As an ecommerce entrepreneur, gaining an understanding of your target audience is critical for your stores success. When you’re aware of the different types of customers who visit your online store, you’ll be able to tailor your marketing efforts to them, and ultimately make more sales. When ecommerce entrepreneurs understand how they can unlock the potential of impulse buyers, they can skyrocket their online stores sales.

We’ve created this article to explain how you can make more sales by optimizing your store for impulse buyers, and to demonstrate how you can market your store towards this segment of your audience. At the end of this article you’ll be equipped with all the knowledge that you need to start generating more revenue from your own store.

Let’s get started.

What Is an Impulse Buyer?

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An impulse buyer is a customer who purchases goods from your store without planning to do so prior. These customers may see one advert for your store, click the advert, find a product that they like, and purchase it straight away. Impulse buyers require very few touch points to secure a sale, so they’re great for ecommerce entrepreneurs who are working with a tight budget.

In the world of ecommerce, impulse buying is relatively common, but it originally started in brick and mortar stores. If you’ve ever been in a supermarket waiting to pay for your groceries and you’ve been enticed into purchasing some low-cost items at the checkout, like chewing gum or candy, then you’ve been an impulse buyer yourself. These items are placed at the checkout strategically — you’re already about to make a purchase, so the supermarket can upsell you with some low-cost products. As an ecommerce entrepreneur, you can employ similar tactics for your own store. This will help you to maximize your revenue stream.

Impulse Buyers are Valuable to Ecommerce Businesses

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Customers who fall into the category of impulse buyers are extremely valuable to ecommerce entrepreneurs, especially if you’re just getting started with your online store and you’re working with a shoestring budget. If you target impulse buyers, you’ll be able to generate revenue without needing to run expansive marketing campaigns. Impulse buyers will likely make a purchase the first time that they view your online store, so you don’t need to invest in marketing campaigns that have numerous touch points. This also means that you’ll see a high ROI (return on investment) from any marketing efforts that target impulse buyers.

When impulse buyers make a purchase from your store you’ll receive funds that you can pump back into your marketing efforts, but you’ll also gain their contact information, which is valuable for ecommerce entrepreneurs. You’ll have their email address, so you can tailor your email marketing efforts to them based on their purchase. If you ever have a sale in your store, or you’re selling brand new products that are similar to their purchase, you can send them an email to alert them of the good news. Impulse buyers are also likely to convert from these email marketing campaigns, as they’ve already shown that they’re interested in your store and your products.

You’ll also be able to retarget impulse buyers with your PPC advertising campaigns — this is a great way to earn more sales for your ecommerce business. Retargeting ads have a high likelihood to convert, and they’re relatively cheap, so they’re always a good idea. Whether you’re just looking to advertise your latest products, or use these ads to clear your store’s inventory of unwanted goods, retargeting ads can help you to achieve that.

How to Optimize Your Store For Impulse Buyers?

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Now that we’ve covered the importance of impulse buyers for ecommerce businesses, it’s time to explain ways that you can optimize your store to make more sales from impulse buys. We’ve created a list below of simple, yet effective changes which you can make to increase the revenue that your store generates:

Alert your customers about limited stock: If you’re looking to optimize your ecommerce store for impulse buyers then it’s a great idea to alert your audience about limited stock on your product pages. Impulse buyers often suffer from FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), so this is an effective tactic to employ. Most impulse buyers have spotted a product that they like, only to come back later and find that it’s sold out — there is how FOMO applies to ecommerce. You can play on the psychology of these customers by informing them that there is limited stock on your products — this will help to entice impulse buyers to pull the trigger and make the purchase.

Include a call to action (CTA): A call to action is a button or a line of text like ‘Buy Now’, which encourages a product to purchase the product. Call to actions are great for all types of customers that visit your ecommerce store, but they resonate especially with impulse buyers. Call to actions are even more effective when the user has already been alerted that there is limited stock for a specific product — if they see that there is only one T-shirt left in their size then the call to action will help to convert them.

Launch flash sales: If you launch flash sales for your ecommerce store then you’ll have a great chance to make sales from impulse buyers. Impulse buyers love flash sales, especially if you’re selling high-quality products at an affordable price point. Impulse buyers are drawn in by the urgency of a product, and they’re well aware that the product won’t be available at a reduced price for a long period of time, so they’re more likely to purchase a product from your store that’s on sale.

Marketing Tactics to Make Sales From Impulse Buyers

As an ecommerce entrepreneur, it’s important that you spend time marketing your store and it’s products. Unfortunately, it’s usually a difficult task to draw the mass of traffic that a successful ecommerce business needs by simply launching your store, which is why you’ll need to engage in marketing. There are specific marketing tactics and techniques which are effective when you’re targeting impulse buyers, and it’s critical that you’re aware of them — they’ll help your grow your store into a successful online business.

When you’re trying to earn sales from impulse buyers, we recommend that you take advantage of PPC advertising channels to market your store. Facebook is one of the best PPC channels to use when you’re targeting impulse buyers. When users log onto Facebook they can’t control which ads appear on their timeline — this can encourage impulse buyers to make a purchase from your store, as they won’t be expecting your ad. Facebook also enables entrepreneurs to retarget impulse buyers with ease. After you’ve been running campaigns for a couple of days you can analyze your statistics and determine which users are most valuable for your business, and retarget them to secure the sale.

When you’re designing your Facebook ads, it’s a great idea to include the color red when you can. Red conveys a sense of urgency for your audience, which is exactly what you’re looking for when you’re targeting impulse buyers. Couple this design aspect with enticing, time-sensitive copy like ‘Hurry, whilst stock lasts’, and you’ll be able to persuade impulse buyers to purchase products from your store. Remember, it’s a great idea to test out various different ad designs when you’re running marketing campaigns — this will allow you to get a better sense of the messaging that resonates with your audience, and mean that you won’t be wasting money on ads that don’t convert.

We discussed product sales earlier as a way to optimize your online store, but they can also be a great marketing tactic to make sales from impulse buyers. Many think that a sale is simply used by entrepreneurs to get rid of unwanted inventory, but it can also be used as a way to grow your audience and earn repeat customers. The urgency and time-sensitivity of a sale is a fantastic way to entice impulse buys.

Using Dropshipping for Impulse Buyers

If you’re running a dropshipping store then you’ll also be able to make sales from impulse buyers. If you’re using Shopify to run your dropshipping store then you can add low-cost dropshipped goods to your store's inventory — this are perfect for enticing impulse buyers. Jewelery, clothing, accessories, and other products of this ilk are perfect for impulse buyers.

Another benefit of Shopify dropshipping is that you’ll never need to worry about managing your stores inventory, as you’ll never carry any of your products. Instead, when a customer orders a product from your store it’ll be shipped directly from your suppliers warehouse to your customers door. This business model, known as dropshipping, is ideal for ecommerce entrepreneurs.

Now you know everything that you need to know about impulse buyers and how you can effectively target them — congratulations! If you’ve got any questions about impulse buying, or ecommerce in general, let us know in the comments section, we’re happy to help!

Want to learn more?

Is there anything else you’d like to know more about and wish was included in this article? Let us know in the comments below!