Mele’s Musings

Behavioral psychology unlocks clues to website conversion rates

In light of some of my earlier comments this week, this article is interesting.  Although focused on a par  ticular vendor, the concept of using behavioral psychology makes sense.

Picture: Flickr

Article excerpt:   As retail websites begin to mature, the quest for shoppers, not just visitors, becomes ever more crucial. Some e-tailers try to improve the odds by using click statistics that record customer behavior, while others hire consultants to analyze page layout. 7 Billion People has entered the fray with the release of software that offers retailers the ability to examine the psychology of buying behavior and improve transaction closure rates — more commonly known as conversion. Austin, Texas-based 7 Billion People wants to personalize the e-commerce experience for every individual customer. Its team is composed of psychologists, behavioral scientists, information technology experts and software engineers. Formed in August 2006, the company was “in stealth mode” until its behavior analytics software was released in February. “When we started this company, we had heard things about standard e-commerce requirements, that conversion rates averaged about 3 percent,” says company CEO Mark A. Nagaitis. “We knew customers were doing weird things on websites. Sixty percent abandon shopping carts. Even the flagship of e-commerce, Amazon, has an abysmally low conversion rate when competing with face-to-face shopping. The rest: stores.org

Musing:  I like the idea that companies are starting to look to behavioral psychology to understand users – basically, I like the idea that someone other than math majors are looking at how people use websites and how to improve the experiences on their sites.  The more we can understand consumers from the inside – their desires, needs, and wants – instead of over relying on what we can observe and quantify with data, the better we will be able to find solutions that really work for them.