1. Persuasive E-commerce
Masterclass & workshop
Link to full presentation will be shared at the end

2. Meet Bouba & Kiki
The Bouba & Kiki Effect

3. Persuasive E-commerce
Masterclass & workshop

4. Today's session
Future Theory
Applied
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5. Persuasion?

6. Increasing
Motivation
Persuasion
Removing
Friction
(Us)ability

7. Friction
Motivation
Activation Threshold
F
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M
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low
low
high
high

9. When you’re walking down a street…

11. Community Builder Award

13. Wait, who’s talking?
Guido X Jansen
Global Business & Technology Evangelist @ Spryker
Cognitive Psychologist.
E-commerce Experimentation & Customer
Experience Optimization Specialist
Data
User
Research
Experiments /
Validation

14. Today's session
Future Theory
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15. Questions?

16. Theory
A: Something about e-commerce…
B: Something about the brain…

17. A: Something about
e-commerce…

18. Online conversion
rates s***

19. …compared to offline…

20. *when there’s no lockdown…

21. Average conversion rates
Offline
25-35%
Online
0.7-7.2%

22. E-commerce conversion rate by product type
Source: https://www.growcode.com/blog/ecommerce-conversion-rate

23. Ecommerce conversion rate by country
Source: https://ecommerce-europe.eu

24. Examples of good online conversion rates
8-11%
13%
(excluding Prime)
15,8%
25,3%
40,6%

25. Why are online
conversion rates so low?

26. Online lacks several key factors used in offline stores
Just some examples:
No commitment
until checkout
No
direct feedback
Less
sensory input
Less
personalization

27. Luckily, there’s a
workaround

28. B: Something about the
brain…

29. 11,000,000 bits/sec

30. 20 Watts

32. 50 bits (0.00045%)

33. 99%

34. Our decisions are for 90-99% unconscious

35. Our brain is lazy.
“Fixing reality” is
“cheaper”.

36. Some assumptions
our brain makes…

37. Expensive =
Good Quality

38. White coat = truth

39. More = Better

40. Because… =
a good reason

41. Shiny = New

42. Beautiful =
User friendly

43. Unknown =
Creepy

44. Familiar =
Safe

45. LIMITED
Knowledge
Time
Resources
Automated thoughts and actions

46. Heuristics
Intuition / Common Sense / Rule of Thumb / Educated Guess

47. Heuristics
Intuition / Common Sense / Rule of Thumb / Educated Guess
Cognitive Bias / Prejudices

48. Heuristic Categories (coping strategies)
Too much information
Too little information
What to remember
Time limitations

49. 49
We all have many biases
… we’re not even aware
of most of them…
… and even when we are,
we still can’t ignore it.

50. Sure, this all sounds plausible
but I’m perfectly aware of all
the decisions I make. They
don’t fool me!”
-You

51. 51
Let’s try this…
Availability
heuristic

52. Casualties from deadly situations
Terrorism Airplane Crash
Any Natural Disaster Swimming Pool

53. Actual Statistics
50% more people die drowning than the 3 other situations…
… combined Terrorism Airplane Crash
Any Natural Disaster Swimming Pool

54. Get your phone out and open (Google) Maps

55. Zoom in on a city in Japan

56. 1
2
3
4
5
6
7

57. 57
Our (experienced) brain sets the default,
but experiences between people
will (obviously) be different

58. Quickly guess the outcome
1×2×3×4×5×6×7×8 = 512

59. Quickly guess the outcome
1×2×3×4×5×6×7×8 =
8×7×6×5×4×3×2×1 =
512
2.250
Correct answer = 40.320

60. Theory conclusion:
﹘ Big difference between online and offline conversion
﹘ We have many Cognitive Biases and we are not aware of most

61. Today's session
Future Theory
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62. 6 7 Weapons of Influence
1 : Reciprocation
4 : Authority
2 : Commitment
& Consistency
6 : Scarcity
3 : Social Proof
5 : Liking
7 : Unity

65. 65
1: Reciprocity
We’re expecting something back
Cialdini

66. Reciprocation
● Newsletter
● eBook
● Tutorials
● Courses
● Webinar/Podcast
● Software
● Apps
● Giftboxes
● Swag
● …
● Be the first
● Be unexpected
● Provide real (personal)
value
● Keep on giving
● Don’t turn it around
(reverse reciprocity is
just an “exchange”)

67. 67
2: Commitment &
Consistency
We’re sticking to it
Cialdini

70. Familiarity heuristic
/ Halo effect

72. 72
3: Social Proof
We’re copycats
Cialdini

73. Conformity research by Solomon Ash

74. Social following & engagement

75. Show your users / clients

76. Reviews / testimonials

77. Customers who bought this items also bought…

78. Always Be Testing
“In the past month, [x] customers
bought this product”
Socially acceptable products
Socially undesirable products

79. 79
Social proof

80. Social proof variants rejected

81. Social proof works especially well with…
● Same kind of people (ingroup)
● Uncertainty about choice
● Inexperience

82. How to start a movement: Sasquatch Music Festival 2009

83. 83
4: Authority
We’re compliant
Cialdini

84. Industry leaders / influencers

85. Industry leaders / influencers

86. Industry leaders / influencers

87. Trust Logo’s

88. Don’t fake it

89. 89
5: Liking
We like our friends better
Cialdini

90. All things being equal, people will
do business with a friend.
All things unequal, people will
still do business with a friend.
Mark McCormack

91. Our challenge

92. Referrals

93. Liking benefits from…
● Attractiveness
● Similarity
● Compliments
● Get likeable people to promote you

94. 94
6: Scarcity
The less there is, the more we want it
Cialdini

95. Limited availability

96. 10% discount restrictions
Version A:
no limit
per person
Version B:
12 cans limit
per person
average
3 cans
sold
average
7 cans
sold

97. Scarcity in…
● Time
● Amount/Stock
● Access
● …

98. 98
7: Unity
Liking: Surface level similarities
Unity: Shared similarities
Cialdini

99. 99
Appeal to the “We” or “Them”
Family, location, religion, social group,
products bought, pets, holidays…

100. PS: It’s not just these 7, it’s probably closer to 700
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases
1 : Reciprocation
4 : Authority
2 : Commitment
& Consistency
6 : Scarcity
3 : Social Proof
5 : Liking
7 : Unity

101. The Cognitive Bias Codex

102. Let’s go through a couple more…

103. 103
Choice Paralysis

104. Choice Paralysis

105. Jam Experiment
6 options 24 options
Tasting
Buying
40% 60%
12% 1.6%

106. Hobson’s +1 Choice
4.77%
lift

107. Choice Paralysis

108. Book online now, and
you get:
Book online now, and
you get:
14% Lift

109. 109
(remove/reduce)
Friction

110. Remove friction
+6-18%

111. 111
Don’t make users think
A: “Hidden” Fees B: Fees right below pricing
12.5% uplift in CR

112. 112
Perceptual Contrast / Framing
Anchoring and adjustment heuristic

113. $8 $13 $20
Perceptual Contrast / Framing
$45

114. Perceptual Contrast / Framing
Web subscription: $59
Print Subscription: $125
Web & Print Subscription: $125
16%
0%
84%
68%
32%

115. The Ugly Brother Effect

116. 116
Distractions

117. A: Addons on PDP B: No Addons on PDP
14.9% Uplift in CR

118. A: Product Description B: No Product Description
Removed product description
10.8% Uplift in CR

119. Etsy A/B Tests Smaller & Shorter Product Titles

120. 120
Reassurances

121. Product Reassurances (Amazon Canada)

122. 122
Seeing is
believing

123. 123
Because…

124. The Power of “Because…”

125. The Power of “Because…”
Variant 1: May I use the Xerox Machine?
Variant 2: May I use the Xerox Machine
… because I’m in a rush?
Variant 3: May I use the Xerox Machine
… because I have to make some copies?
60%
94%
93%

126. The Power of “Because…”

127. Today's session
Future Theory
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128. Workshop!
1: Pick 1 (product) page
2: Optimize based on this presentation or
card deck (scan QR code or go to URL)
3: Present 3 persuasion optimizations!
gui.do/cards

129. Today's session
Future Theory
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130. 130
E-commerce in
5 years
automated persuasive profiling / targeting
Now:
“Optimize for the average customer”
Communication is the same
for everyone
Problem:
Large individual differences
(... but we see consistent behavior on
an individual level)
Future:
Dynamic websites tuned to
specific audiences
Everyone gets a different sales pitch

131. Gartners Hype Cycle for Digital Marketing 2021

132. Gartners Top Strategic Technology Trends for 2022
Decision Intelligence (DI)
Decision intelligence is a practical discipline used to
improve decision making by explicitly understanding and
engineering how decisions are made, and outcomes
evaluated, managed and improved by feedback.
Composable Applications
Demand for business adaptability directs organizations
toward technology architecture that supports fast, safe and
efficient application change
Total Experience (TX)
TX is a business strategy that combines the disciplines of customer experience (CX), employee experience (EX), user
experience (UX) and multiexperience (MX). The goal of TX is to drive greater customer and employee confidence,
satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy.
https://www.gartner.com/en/information-technology/insights/top-technology-trends

133. Already
available
through

134. 134
2 final notes

135. 135
1: Prioritize
(Hierarchy of optimization)
Persuasion
Usability
Functionality
Technology

136. 2: Experiment & Validate!

137. 137
What’s next?
﹘ “Psychology of E-commerce” blogseries on gui.do
﹘ Books
﹘ Online courses
﹘ More sessions by Guido: gui.do/presentation
﹘ …

138. Further reading

140. Let’s connect!
Guido X Jansen
Global Business & Technology Evangelist @ Spryker
gui.do
@guido
linkedin.com/in/gxjansen
guido.jansen@spryker.com
Slides & more: gui.do/onpersuasion