Seven Ways to Use Psychology Principles for Your E-commerce Growth 🚀
As much as we want to think of ourselves as individuals, we all have similar needs and wants. We want money and knowledge to feel secure and superior; health and entertainment to live our best lives; and finally social approval and purpose to know that we are doing the right things to be a good person. We make decisions every day to get more of these innate desires and avoid basic emotions such as fear, boredom and loneliness. Our brains have evolved to use shortcuts in the form of first principles to make our decisions faster and better. Marketers have long used these principles to evoke emotion and nudge customers to specific actions. Here are 7 that are best suited to use in e-commerce:
1- Scarcity- Having evolved from a time when there wasn’t an abundance of food and resources we have come to value more the things that we perceive as rare. If you can make your product seem exclusive, limited quantity or even hard to obtain you can use this principle to increase your sales. Many companies use inventory counters to remind you that you may miss out (think of all those hotels with 1 room left!). Others use limited edition and seasonal products to create hype (think limited edition sneakers and flavour of the month products, even the McRib is limited time only!).
If you are using these tactics make sure that the language you use (only, just x left, this week only,…) and the quantity you are using are impactful but reasonable. There obviously is more than 10 McRibs to go around so make sure you are not exaggerating too much.
2- Urgency- This one is a bit like scarcity because there is a chance for us to miss out but on top of that it applies pressure to our decision making process which makes it easier for us to give up to the external pressure. Amazon consistently uses this technique with their Today’s Deals and what makes it even more effective is the live countdown that’s under every product.
3- Reciprocity- We are cooperating social beings. When someone does something nice for us, we have the urge to return the favour. This reaction to a sense of indebtedness is what makes us buy from companies that give us free product samples or valuable information. Many websites allow their users to download free content before they buy, knowing those who get value now will purchase later. Think about how you can add value to your customers before selling to them, just remember to give what is truly relevant and valuable to your customers and don’t ask for an immediate action on their behalf. Many loyalty points programs and referral schemes are formalized systems that harness reciprocity.
Additionally, many e-commerce companies ship small surprise gifts with the package, Adore Beauty sends me small packs of candy and samples every time and it is so memorable and makes me feel like I have a relationship with them!
4- Consistency- We like to think of ourselves as accurate and unchanging so when we are faced with uncertainty, we naturally look for evidence to prove that we were right all along! Knowing customers are likely to repeat their past behaviour is very powerful as it allows you to identify the decisions that the customers want to be associated with and encourage them to double down.
If you can get a customer to refer you to their friends and family, it makes them even more likely to keep doing what they asked from their friends and family to do too. Many companies also enable their customers to share their purchases to their social networks further cementing that behaviour.
5- Bargain/ Winning- We like to think that we are smarter than people around us and part of that is to win by making the right choices. One of the biggest wins while shopping is to save on a predefined value of an item. This is why many companies use Priming, which works because we remember things we have seen recently when we are making decisions. Marketers often use this principle when they show us slashed prices!
6- Social proof- Let’s face it, sometimes it’s hard to make a decision and we overthink and question ourselves. We are a lot more likely to be confident with our decision if we hear from people who made the same choice. This is why social proof is so highly regarded in the digital age where you can, in a matter of seconds, glance at the overall satisfactions of hundreds of users and dig deep into what it was that they found concerning. Recent surveys have shown that 93% of buyers read reviews before buying a product. Most e-commerce sites highlight reviews or ratings and some even show the number of customers who have previously purchased the item as proof of its popularity!
7- Authority- We like to follow the advice of experts in a given field. This is why we go to specialists when we are unwell, why we don’t cut our own hair and follow rules set by society that are not necessarily laws. If you can set your e-commerce as a Subject Matter Expert in a given domain, customers are more likely to trust your recommendations. This does not always mean having in-house experts. Many brands use niche influencers to review their products and provide advice.
Finally lets see an example with many of these principles in play:
Which one of these can you add to your website?
