Ecommerce optimisation tips part 5: Understanding the factors that encourage people to buy
TIP: Ecommerce blogsFor more posts similar to this one, take a look at our ecommerce blogs page.This is the fifth of a series of six posts where I’m uncovering fundamental UX principles for designing great ecommerce user experiences.
Last time we discussed the importance of designing for trust in 10 guidelines to consider when designing for trust.
This time we’ll study some fundamental principles that encourage people to buy.
The psychology of buying
There are lots of reasons why people buy products but there is some interesting psychology that we can tap into to try and understand what is really going on.
Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/elsie/154300399/sizes/m/In Andrew Chak’s book ‘Submit Now – Designing persuasive Web Sites’ he talks about the following key influencers that will influence people online:
- Scarcity – The less of something there is the more valuable it becomes to people, think limited edition print sales.
- Reciprocity – A classic example of this is sites that ask you to register before you see any goods, the user will give something (information) upon getting something from the site first.
- Social proof – Demonstrate the opinions of others to reinforce a users decision to buy.
- Authority – This builds upon the idea of social proof whereby reviewers are given super status such as ‘Trusted reviewer’ or ‘Super user’. Amazon give their reviewers status by compiling league tables. Their top ranking classic reviewer, Harriet Klausner, a self confessed speed reader from Pennsylvania, reads two books per day has amassed an amazing 19,359 reviews!
- Liking – If you like the brand and its values you’re going to be more likely to like their products. Check the Howies, Ben & Jerry’s and Innocent sites to see good examples of companies using ethical philosophies as a USP.
It is useful to consider these principles when reviewing your core purchasing pages. These principles can also be used to plan both content and functionality for new sites.
Next time I will be summarising the key points from this series of posts on ecommerce optimisation.
About the author
James is a Principal User Experience consultant at cxpartners. He’s got over 10 years of experience working with brands like MTV, Orange and Expedia. He loves photography and is very proud of his garden shed. Email James, or call +44 (0)117 946 3930
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