The Internet is overflowing with a host of ecommerce shopping carts software services but no matter which shopping cart system you choose, you still need to advertise your store properly to get results. A lot of time, a reputable shopping cart systems will give you a few ideas on how to optimize your pages and perhaps how to advertise your site. But it is also essential that you understand what affect your possible buyers’ purchasing decisions in order to accurately trade your deals.

What are the prominent factors that influence customer buying decisions?
Recommendations
“Recommendations from family and friends trump all other consumer touchpoints when it comes to influencing purchases.”

- ZenithOptimedia. AdAge, April, 2008

According to Royal Mail’s Home Shopping Tracker Study, references are the number one reason for deciding a potential site. If you already have a limited customer base, make sure you hold back your current customers. Handle them well by giving them some sort of incentive to propose your site to others. Issue current customers special discount coupons which can be expanded to whomever else they propose to your site. Certainly this will snowball and you will end up with higher sales and a greater customer base.
Reviews and Ratings
“Online reviews are second only to personal advice from a friend as the driver of purchase decisions; user reviews are more influential than third-party reviews.”

- Web users and web community, Rubicon Consulting, Inc. October 2008

In fact, (65% of) target market tend to believe reviews by fellow general public rather than experts. This simply means that user reviews are the most credible form of advertising. It’s no wonder then why Amazon always slips in a couple of user reviews on their product pages. Notice that they also comprise of bad reviews along with great ones. Of course naturally good reviews usually well outnumber bad ones but the addition of poor reviews lends the overall reviews a sense of authenticity.

Those little rating stars you see on the product page actually have an impact on the minds of consumers. They provide the quality of the products and services even before the customer reads any reviews (or even if the customer doesn’t even read any reviews). If there are many reviews for a particular product, even an average rating for the product may suffice to win over a would-be customer.
FAQs
“Online businesses lose as many as 67% of consumers due to a lack of online product information.”

- Allurent, January 2008

Never disregard the priority of frequently asked questions. More than three quarters of online shoppers surveyed by an ecommerce shopping carts systems stated that available content is inadequate for them to make a decision to purchase online. This is 3 potential sales for every actual sale that a web store makes. That’s quite a loss right there. And the likelihood of those customers returning is close to nil. assists potential|would be|prospective[/spin] customers make their minds up sooner, before they decide|make a decision|choose|opt|make the decision[/spin] to move on.