If you can figure out what makes your customers tick in the ecommerce space, you stand an excellent chance of being successful. Tapping into their needs and desires can put your brand ahead of the competition and get you the traction you need to win. This is known as e-commerce psychology.
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But what does e-commerce psychology require? How can you communicate with your audience more successfully? Here’s a look at e-commerce psychology and how to use it to get to know your customers.
E-commerce Psychology: Building An Emotional Bridge
The first and perhaps most important step is to build an emotional bridge with your customers. Finding out more about what they require from you psychologically can get you one step ahead of the competition.
Building an emotional bridge is part EQ and part originality. You need to say something to your audience that makes them go “Aha”, that’s exactly what I was thinking.”
If you can tap into some latent, tacit belief among your audience and articulate it for the first time, your popularity will soar massively. Often, this involves finding a problem with the existing services in the sector, writing it down, and then saying what you’re going to do about it.
Use FOMO
Next, you’ll want to use FOMO or the “fear of missing out” on your customers. Telling them that you have limited stock or the sale will end soon can encourage them to buy today, even if that is before they wouldn’t have.
FOMO can also work if you have bespoke items in your store or are closing down. Again, the fear of missing out is powerful psychologically. That’s why it works.
Leverage Social Proof
If you can leverage social proof, you can tap into customers’ basic psychological requirements. Audiences need to feel safe buying from you and positive testimonials on independent websites help with that.
Simply putting your ecommerce brand on social media can also make a difference. Getting your name out there makes you more recognisable and it becomes more likely people will trust you.
Most ecommerce SEO services include this as part of their services but always double-check.
Use Better Images
Another tactic to tap into customer psychology is to improve your images. Creating stunning digital visuals encourages them to view you as a competent company with exceptional products.
Each product should have its own page and description. Always use high-quality, edited photos to provide the likeness of the SKU without any faults or blemishes.
Show customers an idealised version of what will ultimately arrive on their doorstep. Let them see all the little details and ensure there’s a photo of each model in the range to avoid repetition or inaccurate depictions.
Host Flash Sales
Similar to FOMO, you can also use flash sales to tap into customers’ psychology. Telling customers they only have a few minutes left to buy before the deal will vanish forever is an excellent way to shift large volumes of products in a short space of time.
The flash sales you run can last for days, hours, or even minutes. You can apply this type of e-commerce psychology to all the products in your store, or just a few of them.