Decipher the Psychology of Online Consumers

Yesterday I came across this interesting infographic nicely made by Vouchercloud, which digs into the factors that affect a consumer’s decision-making process at an ecommerce website. The infographic is quite self-explanatory, and I think 3 pieces of insights really stood out for me, as they reaffirmed some of the key points that we have come across in our class discussions on how to encourage social engagement in general.

1. Visuals are key. Whether it’s image or video, visual of a website and its products plays a great role in keeping consumers on the website, making transactions, and coming back for more. In fact, one can even “trick” consumers into buying particular products by manipulating the placement of products on each page. An article on hubspot showed how the staging of online product page could affect consumer’s buying choice. The trick is to put the products that are the most profitable in the middle of a list of choices.
2. Sense of community is important. On ecommerce websites reviews, the online word-of-mouth, is proved to be crucial on consumer decision-making. This might also create opportunities for companies to create better product review metrics that tap deeper into peer effect and personal relationships to boost sales.
3. Keep things easy and straightforward. In today’s highly mobile and fragmented life, consumers want things to be clean and clear. Complicated check out process, hidden charges, or “automatic subscriptions” will remove the products from consumers’ shopping charts and probability drive potential consumers away from the website forever.

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