I recently started noticing a new feature on Shopify that adds a Buy button to the thumbnail images. Think about that for a minute. It obscures the center portion of the first image shoppers see of the product and tells them to buy it. That feature is seriously putting the cart before the horse. Unless the shopper knows exactly what they want to buy, and can fully understand what is being offered without any additional information like what it’s made of, what features it has, and how much it costs, there is zero chance they will click a buy now button. If they want to learn more they have to click on the portion of the image not covered by the buy button. That means the button is actually in the way of the sale. It becomes a barrier. There aren’t a lot of use cases where this would be the ideal customer journey. I could see it working for groceries, menu items like adding pepperoni to pizza, or some hardware categories, but not for much else. 

Think about who your customer is.

If you’re selling deeply discounted items to a cheap customer, you want to sell, Sell, SELL! However, if you’re selling to a luxury, high-end customer, or anyone who’s shopping for value, selling too hard can sound sleazy. Everyone loves a deal now and then, but selling too hard can actually hurt sales.

If you have been in online marketing for a while, you’ve probably heard of Amy Africa. In the early days, when online marketing was figuring things out, Amy tested everything, EVERYTHING. One of her golden rules was to always add a big red Buy Now! button. Design standards change with time but making buying easy is always a good idea. 

How do you find the line between easy and sleazy? 

Start with your target audience. For a lot of founders and entrepreneurs, the company brand is just an extension of their taste. However, if you are not a member of your target demographic, you can and should ask your customers. A/B testing should teach you a lot about what your customers actually want, not what they say they want. Here’s a video showing how to A/B test on Shopify.

The line between easy and sleazy is probably closer to the sell side than you think it is. I see so many sites that don’t have any meaningful salesmanship at all. So the first question to ask yourself is are you selling at all? I don’t mean are you offering your products to customers, I mean are you selling products to customers? I can show you a picture of a scented candle and tell you it’s made of soy, burns for 12 hours, and smells like pine. Or I can show you a picture of a candle and another of a deer running through a misty pine forest and tell you that you can bring the scents of an enchanted forest into any room in your house. Or I can show you a picture of a candle and a Christmas tree and tell you that you can fill your room with the smell of Christmas. The first example is offering the candle, the last two are selling the candle to different audiences. Selling that helps customers find things that will spark joy is never sleazy. 

Making the buy button bigger, or red, or so the first thing they see isn’t going to sell more products. You can’t demand customers buy something. You have to show them why they can’t live without it.