no matter which ecommerce shopping cart system you pick, you still need to advertise your store properly to get results. Basically, a reputable ecommerce shopping cart system will give you a few suggestions on how to tweak your pages and additionally how to market your site. But it is also important that you understand what influences your target buyers’ purchasing decisions in order to accurately trade your items.
What are the crucial factors that determine customer buying decisions?
Recommendations
“Recommendations from family and friends trump all other consumer touchpoints when it comes to influencing purchases.”
– ZenithOptimedia. AdAge, April, 2008
According to Royal Mail’s Home Shopping Tracker Study, testimonials are the top reason for considering a potential site. If you already have a small customer base, make sure you hold back your existing customers. Treat them well by providing them some sort of allurement to introduce your site to others. Address current customers special discount coupons which can be extended to whomever else they recommend to your site. Certainly this will snowball and you will end up with greater sales and a wider customer base.
Reviews and Ratings
“Online reviews are second only to personal advice from a friend as the driver of purchase decisions; user reviews are more influential than third-party reviews.”
– Web users and web community, Rubicon Consulting, Inc. October 2008
In fact, (65% of) customers tend to accept reviews by fellow users rather than experts. In other words that user reviews are the most credible form of advertising. It’s no wonder then why Amazon always slips in a couple of user reviews on their product pages. Notice that they also comprise bad reviews along with excellent ones. Eventually good reviews usually well outnumber bad ones but the addition of poor reviews lends the overall reviews a sense of authenticity.
Those little rating stars you see on the product page actually have its presence felt on the minds of consumers. They provide the quality of the specific item even before the customer reads any reviews (or even if the customer doesn’t even read any reviews). If there are a lot of reviews for a particular product, even an average rating for the product may suffice to gain confidence a would-be customer.
FAQs
“Online businesses lose as many as 67% of consumers due to a lack of online product information.”
– Allurent, January 2008
Never underestimate the importance of frequently asked questions. More than three quarters of online shoppers surveyed by an ecommerce shopping cart software service stated that available content is insufficient for them to make up their mind to purchase online. This is 3 potential sales for every actual sale that a web store makes. That’s quite a loss right there. And the likelihood of those customers returning is close to nil. assists potential~would be~prospective} customers make their minds up sooner, before they decide~make a decision~choose~opt~make the decision} to move on.