Sandro Salsi’s Blog

The Internet is fully loaded with a host of ecommerce shopping cart software service but no matter which shopping cart system you select, you still need to market your store properly to get results. Normally, a reputable shopping carts systems will give you a few suggestions on how to optimize your pages and most likely how to go out to market your site. But it is also vital that you understand what determine your prospective buyers’ purchasing decisions in order to accurately market your deals.

What are the big factors that influence 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, references are the top reason for selecting a potential site. If you already have a tight customer base, make sure you hold back your existing customers. Treat them well by offering them some sort of incentive to recommend your site to others. Issue current customers special discount coupons which can be prolonged to whomever else they suggest to your site. Of course this will snowball and you will end up with better 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) consumers tend to trust reviews by fellow general public rather than experts. In other words that user reviews are the most credible form of advertising. It is no surprise then why Amazon always slips in a couple of user reviews on their product pages. Notice that they also comprise of bad reviews along with tremendously strong ones. Ultimately 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 indicate 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 quite a few reviews for a particular product, even an average rating for the product may suffice to win over 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 undervalue the importance of frequently asked questions. More than three quarters of online shoppers surveyed by an ecommerce shopping carts system stated that available content is inadequate for them to make a decision 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[/spin] customers make their minds up sooner, before they decide|make a decision|choose|opt|make the decision[/spin] to move on.

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