When you go to the supermarket the premium priced products are displayed at eye level and at the end of the aisles. Decades of studying the psychology and behaviour of customers in the supermarket has led to invisible strategies to get shoppers to spend more money. It’s why you find yourself unpacking products when you get home that you hadn’t put on your shopping list! The way a product is displayed in store can encourage shoppers to take a risk and buy a new product or a different brand.
If you sell products online you need to put as much strategy into making your online presence work as effectively as the premium shelfspace in the supermarket. At MAKER we use the phrase “Website Shelf” to reflect how the images of your product are displayed online. There’s far more competition for customers’ attention online than in the supermarket. You need to create a Website Shelf that makes people pause their scrolling and click “add to cart.”
So how can you make your Website Shelf work as effectively as those supermarket displays? We’ve come up with 5 tips that will help you to make your Website Shelf work harder for you.
1. Invest in good packaging design.
Good packaging design is essential to create the best impression with your customers. While there are upfront costs associated with professional design it will be worth the investment. Packaging design communicates the quality and value of what the customer is buying. It’s the reason why one cereal company can charge twice as much for the same product than the generic brand. Packaging also gives you the opportunity to tell your brands story, what makes your product special? What make the ingredients so rich? There’s so much to communicate that hiring an expert pays off to communicate this in the best way.
2. Show your product in the best light
Once your product’s packaging looks beautiful then you need to make sure that the images on your Website Shelf capture it. Whether you take the photographs or hire a professional, make sure the photographs are styled to reflect how the product will be used. For example, you might photograph the natural ingredients that went into your food product, or show it as it could be served on stylish crockery. The idea is to set a scene for your customers, so that they can see how your product would fit into their lives. Include all of the important details such as dimensions, weight, and what is or is not included with the item (for example batteries with a gadget or light bulbs with a light fitting).
3. Keep your colours consistent
If you have brand colours use them consistently to increase awareness and recognition of your brand. If you see a bar of chocolate in a purple wrapper you can safely assume it’s made by Cadbury’s. They keep the colours consistent in their other products too – the hot chocolate packaging is purple, so are their biscuit and cake packaging. Even though the products are in different aisles the familiar colours are reassuring and recognisable to their customers. Utilise the colours that your customers are used to being associated with your brand.
4. Make buying your product a breeze!
Your beautiful branding has worked its magic and your customer is hovering over the “buy now” button. This is where you need to make things as easy for them as possible. Test the process for yourself and better yet, ask other people to test it for you. What might seem obvious to you, or to someone used to online shopping, might not be so obvious to others. There’s a whole industry built around “abandoned carts” in e-commerce, but the key is to make the whole process so easy that anyone with a credit card and a pulse can buy your products online. Be prepared to offer reassurance and great customer service so that if they have questions about delivery, returns or anything else they can find the answers online easily or make contact with someone to help. Customer service is an important part of your brand too.
5. What you order is what you get – delivering on your brand promise.
When your customer orders something from your website they are placing trust in you that what they see there is what they will get. Your product has to live up to the image portrayed on your website and work as described. If you order jewellery from Tiffany’s, you expect it to arrive in their iconic mint coloured box. Imagine your disappointment if it arrived loose in an envelope instead. Your products have to deliver on your customers’ expectations. If your Website Shelf has photographs of your product packaged in a velvet lined box then that’s what your customer will expect to get. Failing to deliver on those expectations could seriously damage your brand’s reputation. This extends to how you communicate with your customers when they place the order, when it’s dispatched and if there are any problems.
If you’d like more advice on how to improve your product’s branding contact us – sayhello@makerdesign.ie