This is the era of online shopping. All of us are spending a lot of our free time scrolling e-commerce websites either searching, finding or buying products. While online shopping, do we realize that e-commerce sites are playing mind tricks with us.
In Fact apart from ease of use, human psychology drives the biggest sales.
There are many tools these sites are opting to attract customer attention towards products , creating demand and pulling them to buy the product ultimately. We don’t even realize during buying that we really need those products or not.
These are 11 tricks used by ecommerce websites to Let us understand how they are creating demand and increasing their sales.
Track your internet usage to show you Targeted ads
We all know that wizardry may have wondered how it works. Yes I am talking about the situation where you search top hotels in Goa and the next website that you visit will show you an ad for hotels in Goa.
This trick is called targeted ads. Most websites that you visit will track you and your activities. These activities are then used by Google or Facebook to show ads relevant to your search.
This is a very simple trick because you’re searching for a hotel and if you see a hotel available for a nice price you will go ahead and book it.
Offers and discounts
This is the age old trick used online as well as offline. Let’s see an example below-
T-Shirt MRP 250 rupees
T-Shirt MRP 500 Rupees – Available for 250 Rupees with 50% Discount
Which one would you buy?
Most will end up buying the T-shirt which is available at discount. In the end it’s the same price and the same T-shirt but our brain thinks that we are getting better value considering the discount.
With E commerce this is used at a massive scale especially during the big sale event. If you are tracking the prices you will see products available at the same price throughout the year.
EMI Facility
Very easy credit is available to almost anyone these days. You will find most E-commerce websites will provide you easy EMI facilities or zero EMI zero cost EMI facility. Easy EMI options make bigger purchases easy. This makes the buying process devoid of any immediate financial burden.
Short term sales/ scarcity
If something is available for a short time it makes it that much more interesting. Creating artificial scarcity rushes consumers into decision making that is not thought through. Not giving time for people to think makes them vulnerable to make quick Purchase Decisions.
For example you are searching for an Iphone and if it is available for a discounted price only for one hour you will actually take the plunge and buy it. Compare this to price available is always constant you will think it and may not end up buying it
Quick deliveries
E-commerce websites can deliver most products within a few days. In case of metro cities where the warehouses are situated close by it can be in less than a day. Convenience with the addition of quick deliveries make impulse purchases very easy.
Quick checkout process/saving your credit card details
You’ll find that the checkout process overtime has become very seamless. It is done by saving your address, credit card details or providing cash on delivery. Websites or apps will not give you any reason to abandon your purchase after you decided and put it in your cart.
Saving your current card details itself so smooth that in a blinking of eye you can select your favourite at phone and order it it
Bundle offers.
This is again at it taken from offline stores. Say you are buying a nice shirt the salesman will offer you a tie along with that. Such bundle offers are difficult to say no to.
Similar approach is used by online websites wherein you buy acche when you buy a chair you will be offered an attractive cushion. In case you like the cushion, you will make the extra purchase.
Positive reviews/social proof
If you want to buy anything new online, the first thing that most do is go and check the reviews. If you see a bunch of reviews which are positive you would be that much inclined to make the purchase.
Amazon, Flipkart also provide the filter so that you can only see products which have more than 4 stars out of 5.
This eliminates the uncertainty considering you cannot see and feel the product.
Easy returns and refunds
When you cannot see and feel the products besides reviews the other thing which assures buyers is you can easily return and get a full refund.
Most websites have a very liberal and easy return policies which eliminates any risk buyers have to take.
Free shipping
When e-commerce was in its infancy, a lot of websites charged delivery fees. overtime this trends have reversed as most websites offer free shipping.
Even though the price already accounts for the delivery charges, free shipping just offers that extra value to the customers. This eliminates the fear in Minds of customers that they are paying unnecessary extra charges.
Notifications
Once you install an app, you will see a bunch of notifications throughout the day enticing you to open the website aur app. If you see something that you want to buy available at a discount you will make an impulse purchase.
Follow up emails
Try looking at any products on Amazon or Flipkart, add them to your cart. If you get busy or don’t want to make any purchase decisions websites will send you reminders emails and app notifications. They will follow up virtually till you make a purchase decision.
Once you know these tricks they can be an eye opener. Hopefully this will help in not letting your guards down when you don’t want unplanned spending.
