E-commerce Visitors - What do they Really Want?

Answering this question might not be as valuable as answering “What Women Want” but let’s keep it a topic for another decade for now :) Lets try to answer what E-commerce users want.

E-commerce is growing like crazy in 2020 - thanks to COVID-19. There is an unprecedented demand for online shopping as physical retail has taken a hit.

People are looking to buy online - They are searching on Google, going directly to their favourite e-stores. In fact, they are far more likely to click on your ads on Facebook and Google.

This post is about what the user expects once he has clicked through to your platform and given you his undivided attention for those 5-10 seconds.

What are some of the questions in the users’ mind that you need to answer. There might be thousands of questions that need to be answered for the consumer but all of them, more or less, boil down to these two fundamental questions.

1. How is this website solving one of my pain points or helping with one of my Jobs to be done (JBTD) - A highly relevant pain point for an Indian user can be buying his coveted brand for 90-100% OFF :)

2. Can I trust this website with my money.

Answer these two questions clearly and succinctly without putting too much cognitive load on the user and you might end up laughing all the way to the bank.

It’s all about taking anxiety out of the visitor’s mind and thus converting them into a customer.

Once, he becomes a customer then it is upto your customer service and logistics to give him a solid and remarkable first time experience and then the most crucial bit -

The product needs to fulfil the promise on the website 110%.

It is at this point that you also take a customer review from the satisfied customer to create a flywheel effect through an ever improving answer to the second question (Why should they trust you) for more incoming visitors. Airbnb has based their business model on this flywheel in addition to their unique supply and global network effects.

A remarkable 68% of Airbnb guests leave a review

Now, lets dive into both the user questions in depth:

Question 1 - How are these people solving one of my pain points

A lot of entrepreneurs design a solution and then find the problem that their solution can effectively solve. It is actually akin to having a key in your hand and then looking for a lock.

The journey has to, has to, has to start with the consumer pain points/JTBD and how you are going to solve that 10X better than the current solution in the market. This part has to be nailed and this is what takes you across the product market fit chasm.

Myntra has solved the problem of accessing (virtually) all Fashion brands on a single platform and doling out unprecedented discounts on the merchandise 10X better than everyone else

Amazon provides 10X better customer and delivery experience than anybody else in the market (Plus a plethora of other things)

You need to hammer your VALUE PROP for the customer Upfront and very very clearly

And this Value Prop/Mission needs to attack the customer pain point/JTBD at a really emotional level.

Next step is to make this Value Prop more tangible by taking users through the product categories and relating them to users’ pain points/JBTD.

Things to remember here -

1. Don’t push vanity things about your company because it would just make your internal stakeholders happy but would be useless for the actual person who matters here - THE WEBSITE VISITOR.

2. List down what info is important for the customer on the Product Detail Page and its priority in the scene of things. Be ruthless in testing here through heat maps and click stream data.

People don’t have a great attention span

This is a huge factor which needs to be taken into account while you are designing the experience on the product detail pages.

Nobody wants to read through reams of text so always be on the lookout to reduce the text on the pages. Higher the cognitive load on the user - lower your conversion rates are going to be.

For God’s sake - we are not playing Sherlock Holmes here whereby the user needs to decipher through the info to get those 3-4-5 nuggets of information which would answer the questions coming to his mind.

Some pointers -

Videos > Images > Bullets > Paragraphs > Nothing

1. Be specific wherever you can and Show rather then tell

2. Have bullet points instead of Paragraphs

3. Have videos wherever you can

4. Icons to be used for Product USPs

5. Any badges (from industry bodies) on the grooming/nutritional products

6. Scarcity or anything which makes user take the decision faster -> to be shown really prominently

Question 2 - Can I trust this website with my money

Unless you are Amazon, Flipkart or Myntra - most of your orders would be coming in through the first time buyers. The user doesn’t yet know whether you are a serious player or a fly by night business being operated from Jamtara.

Even if you are not a fraud, users are worried about the return/refund policies in case the product has sub-par quality or any other similar issue crops up after receiving the product.

The best way to alleviate this user anxiety is through two methods -

1. Should have a lot of social proof on the website

2. Provide contact details of multiple channels (phone/email/chat/whatsapp etc etc) upfront

Social Proof

Social Proof from third parties comes in many colours

• User reviews

• Press

• Influencers

User reviews is by far the most robust part of social proof for e commerce companies since they are already selling to customers and happy customers are willing to leave a review if they are reached out through appropriate channels at appropriate timing.

Here, it is important for the e-com companies to focus more on the reviews summary rather than fretting over individual reviews - Nobody has time to go through all the reviews.

What is important for the potential buyer is the average rating of the product across meaningful dimensions - Example - In case of Shirts, these dimensions can be - fabric quality, fit, and value for money. The potential buyer also wants to know that the reviews are genuine and that can be gauged through a number of parameters including number of reviews plus Details like Name of reviewer, Date of review, whether the reviewer is a verified buyer. Having customer photos is like icing on the cake.

Press: Be as detailed as possible when citing Press citations. Use publisher’s logos + also their quotes so that users get a context.

Influencers: Having influencers talk up your product is also a pretty good strategy to get the word out and embedding these videos on the product page gives it an extra edge. These videos can have dual purpose - They provide a third party endorsement and also serve as a practical guide on how to use the product thus giving a real insight into what to expect from the product to the buyer.

Provide Contact Details upfront

Be upfront with content info (phone/email/address/whatsapp) without relegating it to a different page hidden in the sitemap. The user is anxious about making his first purchase from you and want a reassurance that he can talk to some one in case the purchase does not work out.

Summarising it all here -

Summary:

1. Your website visitor just wants to know - Q1: How you are solving the problem on top of his mind and Q2: why should he trust you with his money

2. The e-commerce store needs to explicitly answer the first question without putting any cognitive load on the user’s mind. Don’t take him through reams of text and definitely not talk about the features of your product. Instead, talk about his problems and how you are solving them.

3. Videos are most effective - followed by images and then text in helping the user understand.

4. Show rather then Tell and provide details wherever available rather than making a fluffy claim

5. There are three ways to reduce consumer anxiety regarding Q2 - Social Proof (Summarised user reviews, Press Citations and Influencer Videos) and making the contact details really really accessible.

Hope you have liked this week’s article. Have not been writing for last 2-3 months but its a promise to turn up a new post every weekend from now. So, in case you liked this - pls don’t forget to subscribe.

As always, looking for feedback and your personal examples in the comments.

Wishing you guys a Happy New Year in advance. May 2021 Rock for all of us.