Brick-and-Mortar retailing units have the advantage of personalized attention towards customers who walk in. This gives an edge over online shopping since customers, especially window shoppers feel special and are pursued to get closer to buying the products from the seller. At online marketplaces like eBay and TrueGether, the lack of human presence to assess the customer behavior is a setback.
These days with advanced technology and innovation in place, there are ample ways of ensuring that virtual window shoppers are given a great interface experience while visiting the portal and that virtual window shoppers participate in shopping from the sellers. Some of the ways to make virtual window shoppers buy your products are listed below:
- Online Messaging Integration
- Short Surveys to Grab Attention
- Customer Reviews and Ratings
- Customer Traffic Analysis
- Social Media Engagement
Let’s find out the details that need to be covered in each of these tips to increase sales through virtual window shopping platforms.
Online Messaging Integration
Though most online marketplaces have this option, it is up to sellers to optimally use this service with either new customers or regular visitors who are just virtual window shoppers. Since the customer activity on online shopping sites can be tracked using many tools, the seller must implement a target shopper-based technique to route personalized messages or chat messages and enquire about their expectations, requirements, shopping patterns etc. while also suggesting alternatives, shopping tips, and apprising them about the upcoming products etc.
Helping shoppers in exploring your products and building a personal rapport with them is the key to improving the trust quotient with shoppers while giving them a chance to provide their opinions and feel satisfied with the overall experience in the process. Personal messaging can be done selectively during the parts of the day a shopper might be available and can respond and it can be done intermittently to avoid any inconvenience. Anything suggestive that would give the shoppers’ requirements more priority will help convert them to buyers.
Short Surveys to Grab Attention
Just like survey activities at malls and at retail stores, displaying a brief survey window either when the shopper visits the home page or when the shopper tries to exit the seller’s page with a maximum of 4 questions will help understand the shopper’s requirement while also letting them know that you are willing to help and might offer what they are looking for. When a shopper gets the feeling that the seller is giving them more importance they tend to mutually take interest in the seller’s offer. Questions like the type of product the shopper is looking for, the price range, and the purpose of their purchase is helpful. Asking them to enter their email ID as a mandatory field while also offering either discounts on their first purchase, a cashback, or a online coupon code deal they just can’t refuse after completing the survey would work like a charm and is a definite win-win.
Statistics like how many people filled up the survey and availed discounts or a lucky draw for shoppers who completed the survey periodically can pave the way to customer conversion. Even loyalty points or discounts for regular visitors or returning customers can make them buy other products offered by sellers than their usual pick.
Customer Reviews and Ratings
Another customer’s review on a seller is like a social approval from a person who has actually experienced the products and service quality of the seller. Either through reviewing platforms or on e-marketplaces, if the seller has multiple positive reviews even if there are very few negative ones, it gives the new shopper an impression that the seller’s products are worth investing in.
The first and the most basic instinct of new shoppers is to check for the seller’s reviews and ratings and assess them to form a mental image of their product’s worth. A good rating above 4 out of 5 will definitely plant some confidence in the minds of shoppers and help sellers in converting them to buyers. Shoppers always compare prices, offers, services, and above all user feedback through ratings and reviews with the seller’s competitors to gauge the current seller’s worth.
Customer Traffic Analysis
Amazon Stores, for example, enables sellers to exhibit their product portfolio and gain quick access to targeted customer visits and the overall store performance metrics through a dashboard at the insights tab. The metrics that are displayed and help the sellers in better decision making are daily visits, page views, page views per visitor, sales, and sales units.
The seller can now optimize new marketing strategies, plan better traffic driving mechanisms, and introduce product listings that are in more demand based on the demographics. Through tools like this, sellers can find new opportunities in driving more traffic to their desired product pages by mapping the target customers to the page and sending them personal messages or deals to turn virtual window shoppers to buyers. The multiple page visits by a particular customer will denote that the customer is interested in the products on that page and is not buying because of some reason. The seller can then contact the shopper to persuade them to shop from their products page with some irresistible deals and offers.
Social Media Engagement
Social media promotions, product features, discount updates, personalized coupons and offers via messaging, flash sales updates etc. can help draw traffic to seller pages. The sellers can capitalize on this and target certain buyers or buyer groups to promote their products and convert them into buyers.
Even questions or queries on the availability of certain products or product specifications in shopper groups can be scanned on social media by sellers to approach shoppers who are in need of the products which the seller can offer or alternative arrangements can be made by sellers that would make the shopper buy from them. A discussion group is always the best place on social media platforms to attain new buyers. The sellers have to determine how they would use this powerful platform to make millions of users aware of their products and convert users to buyers.
Conclusion
To conclude, it can be said that virtual window shopper conversion is a slow process but it is up to the seller to make this a steady one by continuously coming up with creative schemes and effective pricing of products to lure virtual shoppers with an edge over competitors. Product marketing, listing, customer approach, persuasion, continuous buyer monitoring, and good market research are the secrets to opening the doors to new buyers.