Why do people love online shopping?

eCommerce is on the rise, but ever wondered why exactly your target audience wants to shop online? Despite the fact that the concept of retail stores is still very popular?

Even though businesses spend a considerable amount of time trying to define their buyer personas and ideal customers, they often overlook the main psychology behind online shopping.

Customers don’t really buy anything from anyone online. They have a thought process that either encourages them to complete a purchase, or drives them away to another retailer. For example, products with a big price tag often face a challenge in selling online. And then there are products that people would want to get a feel of before purchasing.

But with the changing times, eCommerce has become a way of life and businesses have found a way to suffice the decision making needs of the customers.

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Here are the top 5 requirements of an online shopper and how you can fulfill them:

1. Wide range of products to choose from

Having an online store gives you an opportunity to get beyond the shelf space issues and include more inventory into your business.

While it might seem like a challenge to most retail business holders, the possibility of being offered a wide range of products online is one of the primary reasons behind the shift to digital shopping. More and more people today seek brands online instead of stores – they have more product variations, sizes, availability, etc.

For example, Amazon started as an online book seller. But today, it sells everything from clothes, shoes, bags, watches to even peanuts.

2. Competitive prices on all products

Today, there are a number of people who visit physical stores to check a product, its size, quality and other aspects. But very few of them actually make the purchase from these stores. They tend to look for the same product online instead.

The reason being, expectation of competitive pricing. These customers are commonly known as bargain hunters.

If you can, offer competitive pricing for your products as compared to that at the physical stores. You could also choose to put a few products on every range, on sale to draw the attention of bargain hunters.

For example, Snapdeal offers a ‘deal of the day’ – in which the pricing of products is considerably low compared to what they would cost in stores. This makes the customers think they are bagging a good deal, and the sense of urgency around the deal, increases the number of conversions.

3. Reviews from other online shoppers

According to Internet Retailer, 62% of consumers look for online reviews on a product or service before purchasing it. This number only reinforces the importance of social proof for eCommerce websites.

In physical stores, it is impossible for a shopper to know what other customers are saying about the products – especially with the sales people ensuring they hear nothing but the good. And that’s another reason why they prefer shopping online.

Offer reviews, ratings or customer testimonials for your products and display them clearly on the product pages. The better the rating, the higher are the chances of it to sell.

For example, Amazon displays its product ratings right below their name.

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4. Ability to compare prices

Moving from one brand store to another can be really tedious. On the other hand, switching sites to compare prices of products from different brands is a lot easier. Apart from the reviews given on different online stores, prices are the next thing that customers look for.

The best way of doing so is displaying an original price and the price that you are offering. It becomes easier for them to notice the difference, and hence, the chances of them seeking other retail online stores becomes a lot lesser.

For example, if you’re running a winter sale, ensure you display the original price, the percentage off you’re offering and the new price on the product pages. And don’t forget to highlight the offer on your homepage as well.

5. Saving a lot of time

Traveling to stores that aren’t close by just because you want to purchase from a certain brand, can be a put off. That is the reason why most customers seek online stores instead. The ability to browse through the products and purchase what they want, from wherever they are, saves them a lot of time.

But what these customers generally seek for is the efficiency of delivery that an online retail store offers. Be it a ‘next day delivery’, ‘48 hours delivery’ or a ‘standard delivery within 7 days of order’, keep the delivery information absolutely clear. And if possible, give them the ability to choose their delivery date.

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Over to you

But before you implement any of the above, ensure the experience you offer to your customers is seamless. Every aspect that they want to see on an eCommerce website should be readily visible to them and optimized for performance – be the speed, the quality of the product images used, etc.

And most importantly, ensure that load time of your website isn’t too much because you tried incorporating various elements to suit their needs.

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