Blog highlighting the most important factors that affect consumer behaviour

Venture back to the early 70s; e-commerce was still considered a pipedream, followed by maintaining its humble beginnings in the early 90s until Amazon changed the game, selling its first e-book in 1995. Today, e-commerce has evolved into a robust economy, running over 20 million stores worldwide.

And, with so many choices out there for the consumers of the modern digital age, just going online with your business is not enough. A major chunk of your engagement boost depends on constantly keeping a real-time pulse on the changing trends, which invariably optimizes your website for better conversion rates.

With the holiday season around the corner, here are a few tips to get you started. These would prepare you better, making your e-commerce website ready for the coming BFCM season.

1. Color Psychology

The concept of visual merchandising revolves around the use of color psychology. And color psychology is not just about the visual perception of a scientific process. A lot of it depends on the emotional one, as well. And to figure out what colors draw what emotions then becomes an art in itself.

With tens of thousands of brands out there vying for consumer’s attention, standing out with your own unique set of colors becomes an arduous task. So, before you decide to take your business online, make sure how you’d crack your consumer’s psychology.

2. The Paradox of Choices

In this rapidly evolving digital age, what’s getting compromised is our daily attention span. And with e-commerce brands sprawling from every nook and corner of the web with their own ‘out-of-the-box products, it becomes increasingly difficult to stand out as the buyer’s first choice.

So, making sure it’s efficient and intuitive enough to catch the right set of eyes is the metric you should be eyeing for. A consumer arrives at your store not to get bombarded with discounts, offers, and product pop-ups. Too much text on the website, and you’ve already lost half the battle. A consumer’s journey on your website should be more of an experience than a jump into a boring encyclopedia of too much information.

3. The Power Words

The power words trigger a psychological or emotional response and act as an integrated influencer for your website. These words don’t always have to align to your business needs but rather should focus on creating:

3.1 Curiosity: Triggers drive curiosity; curiosity drives exploration, which in turn drives purchase decisions. Every seemingly straightforward journey of making a decision eventually indirectly starts from a curiosity for learning. We come across a brand, we get curious about it, and then dwell deeper. So the successful end (which is conversion here) relies heavily on the beginning and how triggering the power words are.

3.2 Urgency: Creating a sense of urgency taps into consumer’s fear of missing out. There are many brands out there that come up with app-only deals, and their communication centers around claiming deals “NOW.” Dominos using deal timers somehow catapults the ‘power’ of power words to the next levels.

3.3 Narrative: The consumer’s journey begins from discovery and ideally should end in conversion. What happens in between depends entirely on setting the right tone, the right message, and the right narrative. What your brand stands for should be about an idea, a vision that goes beyond the mathematics of your business.

And, if you put it out there for the world to see in its most honest and sincere form, chances are the world would resonate with your idea more than your business, marking the beginning of a long-term relationship which you should be eyeing for, anyway.

4. Engagement

This is not the engagement you might have in mind. It’s far off from it. Of course, the bounce rates and conversion rates matter, but what matters even more is the sense of community that’s beyond just your socials and blogs. Striking a dialogue with your consumer as they land on your store is one of the most important yet overlooked strategies of the e-commerce ecosystem.

This can be achieved through a 24×7 support team that’s not just your “how may I help you” bot. Many product stores give the option to book online product demos straightaway from their websites. This is a short-term approach to build engagement on your website.

It helps your store be more than just a shopping portal, and you make an impression. Even loyalty programs help build a sense of belonging in your consumers, creating prospects for a long-term relationship. Then there are store credits, customer account page, etc. Flits you do all this without any hassle.

Source : https://getflits.com/

5.Overall Design

A good website design is mostly about first impressions. According to research, 75% of online users judge a brand through its website design, and you have not more than 50 milliseconds to make first impressions. And when we talk about good design, it’s not just about fancy images or peppy animations.

The method of a brand should mostly focus on consistency. It should be a consistent and engaging design that transcends your website, socials and emanates your narrative through your products. And as e-commerce continues to evolve, one of the most important trends to stay ahead of the curve in the space is personalization.

ModeMagic by Mason helps you do this with great effect, where it transforms your product details page into a product story page. It is a no-code, visual merchandising toolbox that helps you enhance your store design in minutes. And to top it off, it runs on automation, connecting your store’s data with its design-so it’s basically like running your store on autopilot!

Source: https://getmason.io

Conclusion

When we talk about influencing consumer behaviour, we can never have any definitive metrics to measure what works and what doesn’t. However, since a lot of it involves cracking the psyche of your target audience, some of the methods shared above would work better than the rest.

And, it entirely depends on the type of market and conversion rates you are aiming for, keeping in mind your business’s short and long-term perspective.

It’s always important to make the first good impression that lasts a lifetime, keeping your customers on their toes for more!