E-commerce is booming, but ever wondered why exactly your target market wants to shop online? Despite the fact that the very idea of retail stores continues to be very popular?

Even though businesses spend a lot of time trying to define their buyer personas and ideal customers, they often times overlook the main psychology behind shopping on the web.

Customers don't really buy anything from anyone online. They have a way of thinking that either encourages these to complete a purchase or drives them to another retailer. For example, products using a big asking price often face a challenge in selling online. And then there are items that people would want to get a feel of before purchasing.



But with all the changing times, e-commerce has turned into a way of life and businesses are finding a way to suffice the decision-making needs of the customers.

1. Wide range of products to choose from

Having a web-based store offers you an opportunity to get beyond the shelf space issues and will include more inventory in your business.

While it may seem like difficult to most retail business holders, the potential for being offered many products on the web is one in the primary reasons for the shift to digital shopping. More and more people today seek for brands online instead of stores - they have more product variations, sizes, availability, etc.

For example, Amazon started as a web based bookseller. But today, it sells from clothes, shoes, bags, watches to even peanuts.

2. Competitive prices for those products

Today, there are many of people who visit physical stores to test a product, its size, quality and other aspects. But few of them can even make the purchase from these stores. They tend to look for the same product online instead.

The reason being, the expectation of a competitive pricing. These customers are commonly known as bargain hunters.

If you'll be able to, offer competitive pricing for the products when compared with that in the physical stores. You could also decide to put a couple of products on every range, on sale to draw the attention of bargain hunters.

For example, Snapdeal provides a 'deal with the day' - where the pricing of products is considerably low in comparison to what they would cost in stores. This makes absolutely free themes think they're bagging a great deal, and the sense of urgency throughout the deal raises the number of conversions.

3. Reviews off their online shoppers

According to Internet Retailer, 62% of consumers look for online reviews on an item or service before purchasing it.

In physical stores, it really is impossible for the shopper to understand other customers are saying concerning the products - especially using the sales people ensuring they hear outright the good. And that's another reason, why they prefer clothing websites.

Offer reviews, ratings or customer testimonials for your products and display them clearly for the product pages. The better the rating, the greater are the probability of it to offer.

4. Ability to compare prices

Moving in one brand store to a new can be really tedious. On the other hand, switching sites to check prices of products from different brands is much easier. Apart from the reviews given on different online retailers, prices include the next thing that customers look for.

The simplest way of doing so is displaying an authentic price along with the price that you are offering. It becomes easier for them to notice the difference, and hence, the chances of them seeking to other retail online stores become a lot lesser.

For example, if you're running a winter sale, make sure you display the first price, the share of your offering along with the new price for the product pages. And don't forget to highlight the offer on your own homepage at the same time.

5. Saving a lot of time

Traveling to stores that are not close by because you want to invest in a certain brand, can be a put-off. That could be the reason why most customers seek to websites instead. The ability to read through the products and purchase what they want, from wherever they may be, saves them a great deal of time.

But what these customers generally seek for is the efficiency of delivery that a web-based retail store offers. Be it a 'next day delivery', '48 hours delivery' or possibly a 'standard delivery within a week of order', maintain your delivery information absolutely clear. And if possible, give them the ability to choose their delivery date.