High intent shoppers are a dream. They don’t browse endlessly or waste time on your site – they want to make a quick purchase and are very likely to convert.
That being said, they are also fickle and will be deterred by a website that is not easy to use. They will be quick to leave if their needs are not met.
Ecommerce websites that don’t realise the potential of high-intent shoppers are missing out on money. Optimising the user experience for this group of consumers can often mean the difference between an easy conversion and a missed sale.
The way to tap into this intent and convert it into revenue is achieved by answering the following:
- Understanding their identity – who are they?
- Knowing their intent – what is it that they want and why?
- Predicting their action – how do I drive them forward?
1. Identity
High-intent consumers usually arrive through search traffic.
In terms of SEO jargon, searches can be classed as: navigational; informational; commercial; or, transactional. Shoppers that fall into navigational searches are attempting to reach a certain site and the second group are looking to find out data. The third group are the ones who deserve focus as they are ready to buy.
Becoming fluent with the query classification of searches will allow you to understand shopper types by the keywords they have used.
Other signals of buying intent include:
How they interact with your marketing messages
Visits to the site’s category pages
Time they spend browsing the product information pages
Cart abandonment data
2. Intent
Once the signals of high-intent shoppers are known, the question of how to convert them comes next.
These high-intent buyers demand fast and easy experiences.
Through understanding their what and why, you are able to immediately present the most relevant products and guide them to what they need. Giving them the experience that they are expecting keeps them engaged.
Are you aware of what your site visitors are actually looking for?
While website statistics offer a glance into user behaviour, they don’t give the more robust picture of the intent behind the metrics. In a similar way, demographic data used to put together a customer profile won’t tell you what customers are searching for in the moment.
Analytics and demographics do not give hints to intent. They can also lead us to incorrect data as we place our own assumptions and stereotypes over consumers.
Google identified that:
40% of baby product buys are from households without kids
56% of sporting product purchases were by females
68% of skin care influencers were male
45% of home improvement searchers were female
Where metrics are not enough, and demographics can mislead, how can intent be understood?
Conversational Search
Take a look at your everyday interactions. There’s no way to comprehend someone’s “why” than by opening up a conversation. This is exactly the methodology behind conversational AI.
Digital shop assistants help businesses understand people’s needs when they are actively looking to make a purchase. As such, the implementation of this technology is becoming more sought after by businesses around the globe.
Ecommerce businesses are now able to engage with users on a human and personal level and ask questions to identify their wants. Then they are able to provide the right product which fits the answers to these questions. There is no guesswork or projection. Retailers that have embraced this feature often see double-digit increases in conversion rates.
3. Action
Search to Sale
Most shoppers (93%) start their journey from a search engine. You can segment these types of buyers, who are likely to buy, by analysing how they search. They’ll usually use the brand or product name or they will use transactional keywords like “coupon”, “buy”, “free shipping”.
Optimise Category Pages
Shoppers that are in a position to buy, usually navigate to the category page straight away. When they land on this page, most sites showcase an extensive list of their offerings which immediately creates friction and may pose a distraction from the main intent.
In most cases, these high-intent buyers have an idea of what they are looking for but don’t know which exact product will fulfill the needs. Choice overload causes them to abandon purchases if there is no support available in the moment. They won’t scroll down the page or refine further in hopes they’ll find what they need.
Digital assistants solve this issue. By asking questions to find out the reasons a user is searching for the product, the most relevant options can be filtered out and presented to the consumer.
Enriching Product Information Pages
Product information pages are the money pages of online retail sites as these are the pages a user will be on before purchasing.
On the flip side, these pages generally underperform in cultivating engagement and don’t convert as many high-intent buyers as they could. The reason was found to be that, even though high-intent shoppers are quick shoppers, they also want assurance that the brand and product they will receive are a good fit. Otherwise, they will leave.
At the end of the day, a conversation will always be the best way to find out what a shopper is really looking for. Digital assistants and conversational commerce are the conduits for understanding what buyers want. They pave the way for businesses to quickly and efficiently provide what a buyer needs.