"The crowded e-commerce market is dominated by large parties with a strong brand experience. This is a belief we often see echoed by our clients. While not entirely untrue, there is much to disagree with this. There is certainly room for smaller parties.
DAVID VERSUS GOLIATH
The traditional message is: a strong brand ensures success. In this story, you can see Coca-Cola as Goliath, and the discounter's B-brand as David. In short: an unfair battle between established names and smaller parties. However, new research shows that consumers are less brand loyal than we previously thought.
How's that? It's complicated. Literally. You see, the process from trigger to purchase is not linear, but messy.
The Messy Middle
Compare it to a spider's web. That consists of one core point with several offshoots. In short: quite complicated. That's why Google & research firm Behavioral Architects conducted research on consumer behavior and choices, in what they call "the Messy Middle.
THE RESEARCH
They did this based on a number of variables that play a role in the consumer choice process, namely:
- Authority Bias
Trusted sources or experts touting the product.
- Scarcity Bias
The stock or availability of the product. Here, the less inventory, the more desirable the product.
- The Power of Free
Needs little explanation: free products are loved.
- Social Norms
Consumer Reviews and Ratings.
- The Power of Now
Simply put: product availability
- Category Heuristics
Features of the product that consumers value.
Consider features such as durability or delivery time.
In general, consumers choose their favorite brand. In the first phase of this experiment, participants were presented with two choices: a sofa from the favorite brand or from another (existing) brand with exactly the same propositions. Remarkably, 34% of the participants chose the second brand. Simply because the opportunity presented itself.
TWEAKING THE BIASES
But it gets more interesting. In the next phase, the researchers adjusted two variables of the2nd Brand to better suit the participants' needs. Namely, the "Social Norms" and "Category Heuristics.
Providing the second brand with better reviews and favorable features such as "customized" and "recycled" created a significant shift in participants' choice. At this point, as many as 63% decided to choose the2nd brand.
SUPERCHARGE IT
In the third phase, the researchers went a step further. For example, the2nd brand added better visuals and stronger USPs. Think of the promise "Ordered today, delivered tomorrow" to reinforce The Power of Now bias. Ultimately, this resulted in a 75% purchase share.
At this point, ¾ of the participants switched from their favorite brand, to another brand. Purely and simply by tweaking terms they consider important.
FICTITIOUS BRAND
Now consumer confidence in both brand 1, and 2 is a factor in the study. After all, these were well-known brands. Therefore, Google decided to create a non-existent,3rd brand: Homeland.
A brand that was not findable in search engines or in web shops. Here the same strategy was applied: optimization of consumer biases.
With remarkable results: in fact, 2/3 of the participants chose the fictional brand "Homeland." As a double check, the researchers did the same with mascara and toys. With the same outcome.
WHAT CAN YOU DO YOURSELF?
What can e-commerce companies themselves do to influence consumer choices?
- Make sure the brand is visible
Sounds simple, and it actually is. Being visible has an impact on searching consumers. So even medium-sized brands are perfectly capable of winning over consumers. Even relative to larger, well-known brands. - Use behavioral science principles intelligently (and responsibly).
It is possible to influence consumer decision-making by cleverly applying the 6 biases. Especially with consumers in the messy middle. - Close the gap between trigger and purchase
Help consumers navigate through "the messy middle. You do this by removing any barriers: provide a mobile-friendly, appealing website with a simple interface.
CONCLUSION
Brand plays a role in consumer choice, but it is not necessarily leading. In fact, consumer choice can be influenced better than originally thought by being present with the right biases at exactly the right times during the consumer's search.
As a result, as a medium-sized e-commerce entrepreneur, you are also perfectly capable of taking on the Goliath's. The messy middle offers plenty of opportunities. This was already known, of course, but is further underlined by this research.
Learn more about Google and Behavioral Architects ' research here.
