The more directed the shopper, the easier the sale – as long as that shopper can quickly and easily find the product online, get all information on the product and then complete the purchase.
Therefore, web sites should concentrate on the shopper who came for a product and wants to quickly and easily purchase that product.
The well known Amazon.com has a small search box that allows its customers to search for any product by title, author, artist or other applicable data, then quickly lists all available version, prices and the average shipping time of that product on the screen.
One click shopping allows past customers to purchase the book or books without reentering credit card information.
The direct shopper can access, buy, and leave the site with minimum effort.
However, sites that ignore the less directed, undecided buyers will miss a good deal of clientele. If your site and product attract these types of buyers, you must prepare to develop a storefront that help them easily and quickly browse products by brand, agent, manufacturer, category, price and any other appropriate criteria.
These shoppers will buy when they find a product they like so they should be exposed to as many products as possible.
At the online clothing outlet Bluefly.com, customers can enter their email address and then enter a size or a range of size for many different types of clothing, shoes and accessories.
Customers can chose what types of merchandise interest them and what designers and styles they prefer.
From then on, they will be presented with their own personalized catalog of merchandise every time they log on.
The least directed , browsing shoppers are the most difficult to convert into buyers. Personalized searches, specialty shops, hot product lists ,and online promotions help attract these shoppers, who often will be drawn to a web site’s “glitter,” or its look and feel, rather than its content, service or products.
Sophisticated marketing campaigns and online tools such as generalized, all product queries; chat room and discussion groups; and other promotions can help turn these browsers into buyers but a web site should not count on these shoppers to succeed.
Targeting a strong and directed base of customers is essential.
Targeting the Best Shoppers
