How Countdown Timers Can Lead To More Sales For Your eCommerce Store
Are you suffering from a low sales in your eCommerce store? There are strategies that you might have considered in the past, such as holding limited time sales and price drops. While you might look at your store’s analytics and see that are people that are browsing…no one is buying!
Super frustrating right?
It is as if there’s no real motivation for customers to follow through with a purchase, or that they look elsewhere to determine where they can truly get the best deal for the product(s) that they want.
One strategy you might consider is adding a countdown timer. This simple tool has revolutionized the eCommerce industry and has proven to be beneficial for online retailers big and small.
But if you’re going to use a timer you have to use it the right way. The timer can’t hit zero and then the customer is still able to buy. Scarcity has to be real or you lose trust.
The Impact Of Countdown Timers
When customers see a countdown timer counting down in the online store that they visit, they are more inclined to make a purchase sooner than later so they feel like they’ve made a one-of-a-kind deal. Without a countdown timer, customers won’t feel any pressure to buy goods right away, meaning that they can look to see if the products they want to buy are available for cheaper elsewhere.
Countdown timers appear in a prominent location on your store’s page, usually below or inside the header. These timers indicate how much time that consumers have to order products so that they can receive discounts on the goods that they want.
How Countdown Timers Can Be Personalized
These timers for the most part are customizable, allowing store owners to determine the start and end of their sales.
The really good ones (like Deadline Funnel) have options to show them a different time to an individual based on when they entered your funnel. And you can embed the timer in your emails too!
These sales can apply to any and all departments of your eCommerce store. If you sell a variety of goods, you can have your countdown timer indicate sales on items such as women’s apparel, sporting goods, electronics, pharmaceuticals, etc. A plugin Countdown timer can be installed on your WordPress site for free and can give a more personalized touch.
Concept of Countdown Timers: What If Customers Want Returns After Acting Too Quickly?
You might anticipate a few customers that request returns and refunds by acting too quickly on purchasing goods. But you can make it clear in your return policy that returns aren’t accepted as soon as goods are sent out, or ever; depending on your terms. You know you’d hate to realize that you might see 200 people taking advantage of your countdown sale, only for more than half of them to change their mind later for acting too fast on that order.
Urgency To Buy: How Countdown Timers Fuel Fanatics
One online store that is well known for their countdown timers is Fanatics. Fanatics sells jerseys, shirts, hats and other apparel from professional and collegiate sports teams. They constantly hold sales on apparel every week, whether it is price drops on goods or free shipping.
Since their goods usually aren’t sold anywhere else, they typically consider their sales to be great deals, even when customers don’t really end up saving much, or have to spend more in order for the sale to be fulfilled. For instance, during one of their countdown sales, they will tend to offer free shipping for orders that are worth 24 dollars or more.
Due to the nature of countdown timers, customers can make orders without putting much thought into what exactly they are paying. If they see free shipping as a high priority, they won’t think twice to spend more in order to get it. You can offer free shipping for orders that are over 50 dollars, for instance, and most customers won’t even realize they would end up spending more at your store.
Advice For Using Countdown Timers
First, don’t rely solely on the countdown timer to generate the bulk of your profits. This is a rookie store owner mistake, and without a countdown timer being paired with the right copy and sales messages, many of your customers will fail to fall for it. Use countdown timers for sales once per month or more in order for customers to recognize these deals as special and one-of-a-kind.
Which countdown timer do we recommend? The ones courtesy of Deadline Funnel are amazing. They count down time in real time with a style that looks professional, as well as blends in naturally in the space you choose on your store, no matter if it’s in the header, on a sidebar, etc. More often than not, you’ll be satisfied with the services you get from Deadline Funnel, and new members can get their first 14 days free.
Conclusion
In summary, countdown timers pressure your customers into following through on order fulfillments. These timers tick down by the second and attract any and all visitors to indicate how much time is left to save money, no matter if they end up actually paying less or not. Best of all, stores big and small use them strategically in order to make more purchases, without those stores having to accept returns.
