Showing the cards: what do online shoppers want?

Businessmen who are truly not indifferent to their offspring approach the issue of the whims and wishes of online buyers with special passion and enthusiasm. Research and statistics help to understand the complex intricacies of combinations and patterns of its formation.

We hand over the deck

The criteria for choosing an online store are dictated not only by common sense, but also by mentality. The main distinguishing feature of the inhabitants of most post-Soviet countries is suspicion. Our compatriots trust the recommendations of friends to a greater extent than consumers from other countries. An important role in this matter is also played by the presence of an offline store where you can touch and feel the product and get it immediately. And yet no one cancels such clear and familiar criteria as convenience, low prices and the ability to compare them. We won't go into too much detail about the situation with online commerce in the world, but we'll better get an impression of it by looking at the picture with the data of the February 2013 online shopping survey from PwC. The crosses mark the main criteria for a particular country, we have no doubt that you all understood everything :)

Let's just talk about trends common to the whole world: manufacturers pay more attention not to new and still “green” customers, but to venerable players - regular customers - encouraging them to shop as often as possible. It is especially important in this case to understand the psychology of the client and figure out how to keep his interest.

Trumps

All the same, PwC gives us shocking, but at the same time very valuable information that a low price is not the main criterion for choosing an online store. Again, you can verify this by looking at the picture.

Low prices certainly attract attention at the discovery stage, but, oddly enough, they are a rather controversial incentive when it comes to repeat purchases. The real revelation was the fact that users are not interested in the elegance of the design of the store, it does not matter - real or virtual. People care little about the smiles on the faces of the staff, and even the possibility of a free return of goods. Naturally, customers should not be rude, as well as refuse to exchange goods, but it will be much more effective to use, finally, an ace in the hole.

The real trump cards of online commerce can be called:

• fast and uninterrupted delivery;
• loyal and transparent return policy;
• exclusive access to new products;
• innovation (both in products and marketing strategy);
• site functionality.

In the last paragraph, such moments as the preservation of personal information, ease of placement and promptness in receiving orders are especially valuable.

Joker

Customer feedback is a simple, but very useful and easy-to-use thing that will help you find out and understand what YOUR customer wants from the store. For example, on the “Thank you for the order” page, you can place a small (only really small) questionnaire with answer options + your own option. The questions themselves can be varied from the standard “why did you choose our store?”, “Are you satisfied with the work/products of our store” or “What else would you like to buy in our store?” to more "slippery" topics of discussion, such as: "how do you prefer to receive promotional mail from us" or "would you recommend us to your friends?" The last question is especially interesting, because your beloved customer can answer it positively, and then you will have a real chance to expand your customer base. By adding a modicum of analytics to response analysis, you can get a clearer picture of the store's business processes and take steps to improve the quality of its service.

Bluff

It should be mentioned that online buyers can bluff just as well as real card cheats, especially if they are collaborating with you for the first time. Remember that the most effective way to see what cards your customers have is to collect information using the site's analytics and statistics system. In addition, buyers are arranged in such a way that if everything suits them, they will never “split” and will not tell you anything about it.