The imitation principle and the psychology of eCommerce buyers
You have decided to digitalize your sales and you created an eCommerce according to the latest standards. Your web shop starts noting excellent attendance, but sales results are not actually that satisfactory. You start worrying about how to attract a bigger number of buyers, not just web shop visitors. The thing is – you have to understand what your eCommerce buyers want and then offer them exactly that.
The key to success in any kind of business, and in eCommerce, is to understand the psychology of clients and buyers. In fact, every eCommerce buyer has certain “triggers” that will steer him into causing a specific reaction and then buying. The job of every eCommerce owner, including a B2B web shop, is to realise which triggers lead clients to buying and how to successfully use them in marketing activities.
There are several principles that affect whether we buy something, but in this blog, we will focus on one of them; the imitation principle.
Ecommerce buyer and the imitation principle
Although most often it’s hard for us to admit, but more or less everyone has the need to imitate others, at least to some degree. People do it primarily because of imposed social norms. But how to use this imitation principle in a web shop?
First of all, you have to know that if the buyer has previously examined your offer and has a set stand on a particular product, he most likely won’t be interested in what others think or buy.
Your goal is the eCommerce buyer which isn’t familiar with your offer or needs a specialized opinion. One of the examples is when a buyer decides to start using the system for automatically calculating travel costs. Precisely in these situations, the buyer will ask for opinions and recommendations from others.
Buyers that are guided by the imitation principle most often don’t want others to realize it. That’s why in a classical shop they will most likely wait for somebody to buy a certain product and move away from the shop so they could do the same. Still, nobody is looking at them in a web shop, which is why an eCommerce buyer is even more likely to be affected by others when making the decision to buy.
Show eCommerce buyers what others are buying
You must have heard by now that confirmation from other buyers is one of the key reasons for making a positive buying decision. Still, we are sure that you aren’t aware of its affects in eCommerce.
So, for example, instead of up-selling and cross-selling, you can link products with those which are the most common choice of your eCommerce buyers and the ones they buy the most. A good idea is also to make a top 10 list of the best-selling products and put it on the main page of your web shop. These products attract the most attention from potential buyers.
A successful strategy for achieving better online sales is to include product reviews and buyers’ comments. Namely, every eCommerce buyer is more likely to trust another buyer than any form of marketing content.
The imitation principle and social media
Social media campaigns are an excellent way of creating greater visibility of any brand and great grounds for applying the imitation principle. The reason for that is the fact that followers from social media are very susceptible to trusting the opinions of influencers which is key for creating trust in a certain product. Here are some other advantages that social networks like Linkedin, Facebook or Instagram provide for eCommerce:
- Almost 75% of buyers will look for a recommendation for a particular product on social media before deciding to buy
- A higher ROI – return on investment (many companies record earnings of 7$ for every dollar invested in a social media campaign)
- A better SERP – search engine results per page (social networks increase the number of web page visits and create a better position in search engine results)
- Trust and buyers’ loyalty (if social media followers trust the quality of a product and leave a positive review, other buyers will trust their opinion).
Because of all the afore mentioned, you should make sure that there is a link to social media on the page of each product. That way, your buyers will be able to quickly and simply share a great offer they came across with their friends on social media.
Take your eCommerce approach to a whole new level
Are you also ready for the digitalization of your sales? You are interested in more advice on how to become buyers’ first choice in the eCommerce buying process? If you want to offer our products via B2B ecommerce, contact us for more information and learn everything on the latest software solutions that will help you.
