5 ways behavioral science can supercharge your e-commerce marketing

Here, we’ll explore how you can leverage the principles of behavioral science to gain insight into customer motivations and preferences that will enable you to optimize your strategies accordingly.

1. Personalized product recommendations

Customers are 75% more likely to buy based on personalized recommendations, with AOV being around 10% higher compared to when a recommendation was not clicked.

By analyzing consumer data, including browser history, purchase patterns, demographic information, as well as motivations and drivers, behavioral science allows you to deliver tailored recommendations, enhancing the experience (and likelihood of purchase).

This is a great example of the behavioral principle choice architecture whereby organizing and framing choices in a way that aligns with consumer preferences can help guide them toward a desired product.

E-commerce brands can use default bias to pre-select personalized recommendations based on consumer data to simplify the decision-making process and further increase the chances of conversion.

2. Social proof and Fomo

92% of shoppers now read online reviews before making a purchase. By incorporating social proof elements into your website and marketing activity, including reviews, ratings and testimonials, you can tap into this psychological behavior to help consumers feel more confident with their purchases, increasing sales, and reducing post-purchase regret.

Around 69% of millennials that experience Fomo make impulsive purchases because of it. Creating a sense of urgency and leveraging the scarcity principle through limited-time offers or low-stock notifications can trigger Fomo and encourage immediate action from users, making it a creative sales tactic for e-commerce brands.

3. Gamification and rewards

73% of consumers are more likely to recommend brands with good loyalty programs, and 79% say these initiatives encourage repeat purchases. By applying principles of behavioral science, you can introduce game-like elements such as loyalty programs, badges, and points systems to incentivize purchase.

Gamification can lead to significant increases in customer engagement, with one study finding 38% of people like when companies include games or interactive features, and 36% more likely to visit sites that include gamification.

You can take this one step further by employing the goal gradient effect by visually representing progress toward a reward (i.e., 10% off your 5th purchase). This motivates customers to continue engaging with your brand to achieve their goals.

4. Simplified checkout process

Checkout abandonment rate is around 70% across e-commerce industries. By understanding and addressing cognitive load theory, brands can provide a smoother, distraction-free experience by reducing the number of checkout steps or by introducing progress indicators.

This is why we’ll often see reduced navigation and options once we commit to a purchase; this is how brands try to reduce distractions and friction. Progress indicators are beneficial as they help visually reinforce where users are in the process and can increase conversions and reduce abandonment rates.

5. Persuasive copywriting and design

Research suggests that users skim more content than they read. As a result, it’s increasingly important to leverage persuasive copywriting and design to capture the attention of your audience and drive real action.

Behavioral research can be used to understand the motivations behind your target market’s needs, which can then be used to create compelling stories that have an emotional appeal. Copy layered with this approach can tap into user emotions, drivers, and pain points, making your brand more relatable and engaging.

Key takeaways

1. Incorporate personalized product recommendations into your e-commerce site to boost AOV and conversion rates. Ensure these are led with data and not random if you want to reap the rewards.

2. Harness the power of social proof and Fomo in your marketing to capture consumers’ attention and gain their trust. Don’t underestimate the importance of reviews and ratings on product pages.

3. Leverage gamification to keep shoppers coming back for rewards and increase the chances of them recommending you to others.

4. Keep your user experience (UX) seamless by removing barriers, keeping CTAs clear and using progress indicators in the checkout process to reduce distractions.

5. Conduct a behavioral discovery piece to truly unearth what drives your target market and craft persuasive copy that resonates with their needs while nudging them to purchase.