The "best-seller effect" is a phenomenon where a product's popularity affects customers' perception of it. Most customers tend to purchase best-selling products as they feel these products must be good. For example, a popular red lipstick with a lot of sales would probably look better than a less popular one, no matter how good it is.

When a product is designated as a "best seller," it is not just the product that sells quickly. People are also more inclined to trust the product because of the powerful label, and they are therefore more likely to purchase it.

Basically, the bestseller effect works as a form of social proof in which people are influenced by the actions of others. It is based on the assumption that if many people have already bought something, then it must be good. 

Based on a recent analysis of sales on Amazon, researchers discovered that featured best-selling products displayed a higher "buy box rate." This tells us that shoppers are more likely to convert if they see a product that has already sold well.

And with eCommerce, you already know that the competition is fierce. Having a trusted path to purchase can help ensure your customer makes the right choice. Here’s how you can the best-seller effect to increase sales:

• Showcase your large number of subscribers.

You can use this psychological phenomenon to your advantage by showing off what your newsletter has already achieved: large subscriber numbers, awards, or other positive feedback from satisfied subscribers can be used to demonstrate its success and quality. This increases the appeal of your newsletter and makes readers more likely to subscribe as well.

Social proof also plays a role in this phenomenon. It serves as a quality indicator as well as a source of trust for potential buyers. This shows that many people have already subscribed or bought from you, which positively influences the purchasing decisions of other customers and helps them feel more secure about making a purchase from you.

You can display your accolades somewhere prominently on your website. Don’t forget to include a call-to-action for conversions! For example, if you were running a clothing store, you could show off and say something along the lines of, “20,567 fashionistas have already subscribed. Don’t miss out!” Then place a “subscribe” button nearby.

• Highlight your actual best-selling products.

The "bestseller effect" is one of the most effective sales tactics: people buy what other people buy. The more often a product is bought, the more others are interested in it and want to buy it as well. Companies use various strategies to influence sales figures. For example, they set up separate displays for bestsellers or highlight top-selling products on the home page of their online shop.

When you visit an online store, do you first look at the goods that are on special offer, or do you look at the bestsellers? Most of us will probably go for the bestsellers. Bestseller products are perceived as being more valuable. They make us curious: why is this product so popular?

It inclines people to check it out, which is already one step in the right direction.

Include a "bestseller" section on your website. You can easily create such a section with an eCommerce template, or you can add a widget for ranking products by their popularity or number of orders.

Place bestsellers in strategic positions on your website, such as in the sidebar or above the fold in category pages. Make sure that these items are clearly marked as bestsellers and include information about why customers are buying them (such as the number of orders). You can also increase their visibility by using them as part of carousels.

Place bestsellers near checkout points, such as on the cart page, to increase their chances of being purchased. A great way to do this is to differentiate them from the rest of your products by using a badge. You can use a simple "Best Seller" badge or something along the lines of "Customer Favorite" or "Editor’s Choice".

The key is to highlight the fact that these are your best-sellers, and you must ensure that they really are! You don’t want a customer to buy your "best-selling" product and feel ripped off when it doesn’t live up to their expectations.

• Make use of influencer marketing.

For a long time already, people have been taking each other’s opinions into account when making their own decisions. Think of the famous "sawmill effect," for instance, in which one person starts to yawn, and then everyone else follows suit. Or "the herding instinct," which refers to our need to belong to a group. We tend to make choices based on the preferences of others because we believe that those choices are right or better than our own.

Influencer marketing is the use of social media personalities to drive brand awareness and increase sales. Influencers are in a unique position to sway their audience’s purchasing decisions, which is why so many brands have turned to influencer marketing as a way to promote their products.

But not all influencers are created equal. The best influencers are those who fit the brand at hand, who bring authenticity and trustworthiness to the table, and whose audience aligns with the brand’s audience.

If you have contacts with influencers in your industry, try to engage them in your marketing. For example, do you sell shoes and know a popular fashion blogger? Suggest a collaboration in which she posts your products. Then effectively communicate the contribution in your campaign email about the product. You will see that such collaborations can be very successful. Whether it be beauty, sports, cooking, technology, or interior design, there is an influencer for every topic and the right community for your products!

• Leverage your social media channels.

If you need a little push to convince customers to make a purchase, show them a couple of your best-selling products on your social media channels. By having the right social media strategy, your customers will not be able to wait to get their hands on your bestsellers. Show off your products on social media while offering additional incentives like discounts and free shipping to really drive the sale home.

There are a few different ways you can leverage social media to showcase your bestsellers. First, you can create a dedicated "top-selling" collection on your website and then promote that collection on social media. Second, you can use a tool like Social Photos to create shoppable images for your Instagram feed. With Social Photos, all you need to do is tag your products in the photo, and when a customer taps on the tagged product, they’ll be directed to the corresponding product page.

Social media is the perfect platform to showcase your bestsellers, but you don’t want to be too sales-oriented. You may lose most of your audience if you come off as too pushy. Instead, you can do it subtly by showcasing a photo of your best-selling product and asking your audience what they think about it.

• Positive feedback should be highlighted in email newsletters.

Email marketing is often more effective than social media marketing. If you want to promote your bestsellers, email is an excellent way to do it. A lot of people only look at brand-named social media accounts once in a while; they might even forget that they followed you on such accounts. This is not the case with emails. Emails are sent directly to customers’ inboxes. They are not passed by or forgotten because they are displayed right in front of the customers.

Aside from showing off your bestsellers in newsletters, you can also encourage more sales by highlighting positive customer reviews. Customer evaluations and comments have high credibility. This lowers customer anxiety about making a mistake in purchase since they provide open and honest opinions about products.

CONCLUSION

In the end, determining the best way to leverage this "best-seller effect" will require some experimentation. But if you're interested in leveraging it in your own eCommerce store, you'll definitely want to give it serious consideration.

Consider how your audience makes purchasing decisions and where you can position your product in order to use this phenomenon to your advantage. The data and research shows strong evidence that the best-seller effect does increase consumer purchasing behavior, so make sure you're making decisions based on the latest knowledge in psychology and consumer behavior.

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