Since the dawn of retail, merchants have been finding clever ways to get customers in the door, to stay a little longer, and buy a little more. The shop counters of the Roman Forum, Ostia, and Pompeii were often “clad in marble or decorated with colorful painted plaster with the most eye-catching and exotic designs appearing on the exterior vertical faces in order to entice potential customers passing in the street.”
Modern brick-and-mortar retailers have turned customer phycology into an entire industry.
- 🌭 Costco’s version of a marble clad exterior is their famous loss leader, the $1.50 hotdog. 🌭
- 🌡️Walmart keeps every store at a perfect 78 degrees Fahrenheit from a centralized control center. (the optimal temperature for increased consumer purchasing) 🌡️
- 🌲🍊“Ambient scents” are even used to nudge customers to convert. Researchers have found that citrus and pine scents influence shoppers to spend 20% more than people who shop in unscented areas. 🌲🍊
So if the future of retail is ecommerce, what is the future of customer phycology?
User/Customer experience.
Just like in the physical retail, creating a pleasant shopping experience brings customers in and keeps them coming back. “Fifty percent of consumers surveyed said that they consider how easy the checkout process is when selecting a digital merchant, and 40% said the same of how easy to navigate the merchant’s online store is.” Retailers understand this and invest a ton of resources into improving buy seconds or percentage points.
For instance...
- Costco cut down the loading time for its native mobile app homepage on iOS from eight seconds to two seconds.
- Sonos reimagined their checkout experience into a higher touch, 3-step process that made it 4% easier for users to navigate.
User/customer experience gets a ton of attention from brands on their DTC sites and retailers on their platforms, but for many brands selling on marketplaces, this is an afterthought.
Over 60% of US online shoppers start their product search on Amazon. Your marketplace listings are a HUGE part of your customer experience, so why not dedicate a similar level of obsession?
By focusing on titles, product and lifestyle photos, infographics, bullet points, product description, social reinforcement through reviews, and delivery promises, you are crafting a customer experience that builds loyalty and converts.
B2B Creative Marketing Manager
