We are all aware that the field of online shopping is constantly growing before our eyes. Some numbers to put things in perspective:
– In the US, online sales currently account for (only) 8% of total retail sales;
– in Europe, this number stands at 14%.
– 53% of all Internet users made at least one purchase in 2016 (about 1 billion users);
– An average user in the US spends $1800 on purchases during one year on average, in Europe this stands at $1600.
– The main sources of traffic to eCommerce sites: organic, e-mail and PPC.
This infographic shows additional interesting data you may want to see.
ECommerce store owners are engaged non-stop in finding ways to improve their site and increase sales. It is, of course, possible to continue to bring in more traffic, but first of all one should figure out how to increase the conversion to sales out of the existing traffic.
The following chart shows the main reasons for shopping cart abandonment according to the site Statista:
Como um todo, eu diria que a maioria dos cursos que fiz como parte da minha graduação em economia na Universidade de Tel Aviv foram supérfluos ou fora de contato com a realidade, exceto por um curso que eu senti que foi realmente ao ponto e que eu gostei muito - um curso de Economia Comportamental. Sim, Dan Ariely e toda aquela propaganda em torno de decisões racionais, e assim por diante. Isso me abriu para um mundo de compreensão dos usuários e tentando descobrir o que desencadeia as "correntes elétricas" que passam pelo seu cérebro quando eles realizam uma ação ou uma decisão de um tipo ou de outro.
Recommended: Apart from Dan Ariely’s book, I also recommend reading the book Hooked by Nir Eyal, about how to form a habit out of the use of your product, and what drives people to get fixated on one product rather than another.
In this article, I talk about five proven psychological principles that influence the decisions of surfers when buying online:
O Efeito Escassez
Know the story about the jars with the cookies? This is one of the more familiar stories that illustrate this principle, and it goes like this:
Stephen Worchel and colleagues of his conducted an experiment in 1975 in which they offered people two jars of cookies. One jar contained 10 cookies and the other contained only 2 cookies. The results of the experiment showed that most people preferred the cookies in the emptier jar (the one which contained 2 cookies) even though the cookies in the two jars were completely identical.
Quando algo é escasso ou difícil de obter, tendemos a querer mais. Você também já deve ter ouvido falar disso como FOMO - FearOf Missing Out or Loss Aversion. Nós gastamos, ou talvez perdemos, metade do nosso tempo no Facebook e nas redes sociais porque temos medo de perder alguma atualização ou notícia interessante (embora saibamos que isso não acontece a cada minuto). Outro princípio que anda de mãos dadas com o medo de perder algo é a Urgência.
Nesta categoria, é bastante comum ver frases ou frases como: mais popular, mais vendido, 12 pessoas estão agora a ver este produto, este produto foi comprado 22 vezes durante a última hora, as últimas 5 unidades em stock, 3 horas antes da oferta terminar, encomendar nos próximos 27 minutos e receberá o produto amanhã, et cetera.
Reciprocidade
Tenho certeza de que você já se deparou com isso muitas vezes - você recebe algo de graça, como um guia / um eBook no mundo digital, ou talvez um novo tipo de queijo no supermercado no mundo físico. Em troca, é-lhe pedido que deixe o seu endereço de e-mail (referente ao primeiro tipo de oferta) ou que se sinta obrigado a experimentar um pacote de queijo maior (referente ao segundo tipo de oferta).
Outros exemplos: Uma calculadora online para calcular algo (por exemplo, uma hipoteca), um aplicativo para artigos de vestuário feitos sob medida depois de você carregar uma imagem, conteúdo de qualidade em um blog, etc.
O Efeito de Enquadramento
In a word – Context. If Jimi Hendrix were alive today, and you had the opportunity to go see his show, you would probably be willing to pay quite a bit for a ticket. But if he was performing on the side of the street, you would probably have gone on walking, not noticing him at all. In other words, it all depends on context and the specific situation.
What would you prefer? Low-fat ice cream containing 90% less sugar than the average ice cream? Or an ice cream containing 10% of the average sugar content? Most people asked would choose the first option. The same thing goes for a question like: A plastic surgery with a 90% chance of success, or a plastic surgery with a 10% chance of failure. When we phrase something of this sort, it is important to give thought to the outcome (positive or negative) and the qualities that we want to highlight.
O Efeito Ancoragem
The anchoring principle says that people’s decisions are influenced by the first information they are exposed to regarding a particular subject. In fact, they rely too much on this information and it becomes like an anchor that is hard to move.
In our daily lives, we encounter it a lot when a question is asked like how much a specific product would cost, or how long it would take to get to a specific place. We get a certain initial answer that we would probably stick to later on. If we go back to eCommerce stores, you may see this principle implemented where as soon as you enter a home page, you see a particular item with a discount price next to it, and an original price crossed out.
Se você procurar um pouco mais nesse site, você provavelmente encontrará um produto similar (talvez idêntico) pelo mesmo preço ou até mesmo a um preço mais barato. Para quem quiser saber mais sobre este princípio, este artigo é altamente recomendado.
Garantia
This section is about promises, risks and the creation of trust and confidence among potential buyers.
If you look back at the first chart shown in this article, you’ll see that the second reason users do not complete their purchase online is because they do not trust it enough or do not think it is secure enough. Another illustration: you go out for lunch in the middle of a working day and see a long line outside one of the restaurants. What would you think? Probably that this restaurant is good and that is why it has a long queue and why people are willing to wait outside. You may call it herd behavior in this case, but also a “herd” of verified reviews and responses could convince a customer the same way a long queue outside a restaurant could.
Although Amazon and eBay are huge sites everyone knows, they still continue adopting ways to increase assurance with buyers. How do you do that?
As you can see in the chart above – reviews, testimonials and comments, seller credibility (in the case of Amazon and eBay for example), social proofs, verified testimonials with real faces, etc.
E, alguns exemplos, é claro:
Um exemplo do nosso site:
Eu adoraria ouvir como você implementa estes e outros princípios em suas lojas virtuais nos comentários abaixo 😃
