E-Commerce Secrets: Encourage Impulse Buys
E-Commerce Secrets and related advice abound on the website called gotwww.com.
One of the more intriguing lines of advice is for you to encourage impulse buys on your website. The important strategy here would be to instill a sense of urgency in your prospective customers, but not to overdo it with too much shrill salespersonship.
In other words, be clear and communicative, but don’t go overboard.
Here’s how gotwww.com puts it:
“Encourage impulse buys. Fast food restaurants understand this concept. Think: “do you want fries with that?” Well, you can do that online as well:
1. Suggest related products. Amazon.com is a leader in this technique. An online shopper searches for a particular book and clicks to view the details and reviews. The detail page offers the book at a special price if the customer buys it together with a book on a related topic or by the same author.
2. Associate linked products. If a customer buys a video game, ask if he’d also like to buy some batteries, games, or other peripherals. Those are items the customer may forget to purchase or might not realize are available.
3. Limited time offer! A visitor is more likely to take advantage of a special offer if she knows there’s a time limit. “Only 2 days left!” But don’t get carried away. An advertised limited time offer really needs to expire. Otherwise, you lose the trust of your customers.
(gotwww.com)