The design of successful eCommerce websites requires both the alignment of business goals and user needs.
In this section we will be looking specifically at the needs of the user through what are commonly known as user personas.
Personas are blueprints of your website users that help you to segment your audience. They tell you what your groups of users want, what their problems are and how you can best target them by tailoring your marketing to each segment.
Understanding your customers is critical to the marketing of your eCommerce store and will serve as the foundation for your marketing projects.
As a result your marketing will be more effective, maximising your budget and turning your website visitors into returning customers.
How do we create user personas?
Personas can be created in a number of different ways.
Some marketers use demographic data whilst others try to analyse behaviours.
Demographic data
Let’s start with the data that you already have from current prospects.
This might be information you gathered when users registered as customers on your website or from your email lists for example.
This data should contain user information such as customer location (country), local address, gender and profession.
You can now segment your audience based upon those who have purchased from you and those who haven’t.
Both will be targeted differently.
You’ll want to analyze these users for common traits such as:
- Demographic information (age, gender, location etc)
- Career information
- Marital status
- Income band
- General interests
- Information about why they bought from you and problems they may have faced known as pain points.
Pull as much information as you can from your existing users in order to discover their common traits, themes, and needs.
User/Buyer behaviours
Many businesses make use of basic demographic information to build personas as detailed above.
However, details like name or age do not tell us why someone might buy.
A different approach to take is to create buyer personas based on behaviour and to segment your audience accordingly.
Personalising messaging based on how someone shops is more persuasive than just targeting them based on who they are.
Behaviour-based personas will help you tailor your marketing and promotions, improve communications and drive conversions at each stage of the customer journey.
Let’s have a look at 9 behavioural personas that can be targeted with the aim of improving website conversions:
1. First Time Visitors
As a first time visitor we need a way to connect with the user in case they never return.
A subscription popover serves to persuade our first timer to enter their email address.
Popovers have been known to help marketers increase email subscriptions by up to 300%.
Popovers should be simple, on brand and unobtrusive and part of the flow of a page showing in the middle of the page or at the side.
Popovers have been known to help marketers increase email subscriptions by up to 300%.
Example subscription popover from adidas. Obtrusive in many ways but unmissable.
Victoria’s Secret subscription popover is a little less obtrusive in the bottom left corner. Great copywriting here too to attract the user.
Daily Mail’s popover displays itself halfway through the article and has been carefully written to appeal to the showbiz readers.
Vichy’s popover is a little verbose but is clear on its benefits and offers 10% off first orders.
Make them quick to read and the process of entering their email address easy and incentivising.
Make them aware that they will be the first to hear about offers or give them something for free: download, information, free delivery or a discount.
Here is an example of a subscription popover that I used for Pumpkin Squash. Please take a look at my case study.
Pumpkin Squash subscription popover. Promotes the benefits of sign up for potential customers.
2. First Time Buyers
They’ve just made a purchase so how do you get them back for more?
Through upselling and cross-selling.
Send them personalised product recommendation emails that are based on their first purchases.
Head up the email with ‘We thought you’d like…’ to not seem too pushy or unwelcomed.
Matalan sends a personalised email recommendation to one of their customers based on their purchases.
Complete the look personalised email from Ralph Lauren cross-sells garments to a customer.
You may also consider sending them an email to interest them in becoming a loyalty scheme customer. Why?
Loyalty schemes reward members for spending money with them with free merchandise, rewards, coupons and advance released products.
For example, Amazon Prime’s loyalty program is largely responsible for Amazon’s core growth.
Prime members spend 4.6x more than non-prime members and renew their membership year on year with free delivery and discounts.
Just some of the benefits enjoyed by paying Amazon Prime customers.
Prime members spend 4.6x more than non-prime members
3. New Subscriber
New subscribers have shown their interest in receiving emails from you.
So, how do we convert this interest into a purchase?
To convert subscribers into customers you need to use:
- Welcome emails to impress users about your company brand. Show them how long you have been around, what makes you different from your competitors and why they should buy from you.
- Send discount offers on their first purchases and use a countdown timer to give the offer urgency. If they still don’t buy all is not lost provide them with another offer until they do.
- Send a shopping cart abandonment email with a discount on the product they were intending to buy.
Boden new subscriber email impresses about the brand and offers discount.
4. Hesitant buyer
The typical shopping cart abandonment rate for online retailers varies between 60% and 80%.
Buyers get sticker shock when they see how much their basket has increased in price after delivery costs have been added.
In addition, having to create a new user account is an inconvenient obstacle to a smooth shopping experience.
How do you market to these hesitant buyers who abandoned their shopping carts?
- Bundle the extra price of shipping into the product price and offer free shipping, or make shipping costs transparent from the get go.
- Use social proof / user reviews and ratings to demonstrate how many others have purchased that product.
- Offer one-click purchasing and a guest login to minimise the time filling out lengthy forms.
- Long and confusing checkouts can be improved by minimising form elements and only asking necessary information.
Lego’s guest checkout makes it easy to make a purchase and minimises the time of filling out forms.
5. Repeat purchaser
These types of customers are loyal to your company and brand and require little marketing effort to retain. They like the price and are happy with the product. They may buy products such as cosmetics which require a monthly replenishment.
For this reason send repeat purchasers replenishment emails when their product is about to run out.
They will love you for this convenience and will strengthen their loyalty with you.
Going one set further, you could even set up a system where products are automatically shipped out to repeat purchasers at the end of each month.
Email replenishment example from Sephora.
6. VIPS
These personas are your unicorns. They are frequent purchasers, they open your emails and enjoy spending lots of money with you.
They are your best customers and therefore should be treated well. Make them feel special but don’t discount too much they have money to spend!
When targeting VIPS:
- Offer early access to sales.
- First views of new product lines
- Exclusive access to limited editions.
- Can help to build your customer base so offer them perks if they refer a friend and ask them for reviews.
- Use personalisation in emails.
- Reward loyalty with VIP discounts during holiday periods.
- Use their data from past purchases to recommend products that you think they’d like.
Exclusive sales access to valued VIP customers.
7. Impulsive Buyers
They shop frequently and make random purchases. They like discounts and sales in response to marketing. When checking out they will make inexpensive complementary purchases.
Impulsive buyers make snap decisions and end up buying more than they wanted.
When targeting impulsive buyers:
- Send marketing emails send product recommendations based upon past purchases.
- Cross sell and up sale e.g complete the look when they checkout.
- Send post purchase emails with product recommendations.
- Use social proof and stock counts to build urgency and fear of missing out.
- Pair emails with Facebook social ads showing that bestsellers are not too expensive.
8. Discount chaser
Discount chases look for deals, they are not loyal customers and will go elsewhere if they can buy cheaper.
They purchase at sale time like Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
When targeting discount chasers:
- Send emails and target promotion in email headline.
- Offer discounts on bundle buys.
- Offer free shipping and promote loyalty schemes.
- Show relevant deals based on their general purchase budget.
9. Lapsed customers
These customers haven’t bought for some time and ignore your emails to lure them back.
How to target lapsed customers:
- Send re-engagement emails about why they should buy from you.
- Offer discounts to get them buying again.
- Show them what other customers are buying and what they are missing.
Boden’s re-engagement email is sentimental but not too pushy and offers a 15% discount to lure their customer back.
With these nine eCommerce personas you can now build a marketing strategy that specifically targets buyer personas rather than your customers as a whole and convert browsers into buyers.
Send emails according to your company objectives at the time and seasonal priorities.
DO YOU HAVE A PROJECT WE CAN HELP YOU WITH?
Need a consultation? We can advise
Whatever your business needs, we’ll create a great looking website that works for you.
