The Internet is full with a host of shopping cart systems but no matter which ecommerce shopping cart system you pick, you still need to market your store properly to get results. Usually, a reputable ecommerce shopping cart system will give you a few suggestions on how to tweak your pages and additionally how to market your site. But it is also vital that you understand what determine your possible buyers’ purchasing decisions in order to more precisely offer your merchandise.

What are the prominent factors that determine customer buying choices?
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 most common reason for selecting a potential site. If you already have a limited customer base, make sure you hold back your current customers. Handle them well by providing them some sort of incentive to recommend your site to others. Address current customers special discount coupons which can be extended to whomever else they recommend to your site. Naturally this will snowball and you will end up with better sales and a wider client 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) customers tend to believe reviews by fellow users rather than experts. In other words 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 bad reviews along with good ones. Ultimately good reviews usually well outnumber bad ones but the inclusion of poor reviews lends the overall reviews a sense of authenticity.

Those little rating stars you see on the product page actually have a great impact on the minds of consumers.  They suggest the quality of the particular product even before the customer reads any reviews (or even if the customer doesn’t even read any reviews). If there are several reviews for a particular product, even an average rating for the product may suffice to persuade 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 advantages of frequently asked questions. More than three quarters of online shoppers surveyed by an ecommerce shopping cart software service stated that available content is insufficient for them to make up their mind 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. Cleverly potential~would be~prospective} customers make their minds up sooner, before they decide~make a decision~choose~opt~make the decision} to move on.