Think Like a Hardware Store – Capture Customers During Discovery

Here’s something to think about over lunch: What are your customers thinking when they visit your website?

I’m not referring to their opinions on your color pallet or whether or not they like drop down vs. static menus. Think bigger picture. When someone steps into your website, what mindset are they in? Do they know what they’re looking for? Are they ready to purchase as soon as possible? Have they even heard of your company before?

You might be thinking that the average visitor is in ready-to-purchase mode when they hit your site, and that could actually be reality. But I would like to pose that you consider changing the average mindset of your visitor in the name of increased revenue (and profits, of course!). Travel upstream in a customer’s journey to their purchase and drive them to your site during their discovery/exploratory phase. Why? More after the jump…

Let’s put ourselves in the mindset of a customer. Let’s say we’re going to buy a new flat screen TV. What would be your first step once you’ve decided you’re in the market? Would you start price shopping immediately? Would you look up what brands made such a TV? Maybe you’d look for reviews from consumer reports or CNET or something similar. Or would you immediately go to Best Buy and buy the first TV you see?  Maybe, but you’d probably agree that you would be in the minority of what most people would do.

A 2007 study done by Accenture revealed that almost 70% of consumers prefer to make purchases in person, but almost 70% first go to the internet research product features, compare prices, or generally locate items. A mere 13 percent of consumers responded that the Internet added no value to their shopping experiences. If you’re targeting your online efforts purely towards people who are ready to buy now, you’re missing out on a huge chunk of consumers. Of course, it helps to have a physical presence to drive consumers who just won’t buy online to, but even purely online retailers can stand to capture a customer who’s in research mode.

Get consumers to your site when they first begin looking. Drive your brand’s top-of-mind awareness by showing up early and often during the information gathering phase. Target research-oriented (in addition, or even as opposed, to purchase-oriented) keywords. Add comparison-shopping tools. Do whatever you can think of to make your site a place consumers can come to get informed and then buy, instead of just to buy.

Think of your site just like an old-school hardware store; staff it with knowledgable resources who know about every product in the store, and can tell you why you should choose this hose clamp over the other one for your home improvement project. Start thinking about more than just clicks to your “check out now” button.