Why Contrast & Buyers’ Guilt Are Important For Sales

Why are nobody buying from your eCommerce Store? What make something sell in an eCommerce Store? This are all hard questions that has to be answered.

On the one hand, it of course boils down to the nature of the product itself. Whether it offers good value for money and whether it is something the people actually want. It also comes down to timing, marketing and many other factors.

Selling products in an eCommerce Store compared to through a sale page is quite different. On a sales page, you only have one product and you are doing everything you can to make it sound appealing and like a great decision.

In an eCommerce Store however, you have multiple products and your aim is more to get your visitors to buy something. This means it is actually counter-intuitive to make one item sound too perfect, in case it would be easier for you to convince them to buy something else.

It also means you won’t have the space or the time to write a massively long diatribe all about the benefits of your one item.

Similarities Between Your eCommerce Store & A Sales Page

There are in fact still some similarities between these two modes of selling and there are still some ways in which your sales pitch is going to be similar. Ultimately, this is still a form of persuasive writing.

So how do you go about effective persuasive writing? Here are some good strategies that can help you to ensure your success.

Grab Attention

People are in a hurry these days and this is especially true when they are online. As a general rule, they simply don’t have time to spend ages sifting through products and if you don’t get to the point quickly, they are going to look elsewhere.

This is why 99% of products listings get to the point fast by selling those key selling points in a compelling list. Start with this so that people know what they are looking at and why they should care. Then add the additional details further on once you have captured their imagination and got them reading.

Sell The Value Proposition

Here is where the most important part comes in: selling the value proposition. A value proposition explains why a product has value to a buyer and why they should be interested in it. However, that doesn’t just mean describing the physical properties or the literal value.

Instead, you are describing the emotional value. How does this make people’s lives better? What will life be like for them once they have made a purchase?

The old saying goes that you don’t sell hats, you sell warm heads. Likewise, you don’t sell computers, you sell productivity, ease fo use and ultimately a better salary. Similarly, you don’t sell a make money eBook, you sell wealth, success and a lack of stress that comes from not having to pay bills!

Make Them Visualize It

If you have an eCommerce Store selling physical products, then unfortunately you won’t be able to let your customers pick up the items and see what they are like in person. What you can do through is to help them imagine them and visualize them.

How Contrast Can Drive Sales

The way your products are positioned within your store is one of the biggest sales factors. This might sound strange but the way in which a product is positioned within an eCommerce Store can have a huge impact on how desirable it seems. Likewise, so too can the colors used in the store listing and various other seemingly random facts.
This all has to do with psychology and a good eCommerce Store owner will understand how to utilize this to the fullest effect.

Contrast

Contrast refers to the way in which eCommerce Stores will purposefully create comparisons between similar products. One of the ways this works best is when the prices are slightly different. If you have two similar products but one is significantly more expensive then the other, then placing them next to each other can be a great move.

The reason is simple: when an expensive item is placed next to a cheaper item, this makes it appear even cheaper. This removes something called buyers’ guilt because the buyer can then make the excuse that they are saving money by buying something cheap (even though they are still spending more then if they bought nothing at all).

Likewise though, this can also make the more expensive product appear more desirable to the right kind of customer. That’s because an expensive product will generally be perceived to be more desirable and this lets people feel like they’ are buying the very best product that is the most premium.

Incremental Increases

For example, someone might only be willing to spend$10. Thus they go to buy your $10 product but then notice the more expensive option for $15 with all the bells and whistles. They are only adding $5 to their total spend in order to get the very best. so, why not buy?

This can sometimes be enough to convince someone to buy something who normally wouldn’t be willing to spend $15. It works because you are increasing the price incrementally which make s it seem like less of a stark increase versus what they were intending on spending.

Another thing to consider is that the small difference appears smaller in relation to the main price. For example, then an item costs $100, people won’t thing twice about spending an extra $5. However, when an item costs $5 that extra $5 is a 100% hike in the price.

Again, it is all about changing the way your buyers think and this can have a huge impact on your sales.

How To Overcome ‘Buyers’ Guilt’ To Explode Sales

When trying to sell as much as you can from an eCommerce Store, there are two ways you can look at it.

On the one hand, you are trying to convince people to want to buy. At the same time though, you are also trying to overcome people’s urge not to buy. This is a subtle difference and something that is key to understand.

Basically, when someone is thinking of buying something from you, it doesn’t only come down to whether or not they are interested in the product. In fact, they can be entirely interested but not want to buy for other reasons. For example, they might not want to buy because they feel guilty about spending the money. This is called buyers’ guilt and it is a big part of the psychological dynamic involved in sales.

What Is ‘Buyers’ Guilt’?

Buyers’ Guilt is essentially the guilt that someone might feel when buying a product. Very often, people will feel guilty for spending money because they know that it could be spent on other things.

But if the buyer is sufficiently interested in the product, they will potentially be able to overcome this guilt. This is then when they can start debating with themselves whether or not buy. They end up with a devil and an angel on their shoulder as they try and make exudes for themselves to buy.

Your job as a seller is to make sure that that devil wins by removing the guilt so that they feel they can go ahead and buy. There are a couple of ways you might go about doing this.

Strategies For Removing Guilt

One way to overcome ‘buyers’ guilt’ is to explain why your product is an investment. In other words, you need to point out that your item can actually save money.

This might mean that your product is very energy efficient and thereby able to help you spend less money on fuel. Alternatively, it might mean that your product is going to last a very long time, which means that it won’t need to be replaced.

Finally, it might mean that your product is going to earn the person money. This is why it is comparatively very easy to sell books about earning money. People are happy to spend that cash initially because they think they will make more money back as a result.

There are other methods you can use too. One is to make your product good for the user. If you explain that it is good for their health or for their peace of mind, then they might be able to justify the cost. Another option is to make the purchase go partly toward a good cause. Donate a fraction of the profits you make to a charity and this can help you to encourage your people to buy.

Finally, another method for removing guilt is to make sure there is a very clear money back guarantee. If you can do this, then you can remove all risk which can otherwise contribute toward guilt.

Closing Up

When you are trying to sell products through an eCommerce Store, one of the biggest challenges you face is trying to overcome the various ‘barriers to sale’. Barriers to sale are anything that discourage people from buying your products, even though they actually want them and feel that they are worth the money.

If you can consider them to overcome these barriers like ‘buyers’ guilt’, you will finally sell products in your eCommerce Store.

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