eCommerce is always been a never ending race to earn and retain Consumers. To be successful and profitable you need to continuously improve your Consumer’s Experience of Online Shopping. But Business Owners must need to understand the focus factors, areas where if they concentrate can convert a Visitor into a Buyer.
So here we have identified Top 10 factors which influencing eCommerce Consumer’s Purchase Decision, take a look:
Product and Information Quality:
The most important factor (56%) for influencing a Visitor into a Buyer is the Quality Products and Quality Information. Being a Business Owner you need to identify the products which are popular in:
- Different Geographic/Regions
- Different Occasions
- Different Culture
Promoting/Selling Good Quality Products and at right time are the key to success.
Product Description (Long/Short), Specifications, Demo Videos, PDF Catalog (If it’s machinery) all influence to consumer’s purchase decision, and well representation means better results. If you are targeting Europe/Americas, better to have Multi Lingual Product Description.
Free Shipping:
With a contribution of almost 49%, Free Shipping is the second largest factor in influencing eCommerce Consumer’s Purchase Decision. Free Shipping often attracts customers who purchase very often from Online Shops, it is to them Shipping Costs matters most and Free Shipping can retain these customers for a long time. You can add a fraction of these shipping costs into basic Product Price, but remember your price need to be competitive too.
Easy Return:
Defined and Easy return policy contributes 35% and the third largest factor in influencing Buying Decision. Return Policy need to be well written in a very simple language, really helpful if it’s in favor of the Consumers. It’s a must have if you are selling Apparels and Electronic Goods/Computer Accessories, if you are selling Bike/Auto Parts. In a business where faulty goods can often appear or size of the product can mismatch, Easy Return Policy makes the consumer feel more trust to your website and brand.
Customer Reviews:
Fourth Largest factor with almost 33% importance in influencing Buying Decision, Customer Reviews often proved to be a good source depicting the trial results. Award Consumers with Free Gifts who post positive reviews, resolve the problems of products for consumers who post negative reviews, both will encourage them to most regular reviews and this motivation will provide you positive results for sure.
Visual Search:
With 30% contribution in influencing Buying Decision, Visual Search is a new element to the eCommerce. Categories showing with images in mouse over, Products Listed in Search Textbox with Images as an Option List, use of more and more images in Search Terms are increasing day by day and help Consumers to quickly find out the Products.
Great Navigation:
Good Navigation in the eCommerce website, means Consumers will always have the idea where they are and where to move on, it includes everything from a well-defined visual site map, well defined categories and category tree, previous next buttons when showing images & list of products, simply an easy access in and out is the sixth largest candidate with 26% influencing factor in buying decision.
Easy Checkout:
From shopping cart I should be able to complete the checkout in One Step, I can easily pay through either my Net Banking or through My Credit Card, I should be able to ship 2 items in 2 different address, I should be able to apply my discount coupon, is your shopping cart meets all my needs as a Visitor? If so you already established an Easy Checkout Logic because it is the seventh important factor with 24% Influence on my Purchase Decision as a Buyer.
Multiple Options:
If you Login to an eCommerce website to purchase iPhone 5 or iPhone 4S, you moved to Category Cell Phones, Choose Apple as your Brand and start seeing the Catalog/List of Items. You are seeing the list as below:
- iPhone 4S 16 GB Wifi White
- iPhone 4S 16 GB Wifi Black
- iPhone 4S 16GB Wifi +3G White
- iPhone 4S 16GB Wifi+3G Black
- ……………………………………………. More Variants of iPhone 4S
- iPhone 5 (with 10 more variants)
Will you like it?
The Answer is NO. As a visitor you will get confused. So better approach is list as less products as possible in the Catalog and provide more options. I will prefer to see just iPhone 4S with the dropdown of Color (White/Black), Connectivity (Wifi/Wifi+3G) and Storage (16/32/64GB) and same with iPhone 5. Provide options to your Consumers are far better than a long list of variants of the same product. Multiple Options is the eight largest factor with 24% Importance in influencing Buying Decision.
Special Category:
Special Size which is not available in Physical Stores, Special Item Combinations which generally costs a lot, Special Deals, Special is one of buzz word which always attracts Consumers. So use ‘Special’ as a section, or as a category, Special Deals, etc. to get some positive results. Because this keyword/section/category whatever you can say, has 12% Influencing factor in buying decision and it is the ninth most important factor.
New Product:
Add new launches to your Product Catalog, new arrivals to your Apparel Shopping Cart/book store, New is always a section where visitors visit most and are interested too. Also New Products attracts more traffic from Search Engine. So it is a best practice to have a ‘New Products’/’New Arrivals’ section because it also has a small 10% Contribution in influencing Buying Decision of the Consumer.
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