Ecommerce Businesses Are Able to Attract Buyers of Obscure and Rare Goods Too

• A prospect wants to gift a dear one a special gift.
• A homemaker is renovating her living room, and wants to include a unique decorative item - something that reflects her personality.
• An office-goer wants to buy a shirt that is formal, but not the usual pinstriped blue.
• A teen wants to be attired in something cool for an upcoming party.

There could be many more situations where the customer wants to buy something unique. How do you attract such customers? How do you service their unique needs? Here are some thoughts:

Pull Them in With Images That Stand Out

A common way of drawing in unique product seekers is by showing them a unique image. If analytics show that the prospect seeks running shoes, showing them an image of a shoe with a riot of colors might draw them in. Of course, you would worry that prospects that seek subtle-colored running shoes would run away from you. That is where an understanding of the customer is necessary. Using third party cookies, you can experiment with customer preferences until you know the ones that seek unique products.

Understand Their Unique Needs, and Help Them Narrow Down to a Suitable Product

Once you find that the usual products don't seem to be doing the trick, instead of dishing out yet another shade of the same outfit, consider showing them some rather offbeat alternatives.

I have observed an interesting phenomenon: if you show startlingly vibrant product images, prospects succumb to their curiosity and get drawn in. Even if they don't buy that specific product, they could end up buying something else. That's why only suggesting highly related items might not be the smartest move.

Try Personalization as a Method of Creating Something Unique

Sometimes the product category does not make it easy to dish out unique results. For instance if someone is seeking to buy children's books, they are faced with the dilemma of either buying the usual suspects, or experiment with unheard of titles. In such cases, it would be great if you could take a regular product and make it unique by personalizing it. After all, personalizing is a sure-fire way of creating a unique product. And not just is it unique, but it also shows that you put in the extra effort.

Improve Your Understanding of Their Needs Over Time

If you manage to get them to your website, you can follow their clickstream and figure out what makes them tick. In most cases the ecommerce merchant has too large a catalog for any prospect to browse in a reasonable period. It is your job to capture the hints that the customer's behavior is throwing your way.

Final Words

A customer who is seeking a unique product is a good customer. On the one hand she is not necessarily seeking a bargain. On the other, she does not need to be dealt with kid gloves, as you would treat a premium customer. The problem is in recognizing such a customer. Most shopping cart software is programmed to dish out the most popular products in each search. These customers seek some of the least popular ones.