By Shopify Guest Contributor > How to Sell Online
Whenever anyone asks me what marketing books I recommend that will help them sell more, the very first one I point them to is “Influence” by Robert Cialdini, published in 1984.
Whenever anyone asks me what marketing books I recommend that will help them sell more, the very first one I point them to is “Influence” by Robert Cialdini, published in 1984.
A professor of psychology and marketing, Cialdini lays
out six ways you can get people to say yes to what you're asking. Anyone who
sells things for a living, online or offline, should know, love, and live these
principles:
1. Reciprocity
2. Commitment & Consistency
3. Liking
4. Authority
5. Social Proof
6. Scarcity
Let's take a look how you can build some of these
influence triggers into your online store to start getting more sales and
customers.
1. Reciprocity
The principle of reciprocity means that when someone
gives us something we feel compelled to give something back in return. Have you
ever gone to Costco ended up with an unplanned sausage purchase in your cart
because you felt a nagging obligation to buy because you tried a free sample?
Well, that was the principle of reciprocity in action.
Of course, online retailers can’t personally visit the
house of each person who interacts with them to shove a sample in their hand.
So how can you make reciprocity work for you?
Free Gift With Purchase
You might not be able to offer something in advance, but
you can definitely offer something alongside. This tactic is a favorite of
cosmetic and beauty products as demonstrated below by Ultra Beauty.
Even if you don’t advertise the gift in advance, slipping
samples of other products into your shipped product can create the feeling of
having received a gift that might earn you a second purchase.
The Gift Of Content
Content can be a good way for online retailers to provide
value to potential customers—in effect, giving them a gift. For example,
StyleSeek presents new users with a fun quiz they can go through to reach
recommendations for clothes that match what they like:
True & Co, an online lingerie retailer, helps women
figure out the right size and style of bra for them:
2. Commitment &
Consistency
The principle of commitment and consistency says that
people will go to great lengths to appear consistent in their words and actions
- even to the extent of doing things that are basically irrational.
That’s why if you’re trying to make a change in your life
- losing weight, for example - it can be very helpful to state your goal
publicly. Once you’ve committed out loud (or online) you will have much more
incentive to keep up your end of the bargain.
As a retailer, if you can get customers to make a small
commitment to your brand (like signing up for your email newsletter), they are
more likely to eventually purchase from you. And if you can actually get
products in their hand, even if there is no official commitment to buy them,
your chances increase even more.
This was the principle behind Warby Parker’s Home Try-On
Program:
Zappos’ famously easy return policy is another example of
this - there is less friction for the customer to buy because they know that if
they don’t like it they can return it. But once they have the product in their
hands, will they really return it? Probably not. They're already committed.
3. Liking
The principle of liking says that we are more likely to
say yes to a request if we feel a connection to the person making it. That’s
why the sausage sample lady at Costco is always giving you a nice smile.
It’s also why brands hire celebrities to endorse their
products - so that people will transfer their love of Roger Federer to watches
he’s endorsing.
There are lots of ways to make this principle work for
your store:
Telling Your Story
As a direct-response marketer I tend not to truck much
with branding. But if there’s one place that branding is essential, it is in
triggering the principle of liking.
Every element of your store - colors, fonts, photo
styles, copy - contributes to your brand personality, and your goal is to
create a personality that is cohesive and that your target customer will like.
This might be brisk and efficient if you are selling into a business market,
warm and playful if you’re selling children’s products, 'earth-mothery' if
you’re selling natural products.
Many stores will include something like an “About Us”
page that is basically brand personality distilled. Here’s an example from Hiut
Denim Co:
And one from jewelry designer Elva Fields:
This is a great way to sum up your story and to get
people to like you.
Use Models People Can
Identify With
If you’re selling clothing, jewelry, or accessories, one
quick way to create a connection to your customer is to show your stuff on
people they will identify with and like. This doesn’t mean you need to book
Russian supermodels; it’s best if they look like your customers. This might
mean funky and cool, like So Worth Loving:
Casual and athletic, like Title Nine:
Social Links
People are more likely to purchase something if it’s
recommended to them by someone they know and trust. So make sure that your
product pages have links to Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Google+ so that
your customers can tell their friends about the great product they just found
on your site.
I know this sounds obvious, but I had to poke around to
find examples, especially with smaller stores. But tea shop Little Sparrow is
doing it right:
And so are more well known brands, like Fab:
Display What Others Are
Buying
Have you ever noticed someone wearing the same shoes or
shirt as you and mentally saluted their fine taste? You probably felt a quick
connection with that person based solely on that one data point.
Stores can play off that idea by presenting products that
are similar to what the person is browsing, as seen here in the online store
for the comic The Oatmeal:
4. Authority
Most people have heard of the famous Milgram experiments,
in which volunteers were convinced to continue delivering what they thought were
incredibly painful electric shocks to unseen subjects, even when they could
hear (faked) screams of pain. The presence of a man in a lab coat telling them
to continue was enough to earn the compliance of nearly all the volunteers.
People appear hard-wired to respond to authority (or the
appearance of authority). How can you use this to sell?
Expert Creation
Does your product have a scientific secret sauce? Display
content from professionals with credentials like Herbalife:
Is it hand-crafted by trained artisans? Tell the world
all about them like Dodocase:
And of course books are another great example of this.
Are you more likely to buy a run-of-the-mill book about how to cook French
Food… or one by Jacques Pepin? Cookbook Village knows that big names sell books
and they have a whole section for big name chefs:
These days the range of products available to a shopper
are so vast it’s hard to wade through them all—and that’s why “curation” has
become the buzzword of the moment.
Do you have a Chief Stylist (or someone who could
reasonably pass for that)? Have a page with her top picks for the season.
Selling fitness products? Have a personal trainer give his favorite picks. Even
a little authority is enough; Kepler’s Books provides recommendations from each
of their staff members:
The principle of social proof is connected to the
principle of liking: because we are social creatures, we tend to like things
just because other people do as well, whether we know them or not. Anything
that shows the popularity of your site and your products can trigger a
response.
Have you gotten good press? Mention it! Received loving
emails from customers? Quote them! Gotten good feedback from your mom? Heck,
get it up there. Look, cute tableware purveyor Camila Prada has done all three:
Another tactic is to provide a “Best Sellers” or “Most
Popular” page, as demonstrated by Black Milk below. Are the
anatomically-correct muscle leggings really their most popular, or just the
ones that are most piled up in the warehouse? As a consumer, I don’t know. But
by declaring these particular leggings the most wanted, Black Milk has given
them a sheen of desirability.
And of course, ratings and reviews, a la Amazon &
countless other retailers, are another fine way to show social proof.
6. Scarcity
Cialdini’s final principle is the principle of scarcity,
which states that people are highly motivated by the thought that they might
lose out on something. Call it the Eternal Teenager Principle: if someone tells
you that you can’t have it - boy, do you want it. This is probably the one I’m
the biggest sucker for, personally.
Marketers trigger this effect by using all kinds of
tactics to suggest that products (or low prices) might soon be gone, or that
someone is trying to keep this product off the market.
Deadlines For Sales
Lily Pulitzer is counting down to the second when she her
summer sale prices will become unavailable.
Impending Out-Of-Stock
Announcements
You want that cute toy box from ModMom? Well, you’d better
hurry - there are only three left!
Seasonal or Limited Products
Every March when my friend gets her green Shamrock Shake
from McDonalds she crows with happiness all over the social media. Think she’d
be that excited if she could walk in and get it any time? Of course not. The
knowledge that the supply is limited motivates her—and makes her feel like a
success for having “won.”
And speaking of me being a sucker for this tactic, that’s
exactly how I feel about my Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks.
But What About Pricing?
You may be wondering where the extremely common retail
tactics of sales & discounts fall under these six principles. Is Cialdini
saying that price doesn’t impact people’s purchasing behavior?
Of course it does, and Cialdini mentions a couple of
pricing experiments in the beginning of his book. But think of it this way: the
price of your product represents the size of a risk someone is going to take
on. In other words, people will be a lot more choosy over a $10,000 product
than one that is $1.
Risk Removal
The six principles of influence represent additional
non-obvious ways to impact perceived risk. For example, by using appeals to
authority, you're decreasing the risk of a 'yes' - someone who says yes (to
your appeal to buy a product) can always point to the authority you've
demonstrated to rationalize their purchase. By using scarcity tactics, you're
increasing the risk of a 'no' - someone who declines your offer right now might
miss out.
So given a price that you have settled on for your
products, using the principles of influence can decrease the risk of 'yes'
(liking, social proof, authority) or increase the risk of 'no' (scarcity,
consistency, reciprocity).
Sprinkle them throughout your site and watch your sales
go up!
About the Author: Beth Morgan is marketing consultant and
early-stage startup advisor. You can find more of her writing at her website,
Marketing Nerdistry, or follow her on Twitter.
Ready to put what you've learned into action? Build your own online store with Shopify! Don't forget to check in with our 24-7 customer service always available to assist!
Are you already a high-volume, fast-growing merchant?
We have the experts to assist with online store and e-Commerce set-up, design, development, apps, marketing and photography.
Advance your business for a fraction of traditional Enterprise costs with Shopify-Plus.
Whether you sell
online, on social media, in store, internationally
or out of the trunk of your car,
Shopify has you covered.
or out of the trunk of your car,
Shopify has you covered.
Comments
Post a Comment