Impulse Software Buys

Impulse sales for software are rare. You need to do the hard work of getting your prospects attention, getting their interest, and getting their order.

An impulse buy is an immediate, emotional purchase of a product or service. It works well for selling candy and magazines in supermarket checkout lines. Software websites, on the other hand, can be effective for upselling and cross-selling. But your website is simply not ideal for generating impulse software sales.

There's no secret about what motivates customers to be in the supermarket checkout line. There's no other way to leave the store with food and not go to jail. Supermarket customers make impulse purchases because a candy wrapper or a magazine cover looks great. Their kids are asking them for candy bars. Parents are tired, and they feel that they've earned a reward for the shopping that they've been doing. Interestingly, magazines and candy bars don't need to be sold at a discount. That's because buyers decide emotionally rather than rationally to purchase them.

Checkout lines bore people, and they respond by investigating the items in the checkout line. They're already in buying mode, and it's easy to buy just one more thing. The items at the checkout area are inexpensive, familiar products which won't require future commitment of time or money. These items don't pose any risks. There's almost no similarity between the reasons people buy when they're in a supermarket checkout line, and the logic for buying software on your website.

There are three paths that bring people to your website:

• - Some people come from their favorite search engine. They type keywords or key phrases into the search engine, and they expect to find links to relevant software sites. Like yours. There's no similarity between their mindset when they arrive on your site, and the mindset of a shopper who has just seen their favorite movie star on a magazine cover in a supermarket line - or their favorite confection in a sparkling package. People who arrive at your web site from a search engine are not inclined to make snap, emotional purchase decisions; they're not impulse buyers.
• - Some people come from their favorite download site. It's difficult to get them to make an emotional buying decision. Your website visitor knows that there are a dozen similar programs listed on the download site, and your sales presentation had better be persuasive if you expect to close the sale and get them to reach for their credit card.
• - Some people visit your website because of a recommendation from a computer editor or blogger. You had sent a press release to the bloggers and to the magazine and newspaper editors, and these columnists responded by giving your software some free publicity. These visitors are the most likely candidates to make impulse buys. They've heard from someone whom they trust that your application has what they want - functionality, safety, power, a simple learning curve, great support, an attractive price, stability, or whatever it is that's important to them. You can lose the sale if you don't make it clear what operating system your app runs on, and how much it costs, and how easy it is to contact the company if you're having a problem with the software or with the order. But they came to your site because they had heard a recommendation about your program, and they're ready to buy.

While some of these visitors may seem to be impulse buyers, that's not necessarily true. Although your website may not have made them instant buyers, a previous visit by them or by someone else did the selling work. Or maybe some marketing you'd already done had convinced them that now is the time to purchase.

However, since these well-primed visitors look the same as all other website visitors, good all-purpose web site design will serve them well, too. If they want to rush through your website to make a quick purchase, great! Instead of trying to design your website for impulse buying, design for general sales. Make your website safe, easy, and attractive to encourage prospects to buy your applications. Your website should reassure your visitor that it's the right site - the right product, professionally described, in a smoothly functioning website that keeps the visitor in a confident frame of mind for an easy and comfortable buying decision.

Your product mix is important. You need to carefully manage the software that you're selling, how your applications are structured within the family of products that you offer, how you're positioned against your competitors' software products, and how you're describing your applications to appeal to each of your key target audiences.

Fine-tune your product layout; presentation is important. Optimize the locations and descriptions of the software on your home page, product pages, and order page. Study your web logs, and discover how people navigate your site. Determine if you want to look like a venerable, professional company, or a state-of-the-art, modern firm.

Make it simple to buy. More importantly, design your site for sales, not for downloads. Make it inviting and easy for potential buyers to buy. Don't confuse your prospects by subjecting them to a convoluted sales message, and don't scare them by asking for lots of personal information. Allow them - but don't require them - to read a complex license agreement before they download or buy.

Stress safety. Talk about your guarantee. Make it simple to find a privacy policy that is easy to understand, even if English isn't their first language. Remove all obstacles that might encourage people to abandon their shopping cart.

Portray your company as friendly. Display your postal address and phone number on every page. Invite people to contact you. Streamline the checkout process and make it friendly.

It's quite possible that your prospects won't be familiar with the eCommerce firm that you're using to process their credit card payments. Introduce your prospects to your eCommerce provider, and make them feel comfortable buying through them. Shopping carts simplify the buying process when you're selling multiple products. But don't require a shopping cart for a single-item purchase. Do everything you can to make prospects trust you and feel good about becoming customers.

Test. Test everything. Try new sales messages, and measure the results. Adjust your sales presentation based on sales. Try coupons, and measure if rebates generate additional sales. Create a "frequent flyer" plan that rewards existing customers for buying your other applications, and for convincing their friends and colleagues to buy your software. Find ways to get old customers to return to your site, over and over.

Keep track of worldwide holidays. Make special offers for Mother's Day, Father's Day, and any other holidays that make sense for the type of application that you market. Encourage people to sign up for your newsletter.

The bottom line:

Prospects came to your site because they were considering buying software like yours. They're not there because of some type of emotional inspiration, and there's very little impulse involved. You might be able to introduce an upsell or a cross-sell. But it is unlikely that your visitor's main purchase will be an impulse purchase.

There's no cookie-cutter formula for getting prospects to become customers. It's complicated, and it requires original thinking and a bit of daring. Try things. Test, measure, and try again. You'll like the results!