Ecommerce | Ecommerce News

The Immediate Need Problem

For sites selling products of one sort or another, poor conversion rates can be indicative of a problem unique to the web. This is known as the immediate need problem.

Selling products online can be a very profitable strategy. The profit per transaction is usually pretty high compared to distributing products through distributors and losing part of the revenue from sales. Given this fact, most companies selling products spend a good deal of time and money developing an online presence. For the unfortunate few, however, the money is not well spent because there is a problem with their products.

A person searching online has been conditioned to expect a number of things. One of them is that they will have to wait for their purchase to be delivered. If you buy a book from Amazon, it will show up in a week or two. The internet may make shopping convenient, but the delivery time is a definite negative. In fact, it can really kills the sales on some sites.

Let’s assume I have a site selling insect repellent. Not just any insect repellent. I have an all natural brand that is biodegradable and guaranteed to repel any insect. It slices, it dices…you get the idea. I have the best product on the market.

The site has been up for a couple of years. I have high rankings across the board for Google, Yahoo, MSN and so on. I am generating 10,000 unique visitors a day. I am getting 10 sales a day. My site is simple to use, loads fast, has good copy, accepts every kind of payment imaginable and so on. Why is my conversion rate a miserable 1 in 1,000? Delivery time.

A person searching for insect repellent typically needs to use the product NOW! Unless you are really anal retentive, you probably are not going to plan to go hiking a couple weeks ahead of time. You will for a longer trip, but not for your spur of the moment walk. In short, you have an immediate need. I may be offering the best possible solution at the best possible price, but I cannot satisfy your need to have it now. As a result, my visitor to sales conversion rate is going to miserable.

Is there any way around this immediate need problem? Yes and no. The only real solution requires that you have a brick and mortar presence in addition to your site. If your insect repellent is also sold through stores throughout the country, you can offer a “store locator” option to your visitors. They can then find a store and go buy the product. Of course, you have no way of tracking this, but it is better than nothing.