This post is by Karon Thackston from copywriting agency Marketing Words.
I’ll admit it. I’m a bit of a voyeur. I love to watch as people shop online to see what they click on, how they react and what their end results will be. That’s why I regularly ask people to take virtual shopping trips… so I can understand how internet users make decisions, and adjust my communications to deliver what they need to choose my products.
Today, I’ve asked a woman we’ll refer to as “D” to stroll over to Amazon.com and find something she’s having a hard time buying.
“D” will walk us through every click and every thought as she tries to find the perfect facial moisturizer. However, this is not really about the specific product she is shopping for. It’s all about the process.
How will “D” interact with the Amazon site? How does each Amazon listing she clicks on try to deliver what customers want? Are some sellers’ listings unintentionally turning shoppers away?
Let’s follow “D’s” journey and we’ll find out…
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Inside the mind of “D” as she shops on Amazon
Hello, I’m “D”. Like most older women (I’m in my 60s), I’m dealing with dry, aging skin. Particularly right around my eyes. And especially in winter, when the raw, cold weather chaps, chafes, and roughens that delicate under-eye skin.
This winter it was worse than usual. I tried all the regular drugstore moisturizers. But these common name-brand emollients all contain cetyl alcohol, which invariably stings and burns the skin around my eyes.
I wanted a moisturizer that would heal, soothe, cool, and calm without stinging or burning.
So, I turned to Amazon.
First, I searched for “natural moisturizer,” because I wanted something totally free of harsh chemicals like cetyl alcohol.
The first page of search results was frankly overwhelming because there were all sorts of products with everything from “natural” to “organic” ingredients to neither. Plus, each seemed to have its own magic-bullet ingredient that solved every problem you could think of. And we all know that’s not possible.
Coconut oil, jojoba oil, grape-seed extract, shea butter, manuka honey, green tea, hyaluronic acid, retinol, and on and on and on… it’s really overwhelming and threw me into analysis-paralysis. Unless you know exactly what you’re looking for, you could spend days sorting through all these Amazon listings.
However, I did find at least one promising listing, so I clicked on it:
The bullet points and description did a great job of informing me about all the product specifics. I liked the fact that this moisturizer was “totally free of harmful, toxic petrochemicals” (per the product description). But was it healing, cooling, etc.?
Well, according to the ingredient list, the first (and therefore most plentiful) ingredient is organic aloe vera, which the product copy claims “soothes and calms the skin”. I’ve tried aloe vera before, and I have found it very soothing, so this was a big plus.
Then I turned to the reviews. There are 4,557 reviews. A whopping 68% are 5-star, and another 14% are 4-star. That was a big plus, too.
What’s more, the top 5-star review noted that this product is “gentle and soothing”. That was exactly what I was looking for. The more soothing the better.
However, I didn’t want to be hasty. So, I went on to another search term.
This time I thought I would improve my search by adding more qualifiers. So, I tried “soothing natural moisturizer for winter skin”.
Ha! The search results were just as overwhelming with a little bit of everything under the sun:
Undaunted, however, I clicked on the Amazon listing whose name / title actually contained the word “soothing”:
Bingo! This was no mere moisturizer. It was a “balm” – a powerful term that usually means there is some sort of pain relief. Again, the bullets and description were extremely helpful, especially when I saw that the product listing emphasized “healing,” “soothing” “cooling,” and “calming” – all the benefits I was looking for. Plus, the copy assured me that the formula contained “all-natural ingredients with no harsh preservatives”. Could this be the perfect product for my very specific needs?
