A salesperson, in any brick-and-mortar store, is adept at judging if a particular customer has arrived with a genuine intent of buying or not. Appropriately, he approaches him, aligns his pitch with the customer’s persona and ensures a sale. Ecommerce, the virtual store, is a different ball game.
There are no sales guys and zero face time with the customer. Hence, no scope to study buying signals. However, customers still reveal a lot through their ‘digital’ body language – browsing, clicking, scrolling, filtering, etc.
Identifying a pattern in their behavior, and leveraging it is not an uphill task. In fact, there are some specific kinds of online visitors any ecommerce website usually gets. The below infographic by targeting mantra will describe you various visitors that as an ecommerce store you will receive. Plus, their digital body language, their whole journey of shopping.
| The Wish Lister | The Hesitant Twins | The Passionate Purchaser | The Busy Twins |
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The online avatar of a window shopperHe dedicates considerable time and effort to carefully select items, but leaves without buying anything. Why? Affordability issues. Having an online cart that they don’t have to buy, forever holding their desired items, serves as a consolation for the fact that they cannot buy them, only own them virtually.
How to trigger a purchase: Make it happen with a delightful Surprise discount. |
The Underconfident & The MaximizerThey can afford to buy, and would do everything required for a purchase, from account creation to finalizing item specifics, but would take significant time to hit the “checkout” button. Out of their fear of making a bad decision, they second-check all items, even their alternatives. All this due to an abundance of choice.How to trigger a purchase: Do away with such anxiety with positive affirmations and feedback on the customer’s journey, make him feel secure about his decision. Also, limit the number of options for each product. | Our very own Impulse Bulk buyerBeing a spontaneous bulk buyer, he is the most welcomed soul in any store. All he cares about is staying on the forefront of trends. Filters are not his go-to. He jumps directly to the “what’s hot” category dedicating all his time fondling with the product. Emotional gratification of owning a trendy product is what compels him to buy. Colors and accessories take precedence over functionality.How to trigger a purchase: Tap on the factor of “emotional gratification” by displaying captivating large product images and hiding any (interfering) details under tabs. | The Rational Visitor & The SatisficerThey are the ones who would “exploit” your filters to drill down options leaving only those that best meet their criteria. The remaining ones are then “cost-benefit” analyzed to make an “informed” decision. Scrolling, browsing, etc. are all activities that waste their precious time. |
Guest post by Paras Arora – Paras heads Product Marketing at TargetingMantra. He in an expert in Personalization and has consulted over 50 clients across the globe on conversion optimization, personalization and increasing customer loyalty. An expert in behavioral targeting, Paras focuses on helping clients in optimizing conversions and client engagement across all marketing channels including website, email, mobile, native apps and search. A serial entrepreneur from IIT-Guwahati and Indian School of Business, he loves to spend his time exploring new technologies.
