8 Psychological marketing techniques to increase your eCommerce sales
Do you know that understanding your customers’ minds becomes the most powerful marketing tactic?
Psychological traits help marketers improve awareness about consumer behavior in various scenarios. Based on that understanding, they create strategies that boost conversions like crazy. Read up this blog to know how to increase ecommerce sales with full of free methods of strong marketing tactics.
The tactics range from emphasizing urgency and putting forward product scarcity to maintaining a devised color scheme. But there are certain unpredictable behaviors that marketers must keep in mind. This article will walk you through eight successful psychological marketing techniques used by some of the top brands to increase conversions.
Let’s start with the most important tactic— creating the fear of missing out.
Contents
- 1 Creating a sense of urgency (FOMO) to increase sales
- 2 Compelling copies conveying limited-period deals
- 3 Showcase limited stock availability
- 4 Providing free delivery options
- 5 Crucial to developing a competitive advantage!
- 6 Focus on the correct placement of information
- 7 Provide exceptional welcome offers on your ecommerce store
- 8 Convey past user experience through visuals
- 9 Luxury brands must invest in compelling visuals
- 10 Unleash the power of negative reviews
- 11 Put up quote testimonials on your homepage
- 12 Provide limited options
- 13 Using the right blend of colors to increase ecommerce sales
- 14 Wrapping up
- 15 Are you ready to get started with Qikink?
Creating a sense of urgency (FOMO) to increase sales
How many times have you postponed a buying decision only to never visit the website again?
Now imagine receiving a price drop email based on your abandoned cart and past purchase history. The discount offer follows limited product availability. You will quickly grab the item before your size runs out. This shows that people will likely act better with a fear of missing out than they do in normal scenarios.
eCommerce stores can create urgency in many different ways to initiate immediate action. The three crucial factors of a FOMO marketing strategy are as follows:
- Urgency (limited period discount)
- Scarcity (only 25 products available in size S)
- Missed opportunities
Let’s start by understanding two crucial ways of creating the fear of missing out.
Compelling copies conveying limited-period deals
Write highly compelling marketing copies with words like a clearance sale, limited period offer, one-time offer, only available today, etc. On special instances like a big black Friday sale, companies often use a countdown. Countdowns work great in creating urgency to initiate action. Here is an example of an email creating urgency through the black Friday sale.
ECommerce stores need to create such campaigns. One SaleCycle survey revealed that there has been a significant increase in sales since 2013.
Here is another example of a flash sale motivating users to purchase their favorite products at a discounted rate for a limited period.
Takeaway tip: use countdowns in your frequently held limited-period sales to create urgency.
Showcase limited stock availability
Customers can postpone purchases even if the prices are low. Showcasing limited stock availability comes as an added boost to take action. For instance, only 5 left in stock flashing right below your favorite product will persuade you to purchase right away.
E-commerce store owners use it near the checkout cart button and category section for added excitement. If you are offering exciting services like one-day free delivery then highlight limited stock availability beneath it. Remember that customers hate paying delivery charges. Combining the two will help boost conversions.
Providing free delivery options
Do you know that 73% of people are more likely to purchase a product if the company provides free shipping?
Customers LOVE free shipping more than any other type of discount or sale. That’s where eCommerce shipping strategies come in handy.
Most customers prefer purchasing from brands offering free shipping. They not only prefer it but are openly expecting it even on orders below $50. If your brand provides free shipping, you are more likely to generate repeat sales.
Let’s be honest, no one likes paying extra bucks for a product only to wait for almost a week to receive it. Your added delivery charges might give them the motivation to get up and make an in-store purchase. Bad for business, right?
Crucial to developing a competitive advantage!
Whether or not you should provide free delivery depends on your competitors as well. Customers will likely browse through your competing websites. Free shipping is all it will take to prioritize them over your brand. You must keep yourself updated about competitors’ strategies to have a competitive advantage.
Focus on the correct placement of information
Next comes the importance of putting forward the free delivery service in front of your prospects. Let’s look at the strategic placement of information used by Apple AirPods to entice customers.
- The new in the title suggests a recent model which Apple users will surely be interested in.
- Look at the careful modification of pricing to showcase a handsome 20% discount.
- Next comes the enticing No Cost EMI option for people paranoid about paying altogether.
- Lastly, quick and free delivery acts as the last motivator to hit the buy button.
Takeaway Tip: focus on strategic placement of core information like FREE delivery and No Cost EMI option. Furthermore, make sure to inculcate free delivery if your competitors are providing it.
Provide exceptional welcome offers on your ecommerce store
Customers like feeling valued and special to develop trust in a brand and initiate shopping. A new brand often comes with a dilemma in customers’ minds regarding product quality, pricing standards, delivery delays, etc.
Look at how Urbanic, an upcoming clothing brand lures in customers with not one but two exclusive welcome offers. It’s highly important for eCommerce or POD brands just starting as it gives the required push to take action. Furthermore, notice how the focus of the second offer remains intact on increasing app downloads.
Convey past user experience through visuals
Does your eCommerce website’s homepage talk about your customers’ brand journey?
Conveying their experience through images and videos will garner the instant attention of prospects. Remember that customers advocating for a brand remain one of the strongest motivators to take action. However, focus on core areas like responsive web design.
Most customers are browsing your website through a mobile phone. Congested visuals with a heavy delay in loading often drive customers away. Go for a mobile-responsive outlet while inculcating compelling visuals into your marketing strategy.
Next, instead of placing visuals without any thinking, create a strategic and engaging customer journey through visuals.
Let’s now take some brand examples to understand the concept better.
Blume, a skincare brand uses customer testimonials and product images on its website to build credibility.
Another great way is to depict product ratings along with their images on your homepage. Birchbox is an excellent example of an eCommerce store developing trust at first sight.
Showcase your product collection on the homepage
Most brands promote their collections on the homepage to give the audience an idea about their wide range of products. We noticed certain similarities in posting for most brands. They display the collection on the whitespace on a website with prices below them and ratings or the number of reviews to develop trust. If you are promoting bestsellers on your website, do not hesitate to showcase the number of sales.
Provide enticing sales and discounts
In a homepage analysis conducted by Business2Community, they analyzed 27 websites. 16 out of 27 websites promote sales or discounts on their homepage. They either promote it in the form of coupon pop-ups or mark down prices on the listing. Remember that promoting these type of sales are extremely important unless you are a high-end brand not looking for tactics to boost conversions.
Takeaway Tip: provide incentives to customers for sharing their product experience via pictures and videos. Showcase this content on your homepage to develop trust and credibility amongst prospective customers.
Luxury brands must invest in compelling visuals
Zulu Longines is an excellent example of an eCommerce website with super-interactive visuals. The entire design conveys the idea of adjusting to different time zones and traveling in intense conditions. Its scroll-triggered animation makes visitors see moving objects while scrolling through the homepage. The engagement factor remains at an all-time high.
Have you ever interacted with a website that took you to another dimension?
Therefore, brands selling highly expensive products must invest in providing an exciting visual experience to garner engagement.
Unleash the power of negative reviews
Placing customer testimonials on the homepage develops instant trust and credibility. But every eCommerce website might do that to increase it’s sales.
How can you stand out amongst the crowd?
By targeting the solutions you provided to negative reviews.
However, feel free to add customer testimonials praising your brand on the homepage.
Let’s say a customer was highly dissatisfied with a particular product or service. You made immediate amends to make sure no other customer deals with the same issue. Putting this forward represents that your brand cares about its customers. Remember it’s out-of-the-box thinking as brands highly put negative reviews on their homepage.
Put up quote testimonials on your homepage
Using 1-2 lines of quotes from your customers is the easiest way of adding attention-grabbing testimonials. Furthermore, put up their images and the rating they gave for enhancing trust.
Do you know that 90% of people trust online reviews as much as recommendations from friends and family?
You can also get creative and highlight the challenges your products solve instead of putting up a basic testimonial. For example, Burrow, a furniture brand plays a slideshow on the homepage. It portrays the image of the product along with the testimonial highlighting the benefits or core challenges the product solves.
Takeaway Tip: Focus on creating an image of a problem-solver instead of being stuck in the rat race of showcasing satisfying reviews.
Provide limited options
Let’s say a person lands on your eCommerce website. You bombard them with multiple CTA buttons and enormous product varieties. There are too many different options, including links to your social channels, eCommerce store, newsletter subscriptions, etc.
Customers often hate the confusion of choosing from too many options. They get stuck with color varieties, product range, etc., and often ditch the buying decision.
“What if I regret not choosing the other option?”
You make their mind wander in different directions instead of keeping their focus intact on one area. Customers might believe they will regret selecting a particular product when it comes to product varieties. Their mind gets occupied with the following thought:
Here is an example of how Shadawear, a clothing brand presented its most-loved t-shirt with a strong CTA button. Which holds the customers at their first sight and make them to take actions. Their homepage shows a variety of products and collections. However, this is the only product with maximum details and an instant add to cart and buy it now button.
Let’s now imagine a scenario wherein you provide the best discounts or offers on selected quality products. You portray bestsellers on your homepage with customer testimonials and limited-period deals. Customers don’t navigate in any other direction but decide to take instant action. One of the basic step to increase sales of an ecommerce store is to help customers to explore it better.
Takeaway Tip: provide exceptional deals and depict testimonials on the bestsellers on your website. Furthermore, keep only one CTA button to navigate them in the right direction.
Using the right blend of colors to increase ecommerce sales
Did you know that colors affect the buying decision of almost 93% of people? Colors subconsciously influence a buying decision as it invokes different emotions in various individuals.
Firstly, it helps develop brand recognition. It remains the major reason behind choosing relevant brand colors and maintaining them consistently. The moment your post appears in the feed, people must recognize your brand with the color.
Secondly, it creates a unique brand identity relevant to your industry. For instance, a beauty or skincare brand will likely select soft colors like pink. But while depicting their product sale, they might use Red in their CTA button as it creates urgency.
Here is an infographic conveying the right sense of color schemes that work for eCommerce websites to increase their sales.
Takeaway Tip: different colors invoke different emotions. Make sure you use the right blend of colors in your marketing strategies to initiate the right action.
Wrapping up
Now you are familiar with the top seven psychological marketing strategies to improve engagement and conversions. Keep experimenting with the tactics to understand what works best for your brand. This helps you to increase the ecommerce sales of your online store. Make sure you keep up with your customer behavior to introduce new psychological techniques relevant to your niche audience. Lastly, remember that understanding your customer’s mind remains a key to pacing up your sales number.