Online Comparison Shopping Behavior

Part Six - Guide to Increasing Online Sales

Let's take a look at how people comparison shop online as this can help us to understand how the design of a web site and it's content can encourage or detract from making a sale.hout spending a dime on fuel or having to look for a place to park.

Imagine that someone Mary is searching online for the best deal for a Sony PlayStation. Mary is confronted with an endless number of online shops selling these devices. After about 30 minutes of comparing prices on about ten or fifteen web sites she narrows her choices down to three web sites selling the same product. Let's assume that the price is about the same on all three web sites.

So what differences in the three remaining web sites might affect Mary's decision about choosing which one to purchase from? We know that the price is the same on all three sites, so we can take that out of the equation. What we are left with are issues of functionality, form and trust. The first issue deals directly with the functionality of the web sites involved. The second two issues relate to psychological or emotional responses to the content and design of the web sites.

Let's have a look at functionality. Mary has narrowed her search to three web sites, one of which she will choose to make a purchase of A Sony Play Station. Web Site A is offering the Play Station at the same price as the other two sites. Site A contains much of the same information as the other sites, but when Mary tries to get information about shipping costs she discovers that the web page she is looking for is missing or not working. She decides to rule Site A out of the running based on this dysfunction of the site. Mary makes the assumption that if the owners of the site are this careless about their own web site they might be careless about processing and shipping any order that she might make.

You can see how the functionality of the web site is directly related to the sales process. Critical information was unavailable to the purchaser and resulted in a lost sale. Mary isn't going to go back to this site in a few hours or a few days to see if the problem has been fixed. Why should she? She has other options available to her, hundreds, thousands of options. Selling online isn't like selling in the outside world; you don't get any second chances. You can see also how there's a psychological component to the functionality of a website. A site which displays broken links or non-working pages is unprofessional. In fact any element of your web site which might cause a glitch for the user is a potential roadblock to making a sale.

This brings us to the issue of form. The form of a web site or its overall design and composition may be just as important as its function. A web site which is professionally designed, pleasing to the eye, and logical in its layout of information stands a far better chance of making a sale than one that is not.

Sometimes the smallest things can make all the difference. Just like in the offline world, perception counts for a lot in the eyes of the consumer. Your website acts as a representative for your business, a very important representative. The design of your web site can make a big impact on the perception of your potential customers.

Many small business owners make the mistake of short changing the design of their web sites. It's not uncommon for many small business owners to design their own sites or pay their nieces and nephews or a friend to create a web site for them. For the reasons stated previously this can be a big mistake, a mistake most chances of their websites acting as sales generating tool. Saving a few bucks and cutting corners on the design of a website may seem like a good idea but it's really shooting oneself in the foot.

The third issue which might affect Mary's (or anyone's) decision about choosing which web site to make a purchase from is an issue of trust. You might be asking yourself what trust has to do with anything. How can a website instill trust or perhaps seem untrustworthy? Again we get back to the notion of mimicking real life purchasing situations.

When we make a purchase in an offline store we get a receipt. We know that if something is wrong with the product we can take it back to the store and receive a replacement. Sure it might be a bit of a hassle, but we feel reasonably confident that we are able to get some satisfaction should something be defective with the product.

Well, this sense of confidence and assurance changes when we turn to the internet as a method of shopping. When we shop online we don't really know who we are dealing with. The person on the other end of the supply line might be anywhere in the world, they might not speak the same language that we do. We might end up waiting weeks for a product to arrive once we purchase it. The assurances and confidence that we feel with making offline purchases doesn't exist with online shopping, in most cases anyway.

Remember earlier when we talked about the reasons that some people refuse to purchase products online? The most common reasons that people are reluctant to make online purchase boil down to this issue of trust. People just don't trust the internet, they don't trust online shops, and they don't trust that the products will even show up once they are purchased. Every step of the way it's trust or the lack of it actually that holds people back from making a purchase online, at your web site or anyone else's. Keep this in the forefront of your mind when you are planning your web site and your online sales pages.

There are several ways that a website can help to instill a sense of trust in a potential customer. To be honest, none of them are perfect and none of them will ever match the sense of assurance that a consumer feels or usually feels when making an offline purchase.


Part One - Introduction to Online Sales
Part Two - Web Site Usability
Part Three - Defining Calls to Action
Part Four - Optimizing Sales Copy
Part Five - Online Purchasing Behaviors
Part Six - Price Comparison Behavior
Part Seven - Building Online Trust
Part Eight - Understanding Conversion Rates
Part Nine - The Payment Process
Part Ten - After The Sale

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