Far from being purely rational, online shoppers — like all consumers — make decisions driven by emotion, habit, and instinct. In e-commerce, understanding these mental shortcuts — known as cognitive biases — is a powerful asset when it comes to optimizing the buying journey.
For decades, marketers have leveraged these mechanisms to guide choices, reduce hesitation, and accelerate decision-making. In this episode, we take a closer look at two particularly effective levers: cognitive biases (such as social proof and authority bias) and reassurance, which helps build trust throughout the user journey.
How can you implement these strategies effectively on an e-commerce site? When and where should they be activated? And most importantly, how do you integrate them in a subtle way that enhances — rather than disrupts — the user experience? That’s what we’ll explore in this new episode, supported by practical examples and real client use cases.
Influence and reassure your customers
The internet user is a customer just like anyone else; they are not rational. Use cognitive bias!
Human behaviour, including that of internet users, is rarely rational. Cognitive biases are mental shortcuts that save us precious time in the millions of micro-decisions we have to make every day. These biases have been exploited for decades in marketing to push us into a particular course of action.
One of the most commonly used biases in e-commerce is social proof. In e-commerce social proof often comes via User Generated Content (UGC). This includes those notorious Amazon reviews, rating systems that use stars, or even votes and comments. If you have this kind of system on your website it’s worth using it to show the internet user that they are making the right choice.
For example, you can display one or two positive reviews at the bottom of a product description to complement it. Another interesting technique is to create a filter based on the number of stars to provide a method of search based on user advice - this capability is used predominantly by online retailers in the fashion sector. For example, ASOS uses photos from social media within its product sheets and list pages, to showcase its products being worn by consumers.
Even easier to put into practice and nonetheless highly effective is authority bias. This is based on the idea that an objective endorsement of the product assures its quality. Obviously the more legitimate the authority, the more weight it will carry. This is true of quality assurance labels such as Label Rouge, quotes from the media (the famous “as seen on TV” or media logos) or even awards gained through competitions (“voted product of the year…”). Flagging up “our favourite”; “editors choice” for example, or highlighting a special offer will also have an impact on your product sales. Of course, you must do so sparingly to avoid creating a “Christmas tree” of labels on your web site which then negates the impact.
Reassurance is also a valuable tool which can be used throughout the purchase process. Presenting content has many advantages for your e-commerce venture. On the one hand it can help acquisition, because content elevates you in search engine rankings and directs qualified prospects to your site in search of information. On the other hand, content can really play a role at every stage of the internet user’s visit, especially for major purchases or technical goods.
For example, imagine that you are young parents and want to buy a pushchair. The first step will be to consult online information to decide exactly what you need, given your preferences and budget. Once you have established what you are looking for, more targeted content about a particular product feature, brand or innovation, can be presented to you in order to help you find your way to the right product.
Content is genuinely perceived as sales advice, so it needs to meet a specific customer requirement and be correctly placed in the navigation structure of your site. A very general article, for example, could be included within a category in order to introduce assortments. Product reviews and comparative opinions might be best placed directly in the mosaic of the listing page or within a stop filter after a few scrolls. Finally, size guides, assembly or user guides can be integrated into the product information pages where they can be an ideal aid to selection.
For the visitors who use your search engine, expectations are no different. The advantage of using a search engine developed for retail and equipped with learning capabilities is that it will be able to bring together the right products and the most relevant content, in real time, at that precise moment of the journey.
Whether it’s navigation or search, the rule is simple - put your content on display to make it support your sales.
Real world example
As we have seen, reassurance and cognitive biases play an important role in our daily lives, but also in the buying process. Our customer Happywool uses both of these to improve its visitor experience and conversion performance. Sensefuel has enabled the company to integrate advisory content into search results. This content helps to guide customers in the use of their products and thus encourages them to buy. A customer reassurance mechanism has also been introduced, with the display of customer opinions, listed according to star ratings, on the product thumbnails within the search results. In the food sector, Place du marché (Toupargel) uses the same process to reassure its customers about the quality of its products.
Key n° 6
Map out your customer journey and be transparent for better results!
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