How an Ecommerce Experience Ignited My New Year’s Resolution
As the New Year approaches I find myself, like many others, contemplating a New Year resolution that I could do. I struggled to figure out what my resolution was going to be and did not think I would have one this year. However, out of left field, an unexpected source influenced my resolution. This source was a fantastic ecommerce experience that ignited my culinary curiosity. I have never been a great cook. As my B- grade in high school foods class would suggest, it was a very generous grade given by a very nice teacher.
I was shopping for groceries on a grocer’s ecommerce site, when I stumbled upon a really nice feature that empowered me with confidence that I could use their products to cook delicious meals.
So, what about this feature gave me the desire to cook and the confidence that I could cook to perfection?
High Quality Images and Visually Stunning Features
As humans, we are very visually driven, especially if we are hungry. I was on the grocery store’s ecommerce site looking for a very specific lunch meat that I like to pack for my lunches, so I searched for “lunch meat” in the site’s search engine. Above the results was a light blue tab called “Recipe Ideas.” This caught my eye and curiosity, so I clicked on it. From there they had different categories: lunch, snacks, dinner, and dessert. I was looking for lunch meat so naturally I chose the lunch category and there I saw the most delicious looking freshly baked pretzels that were perfectly golden and salted! After taking a quick look at these beautiful pretzels I had the urge to try and make them despite not having any experience cooking pretzels.
Soft Baked Pretzels with sea salt
While the use of high-quality photos of the pretzels is what ultimately ignited my urge to think about cooking, it is also important not to overlook the impact of eye-catching button on the ecommerce site that said, “Recipe Ideas.” This button was at the top of the page and was blue, contrasting with the white background. This guarantees that the button is one of the first things visitors see on the page.
Superb Product Page and Easy Checkout Process
The high-quality images of the pretzels are what sparked my interest in cooking them, but seeing delicious pretzels was not enough to enable confidence that I can cook the pretzels, as I said before I am a B- cooking student. I did not even know what ingredients I needed to make a pretzel. After clicking on the image of the pretzels, all of my questions were answered.
I was presented with a beautiful, simple product page, that once again had great images of the pretzels, but also more detailed information like prep time, cook time, and the option to change the serving size.
Below that information was the ingredients needed with the option to add each ingredient to the cart or all the items to the cart at once. There were ingredients on the list that, to be honest, I’ve never heard of. So, this made it very easy to buy all the right ingredients on their ecommerce site, rather than going to their store or a different store and trying to find all of these ingredients.
On top of that, all of the ingredients the site listed were all the store brands’ products, which generally have the highest profit margins for the store, so not only did the ecommerce site provide me, with an easy shopping experience, but also maximized their profit margins while doing so.
E-commerce internet shopping cart mobile phone app supermarket
Lastly, the product page had a very easy-to-read, easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions on how to make these pretzels. Now this was a huge component that motivated me to cook this recipe. After reading the instructions and knowing that I could have all the ingredients I needed at the touch of a button I felt fully empowered to cook myself a delicious lunch.
What I Learned About Ecommerce During My Grocery Purchasing Journey
After adding all the ingredients to my cart and clicking “Buy Now,” I pondered what exactly made my online shopping experience so impactful for the customer. Ultimately, I think what it boils down to is providing me, the customer, with the path of least resistance. Convenience seemed to be a powerful motivator in my shopping experience. In my case, the ease with which I could navigate the ecommerce site, follow the recipes, and effortlessly find the ingredients I needed is what led me to purchase from that ecommerce site, rather than going to a different store or site to find a cheaper alternative.
Happy New Years
In the spirit of New Year’s resolutions, I couldn’t help but share my long-winded answer to “What’s your New Year’s resolution.” Hopefully, the readers of this blog help me stay accountable for my newfound culinary goals. And hey, if you happen to have any foolproof recipes, feel free to send them my way!
