If Big Box retailers can use psychology to their advantage, why can’t B2B companies?
One way these retailers do this is in artfully directing a shopper’s movement so they pass by every section. They only provide large-sized shopping carts and they also oversize shelves, putting large amounts of inventory in plain sight. The shopper’s psyche forms an impression of the store as having an abundance of products that they should be acquiring. It’s little wonder why most people leave big box stores with several hundred dollars worth of purchases.
Knowing how people are attracted to abundance and acquisition can help us in how we design websites. A good site will appeal to visitors if, from a content perspective, it appears to have a comprehensive selection and/or an abundant inventory. A few methods for conveying this are:
- A homepage that highlights multiple information sections within. Smart use of categories and tags can also be used to publicize the information contained in your website. Done well, these tactics can even make a site that’s not very large appear to have more content than it actually has.
- Call-outs or ‘touts’ that promote content elsewhere on the site. These commonly bring people to lead-capture forms, such as for downloading a whitepaper. They are effective for leading people to openly accessible information, a case study or client testimonial, for instance.
- A site that’s overflowing with content will cause visitors to linger and browse ‘up and down the aisles’ looking for items of interest. The longer they stay, the more likely they are to share their contact information. Capturing a visitor’s information is to lead generation sites what a purchase is to ecommerce sites.
- In the early days of the web, sites use “What’s New” sections. I’m not suggesting you roll back to this antiquated concept, but sites should indicate which areas are regularly being refreshed, so that visitors know to expect new content and keep the site in mind as a resource for up-to-date information.
So if you’ve already got a fully-stocked website, make sure you show it off, like Big Box retailers do. If your B2B website looks like a little Mom & Pop store, consider bulldozing out the back wall, loading up with more content, and remodeling it into a Big Box site.