Co-written by Morana Kristek, Digital Insights Director, EyeSee

As the pandemic online shopping habits started settling down, shoppers have slowly yet surely started going back to trusty old brick and mortar. In many ways, it has become a cheaper and more convenient shopping experience, especially now in light of the current recession when consumer wallets are being redefined. And on top of that, the return to the stores is once again allowing the consumer the delight of touching and seeing a product before completing the purchase. Yet, with the surge in gas prices, many people might find themselves at a crossroads – is it cheaper to drive to the store or have the products they need delivered?

Regardless, what is sure is that e-commerce is not dying down – while the growth momentum slowed down compared to the beginning of the pandemic, online shopping is still on a steady rise. However, many factors are in play when it comes to the final basket size/content – be it the easiness of use of the digital channels, the shipping and payment options, individual product information, advertising, or pricing points. And on top of this ever-growing list, the average cart abandonment rate was at a staggering 70% even before inflation hit.

Free delivery drives purchases now more than ever

Various factors impact the final basket, but many of our behavioral e-commerce studies uncovered that one of the leading ones driving online consumer purchase decision-making is, by far, the price of delivery. While loyalty cards, special discounts and products in stock generally have some impact, free delivery is deemed the most vital driver across regions and categories. Even when looking at the elements of the product detail page, the shipping cost information consistently influenced shopper decisions.

However, every online store, e-retailer and even web page themselves have unique qualities that determine the final cart – from delivery types, different services and subscriptions to forms of payment. In short, e-commerce is maturing and transforming and in order to be sure where the hurdles (and main drivers) are and to understand how to optimize them, it is crucial to test the entire scope of online path-to-purchase. Apart from uncovering the bottlenecks in the consumer journey, you can also learn how the check-out process itself affects the final outcome of the purchase.

Digital moments of truth prompt spur-of-the-moment purchases

Impulse buying is one of the hardest behaviors to encourage in the digital environment. Online shoppers either tend to opt for ‘buy again’ options or create shopping lists leaving little space to tap into impulse needs and without the instant self-gratification and the immediacy of the purchase, it can be difficult to nurture spur-of-the-moment decision-making – however, it is not impossible.

Our Decision Tree exercises in the digital environment have shown that the (right) positioning on Product Listing Pages is one of them – and staying above the line, in the first two rows of the page, is your best bet to tap into that impulse urge.

Another thing to consider is that if a shopper opts to act on a whim and buy something with no pre-planning, they’re much less to actually go through with the purchase if the buying process is hindered or anything but seamless. To help ease the experience further, utilize behavioral e-commerce testing to uncover the barriers your shoppers could be facing and understand how to streamline the online journey. Then you can think about mapping out the hidden opportunities that will encourage impulse decisions (such as, adding a ” Buy” or “Add to cart” button on the Product Listing Page instead of expecting shoppers to go to the product detail page).

First aid behavioral research kit for online optimization

To conclude, the online journey is getting more complex and consumers are becoming more demanding and whether you are looking to better the user experience, boost successful purchases, leverage impulse buying or diminish the percentage of consumers that drop out of the final cart – the insights you need lie beyond platform data and surveys.

As consumer behavior continues to shift and become more and more unpredictable, it has become a necessity to test in real but controlled digital shopping environments and e-commerce website replicas. Then, equipped with a stellar combination of behavioral methods, the entire online path to purchase – together with its strong (and weak) suits – can be mapped out and advanced to meet the transforming online consumer needs.