Will I like what I buy from this website?
What if I don’t?
Will this service give me the results I am looking for?
Is this worth the investment?
Is my information safe?
So many questions, so many concerns—and a successful site will address all of them. FUDs create holes in the conversion funnel. Any sales transaction can be pictured as a funnel that users are sifted through. Along the way, however, many abandon the conversion funnel because of holes or FUDs they experience.
Offline, if a customer puts something in his cart, he is likely to purchase it from your store. At a psychological level, he has “committed” himself to making a purchase by putting something in his cart. This is not the case online. Many ecommerce companies experience high abandonment rates after a user adds an item to his cart. So, what is the difference? FUDs very often go into effect online once the user is more serious about the purchase. Adding an item online does not have the same psychological commitment as placing an item in a physical cart.
Offline, users may experience FUDs as soon as they walk into the store.
What are FUDs exactly?
Building visitors’ confidence and trust reduces some of the FUDs they could experience early in the purchase process. And on the flip side, FUDs can retract from any progress you’ve made building confidence and trust within your visitors.
Visitors begin to consider perceived risks of purchasing a product or doing business with a company early in the buying stages. During the persona creation process, these risks are outlined and considered from the user’s perspective through drawn-out scenarios. These risks vary based on the following factors:
The more expensive the product or service is, the greater the perceived risk the user will experience.
The user questions the quality of the product, as well as whether the product will satisfy his need or want.
The user questions the authenticity of the company, as well as its ability to deliver.
The less anxiety the user experiences with the overall design and usability of the site, the more confident he will feel moving forward with the buying process and overcoming FUDs.
These risks are reduced by consumer buying behavioral patterns, which include:
It is important to consider the cart as the turning point for visitors in the online buying process. Learning from certain user behaviors and tracking that user at a later time via email can help tremendously. For example, if a user abandons your site, but within 24 hours you follow up with an email reminder of what the user had in his cart, this allows the user enough time to mull over the prospective purchase instead of completely forgetting about it. In Chapter 7, we will discuss additional tactics you can use to get users back to the cart.
Providing visitors with a means to research a product so that they can understand what features they should be looking for and what options to consider can help remove some visitors’ concerns.
This goes back to the idea of offering your customers a great value proposition because, ultimately, they are not buying the product but rather the entire package. If you have nothing unique and valuable to offer them, they will, without hesitation, default to a more well-known brand name. This is especially apparent when users are making a big financial decision. Going with a no-name company is a risk that many users are unwilling to take unless you offer them a value they cannot pass up. Also, if your product has added benefits over the competition, presenting users with a comprehensive benefit comparison chart can provide comfort and confidence in the product.
The more warranties you provide, the more likely the user will have the confidence to move forward. Fragile items, expensive items, electronics, and home furnishings are all products that will prompt user anxiety during the awareness stage. Countering this anxiety by providing warranties for delivery, service, repair, and returns gives users the confidence to continue.