EcommerceGlu.com

Supermarkets are explicitly designed to maximise consumption and in some cases the conversion rate is almost 100 per cent. The job of store design is to encourage people to buy as much as possible while they are shopping. For instance, putting popular items like milk towards the back of the shop but in line of site focuses people to navigate through the entire store passing lots of goods on the way. The same is true of changing rooms in clothes shops.

One of the problems with many retailers is that they may have used the persuasive design approach to their physical stores but have forgotten about applying it to their online presence. Rather than looking at the online store as a ‘bolt-on’ to a bricks and mortar location, retailers need to view their store as an intrinsic part of the eco-system and treat it as such. Shoppers will research information online and then go into a store to see the product in person. Similarly, consumers will buy online but want the convenience of local pick-up and repair. All of these aspects need to be considered to improve conversion rates.

The key to creating a successful website lies in providing an engaging experience for the end-user. Websites offering a poorly-defined and badly executed customer experience often frustrate users and drive them away. Establishing how individual customers think and feel, means retailers can go about creating targeted content and design to ensure they are satisfying customer needs.

When setting up a new e-commerce site, retailers need to think carefully about the elements that might break up the shopping process. Distracting customers by forcing them to jump through numerous check-out steps or irrelevant questions is a sure way to push them out of the conversion funnel.

A clean, simple website, with pages labeled in user-friendly language means that consumers can find the correct information, allowing them to easily navigate their way to the online checkouts.

A small amount of usability testing can fix a lot of the low-hanging fruit and can help highlight the key areas where people are having problems with the web process. Observing real user behavior can provide a better understanding of how to improve your website experience and convert this into sales results.

Buying a product online isn’t simply a transactional process. Potential purchasers often have doubts and fears about their decisions as to whether a product is right for them. It’s difficult to reassure people through the online shopping process as there is no shop assistant on hand to provide the information they need.

Online shops can take advantage of psychological concepts such as social proof to help restore the purchaser’s confidence in their own decision. For example, sites such as Amazon present shoppers with details of ‘what others like you’ are buying. Creating the impression of acquiring the latest ‘must-have’ item can be very persuasive for the online user.

By understanding the thought process and behaviour of online customers, retailers can use persuasive design to realise the full potential of their online presence and improve sales conversion rates.