No matter what kind of web shop we operate, if we work well sooner or later visitors will arrive who want to make a purchase, that is to say they have some particular purchasing goals. Moreover, the older and more experienced the web shop is, the more customers like these will arrive. We assume we can persuade these visitors to purchase easily, but we do not have the slightest idea how many of these "certain customers" we lose every day because of the weaknesses of our web shop.
In a web shop we usually offer hundreds or thousands of products, and at this level of product quantity it is not easy to find the most suitable product for ourselves. Customers on the internet are almost always impatient, and they will not stay too long if they do not find the products that are relevant and suitable for them. One click and they are already in a competitor's store.
It is a basic rule (and it is true not only for the web shops) that the most efficient way of getting returning customers is securing the highest possible purchasing experience. If a visitor is looking for something, the system can find it right away. If he wants to know something about the product, he can find it in no time. If he is uncertain of something, the system can confirm it for him at once. But it is true also in reverse: one bad experience is enough and we can forget the particular visitor as a customer for good.
How can we make it easy, convenient and painless to find the most suitable products? If people are looking for a particular product, the best solution is usually the normal keyword search. This can be found in almost every web shop, so usually there is not any serious problem with this. It is advantageous to place it in an accessible place on the page so it can be accessed from everywhere. Don't hide it behind a menu point.
But in most cases the visitors are not looking for a particular product but a product line, for example a printer or a cookbook. In fact, they often have an even less concrete idea. They might be looking for a gift for their boyfriend or girlfriend or they might want to decorate their home with something. Maybe they are looking for something to read for the weekend. In these cases it is the web shop's duty to ensure the visitors to find the appropriate products easily and then help them choose. Thus, on the one hand the visitor has to be able to list the products he is interested in and then the web shop has to give a helping hand in making the best decision.
The biggest and most successful stores, such as Amazon.com, have these decision-helping functions among their strengths alongside their huge range of products and friendly prices. They can find out very efficiently what the visitor might desire, and after navigating him to the wanted product, they can dissolve the uncertainty of the customers very efficiently if they were really looking for that product. Such advanced modules as the unique filter system, the intelligent product recommender and cross-marketing module increase the ability of the system to help in choosing.
We can imagine these functions the easiest if we look at it through a general clothing store where the seller politely tries to find out what we want. If we answer her honestly, she can find us the best-suited pieces of clothing in the supply of the store. After finding the desired product, they try to convince us ardently that the item suits us well and it is a great choice. That is to say, they confirm us in our decision.
This kind of intelligence can be utilized efficiently in the case of a web shop, and there are several tools available for it. If we use them correctly, we can ensure a good purchasing experience for our customers, which will make them return and recommend our web shop to their friends.
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