YP Research Reveals Why Consumers Do or Do Not Complete a Purchase
Today’s buyers have the world at their fingertips, and they use both in-store and online research to explore options before making a purchase, including comparing different stores or the various features of similar products. As a seller, one of the main questions is what makes someone stop and actually complete a purchase? By knowing that, you could increase your chances that they will buy from your store.
This question was the topic of YP research study called “The Why Before the Buy” which was released in October 2016. At the 2016 Smart Hustle Conference, YP marketing executive Holly Bowyer shared some of the interesting findings. You can get a peek at her presentation by clicking Play below.
The Why Before You Buy Research
So why do consumers choose to make a purchase or not? The YP research reveals that there are several primary considerations when choosing to buy, including:
- Price (66 percent)
- Products/services offered (53 percent)
- Availability of service (52 percent)
- Customer service (51 percent)
- Location (43 percent).
However, there are also many secondary factors, many of which are related to your online presence. These include:
- Coupons (39 percent)
- Testimonials/reviews/ratings (38 percent)
- Recommendations from family/friends (32 percent)
- The “about us” or history of the business (26 percent)
- Photos/videos (23 percent)
- Familiar business/logo/slogan (22 percent)
Now let’s flip the question and ask ourselves why do customers choose not to buy from a particular business? While the main reason was high prices (62 percent), there were also many reasons related to having a less-than-stellar online presence. This included:
- Negative ratings/reviews (55 percent)
- Inconsistent info from one place to the next (37 percent)
- Website has inaccurate information (37 percent)
- Wrong contact information listed online (32 percent)
- No website (30 percent)
- No testimonials/ratings/reviews (27 percent)
- No photos or videos (17 percent)
This goes to show that if you want to make more sales – even if you are a local, brick-and-mortar business – you MUST be online! Once your presence is established (via your own website, social media pages, review websites, etc.) keep on encouraging customer reviews and do a periodic audit to make sure all your information is accurate across all sites.