The vast majority of e-commerce success revolves around marketing. The world of marketing is built upon a combination of cold, hard data-points and a subtle understanding of psychology. Many brands are increasingly relying on the former in a digital environment, as these data-points can be easily collected and analyzed. You don’t want to forget about the latter, however, as psychology still plays a key role in driving purchase decisions. If you want to see an increase in sales, then you’ll want to employ the following three tactics that can dramatically improve the number of people who follow through with making a purchase.

Always Promote the Benefits

From the perspective of a manufacturer or creator, it’s easy to pay attention to the details or specifications of a product. These features all too often help quickly describe what a product is, how it works and what it can do. In order to boost your sales, you need to shift the focus away from “features” and onto “benefits”. In many cases, they cover the same concepts but are framed in different ways. You ultimately want to be pinging your website with descriptions of how each product or service is going to benefit an individual. This one quick trick can rewire how people view your items and can dramatically increase the number of sales you generate.

Highlight Your Customers

Many people are afraid to be the first one to take the plunge. In order to manipulate the subtle psychology of consumers, you want to be able to showcase other people’s experiences with your products. In order to do this, you can feature a variety of elements on your website. From user recommendations and reviews on off-site platforms to customer testimonials, it’s important that you highlight all of the positive experiences others have had. This can give those consumers who are on the fence just enough reassurance in your brand and its offerings to commit. While it may not seem significant, there are likely many sales you’re currently losing merely because of a small doubt or uncertainty regarding authenticity, quality  or confidence in the brand.

Use the Concept of Scarcity

At any given point, you probably have numerous shopping carts left full and unprocessed because people got distracted or otherwise thought they could come back later. In order to lock down the sale here and now, use scarcity to motivate customers to act. Whether this pertains to the colors and styles you use on each page or a blatant indicator that a product is almost sold out, you can get inside the minds of shoppers and convince them to act today. Via a combination of deadlines, limited quantities and stylistic considerations, you can move those hesitant shoppers to make the purchase before they forget about it.

The psychology of sales isn’t as complex as many seem to think. The primary goal for businesses wishing to expand their profits should be to move those who are most likely to purchase – but who have put it off for whatever reason – into taking the plunge. By describing what a product can do for them, using the notion of scarcity in each pitch and highlighting past customer experiences, you can provide more shoppers with both the reassurance and motivation they need to buy something today.