How to Get Ecommerce Customers to Look Beyond Price

If you’re in business for the long haul, basing your marketing strategy around discounted prices is not a good move. Sure, you’ll get buyers, but they’ll be short-term deal seekers who will flee in search of another discounter if you raise your prices. Furthermore, once consumers get an item at a reduced price, they’re loath to go full boat for it ever again. To build a solid business, you’ll have figure out how to get ecommerce customers to look beyond price. The following strategies will help you do just that.

Free Shipping

Ecommerce shoppers love free shipping almost as much as they love avoiding sales tax. In fact, all things being equal, if a shopper had to choose between two identical items, one priced $149 plus shipping and the other priced at $160 with free shipping, the $160 item has a really good shot at winning the day. Customers see it as a better overall value. Even better, if you base your free shipping policy on a minimum price threshold, people will actually buy an additional item to qualify if necessary.

Abandoned Cart Reminders

When you select your ecommerce software platform, make sure its website templates include email marketing functionalities. You also want it to monitor abandoned shopping carts and give you the option of sending follow-up reminders to those who left them unconverted. People abandon shopping carts for a number of reasons. Sometimes they get distracted and forget to complete the purchase. Abandoned cart reminders bring them back to your site, which gives you another conversion opportunity.

Site Security

A lot of ecommerce customers have security concerns. Anything you can do to convince them your site is safe will go a long way. Get private SSL certificates for all of your pages and set your site up to accept payments directly. Add a “secured” logo to all of your pages, especially your checkout pages. These measures boost confidence in your site and will get many people to buy from you, even if they can find a lower price on a site perceived to be less secure.

Peer Reviews/Social Media Image/100 Percent Satisfaction Guarantees

Any experienced marketer will tell you word of mouth is the best advertising of all. People trust other people. It is impossible to overstate the value of featuring positive reviews from satisfied customers. If your site is loaded with glowing admiration of your dedication to customer service, if social media is rife with tales of you going above and beyond what is expected, you’ll find shoppers to be much less price sensitive—as long as your prices are in the realm of reasonability. They won’t have to be the lowest because shoppers will believe they can count on you to make things right if issues arise. Which is why you should also highlight your 100 percent guarantee of satisfaction on every page of your site.

Loyalty Programs

Once you’ve done all of the above, you’ll eventually get a cadre of satisfied customers. Proceed to ice that cake with a loyalty based incentive program. This is a particularly strong strategy when you’re selling something people need to purchase repeatedly. Use your sales data to figure out what your hardcore customers buy most and set up a program that keeps them buying it from you. You should also offer inducements to recruit other customers into the fold. Whatever you come up with though, find something you can provide without offering discounted pricing. Otherwise, you’ll be right back to wondering how to get your ecommerce customers to look beyond price.