What attracts customers to e-commerce and online shopping? What generates more sales? Shoper report suggests

Shoper, owner of Poland's most popular e-commerce platform for running an online store in a subscription model (SaaS), asked Polish sellers what they think makes an attractive offer and attracts customers to e-commerce. High-quality customer service and systematic introduction of new products are the most effective activities in generating sales, according to them.

Online sales are growing rapidly year after year. In 2021, a record number of Poles set out to shop online, influenced by pandemonium and trade restrictions, encouraged by easy access to online sales. As the popularity of e-shopping continues to grow, so does the competition in the e-commerce market. How to stand out among it? What to attract customers so that they want to buy on the site of a particular store?

For the 2021 online store summary report, Shoper asked their owners about the steps they took to attract shoppers' attention and stand out from the competition. The results are presented below.

What attracts customers of Polish online stores?

The highest number of indications for this question was for organic social media activities (57% of the store owners taking part in the survey answered yes).

Paid activities undertaken through search advertising (Google Ads - 48%) and social media (Facebook Ads - 47%) were also very popular among e-commerce sellers.

Of particular note is the growing interest in modern and cashless payment methods - making them available in their stores was highlighted by 39% of owners. Among other interesting new actions taken in stores against 2020, it is still worth mentioning cooperation with influencers (24%), blogging on the store's website (27%), or live commerce - live sales broadcasts, such as on Facebook (7% of indications).

Effective actions for more sales

"It's one thing to attract a customer to your store, but to effectively sell them something, you still need additional activities," - stresses Artur Halik, Head of Sales at Shoper. "For years, a strong belief in our country was that a competitive price was enough to stand out in the market, but this has already changed. Today, customers are more demanding and expect first and foremost professional, comprehensive service and personalized offers from stores." - he adds.

High-quality customer service and the systematic introduction of new products in the store's offerings are, according to retailers, the activities most effective in generating sales (they received 46% and 45% of indications, respectively).

Next in order of importance are Google Ads campaigns (39%), customer recommendations and reviews (36%), actively running social media channels (32%) and social media advertising campaigns (32%).

Competitive pricing as a magnet for customers, cited 28% of those questioned by Shoper.

More interesting data can be found in the full version of the report, available at this link.