9 Creative Psychological Triggers to Boost your Shopify Sales

As an eCommerce store owner, you must always be looking for a way to convert leads to customers and that’s where psychological triggers come into play.

Not every time a lead will have an impulse to purchase, but remember human psychology is very sensitive. With the right marketing trigger, you can easily push them to take action.

So, if you want to influence your customer’s purchase actions then initially you must know the psychological triggers that can be used in your Shopify store to convert leads to customers.

All human beings act on the same trigger mechanism and here are such 9 most commonly used emotional triggers that can help you convert leads to sales.

What is a Psychological trigger?

Psychological trigger is an activity of using certain words, pictures or popups to encourage the customer to purchase a product. It is being used in almost every small to large eCommerce business to convert leads to sales easily.

It also helps you create an emotional connection with your customers and foster customer loyalty in your Shopify store.

Alright, now let’s get to the commonly used emotional trigger list in Shopify stores to boost sales outreach.

Creative Psychological triggers to boost Shopify sales

Novelty

Novelty is the first on our emotional trigger list. We as humans love novelty, don’t we? The sight of anything new and fresh always makes us curious.

It not only makes us curious but the psychological trigger that novelty induces will push us to purchase the product.

This is why popular smartphone brands nowadays release new versions of the same product now and then. We all know that there are only a few tweaks in the new version compared to the old one, but the thought of it being brand new will trigger us to take action.

A major example of Novelty is Apple, it always releases models with few additional tweaks compared to the old ones. By doing this they keep their customers glued to their products.

How many smartphones have we seen with psychological trigger words like PRO, MAX and MINI? Now you know why those companies do that, Novelty is the key to repeat purchases.

So, if you want your leads to keep purchasing your product and turn into loyal customers. Keep upgrading your products, it doesn’t matter even if it is a minor tweak, promote it as a new model, use psychological trigger words and customers will purchase it.

It has been happening everywhere, not just the smartphone, even the automobile industry uses the same tactic. So it is time for you to do it in your Shopify store too.

Social Proof

Next in our emotional trigger list is Social proof. It is a proven fact that customers always trust the words of other customers rather than the words of the Shopify store.

So, this is a great opportunity for you to take complete advantage of Social to psychologically trigger your customers into taking action.

How many of us have looked for customer testimonials and reviews before purchasing from a Shopify store?

According to a study by Nilsen, 83% of customers trust recommendations from their friends and families. This proves that leveraging social proof works.

You can use social proof as a psychological trigger in your Shopify store in many ways. You can display customer testimonials, UGC, reviews in your store through a separate page or on your homepage.

When a customer visits your product page, they’ll be unsure whether to purchase the product. So what they do is, they’ll scroll down to read the reviews, by displaying the customer reviews as is, you can convert leads to sales.

Sometimes, displaying selling emotional triggers like “Popular products” or “Best Sellers” is also the best way to use social proof. It eliminates the sense of doubt from the minds of the customers.

This is why prominent eCommerce stores have dedicated selling emotional triggers sections(Top seller, Most popular) in their Shopify store just to convert leads to sales.

Scarcity

One of the most commonly used psychological triggers in Shopify stores to create FOMO among the customers. It will push the customer to purchase before the inventory runs out.

We all know it and experienced it at some point in our life, any product in a limited supply gets our attention. We get an impulse to get hold of it.

The harder it is to obtain the product; the more our desire to purchase that product, that’s scarcity in a nutshell.

The psychology behind Scarcity is Fear, as humans our fear of losing is always higher than the desire of gaining. This is why scarcity has been a successful emotional trigger for Shopify stores.

Here you can see how Amazon has induced the Scarcity trigger in their product page using psychological trigger words. This will encourage the customer to purchase the product before it runs out of stock.

Once the product runs out of stock, enable the pre-order option. This way the customer can know if the product is back in stock by pre-ordering it. It will prevent them from missing out again.

So, you can easily create a sense of scarcity by just using some psychological trigger words to show the number of items remaining in your inventory to emotionally trigger your customers.

Authority

We all know Social proof is a compelling conversion trigger. But there is one that can go further than Social proof.

“Authority”

Authority is our likelihood to listen to authoritative personalities.

How many products have you purchased just because your favorite celebrity-endorsed them? Well, if you have purchased a product like that, then the Authority trigger has worked on you.

Well, I have purchased multiple UnderArmour products just because of Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson.

Project Rock is the partnership between Dwayne and Under armour. What happened next? The Project Rock 1 sneaker sold out within 24 hours.

Experts have said that this celebrity partnership was the biggest ever in the retail world, beating other giants like Tommy Hilfiger, Crate & Barrel, etc. Johnson surely created an authority trigger on all the Under armor customers.

Also, let’s not forget the greatest Air Jordan partnership between Nike and Michael Jordan. Air Jordan is still one of the most purchased basketball shoes in the world.

But let’s face it, you might not have the resources to bring the biggest celebrity to endorse you. Sometimes, even a local influencer can do wonders for you.

Reach out to the influencers whom you can afford and request them to feature your Shopify store or products in their social mediums

Many online retail stores have been using Instagram models or TikTok stars as endorsements for Authority. Since they already have a commendable social fan base, the authority it will give to your product will be huge.

Still, if you think influencers are expensive, you’ll always have the Logos to give you the authority. Logos can work as inexpensive endorsements and you can convey authority using this principle.

This is a cost-effective way to convey your authority and emotionally trigger your customers to purchase the product.

Urgency

Next in our emotional trigger list is one of the most commonly used psychological tactics to instill FOMO in Shopify stores, a sense of urgency.

How many times have we seen it ourselves in our favorite eCommerce stores?

Creating a sense of urgency is similar to scarcity, but the customers have to race against the clock(time) instead of product inventory. It helps you to convert leads to sales.

Amazon hits you with a “fast delivery” psychological trigger word if you order it within the given time. This will trigger the customer to act quickly to get hold of the fast delivery, this is how urgency works.

With cart abandonment impacting Shopify sales, creating a sense of urgency is the best way to prevent cart abandonment and boost your sales.

All you need to do is run a countdown timer on your product page, we humans tend to get it done before the time runs out. This tendency can be used as a psychological trigger to boost Shopify sales.

There are many ways to create a sense of urgency in your Shopify store. Find out what suits you best and use it in your Shopify store to convert leads to sales.

Reciprocity

Reciprocity is a psychological principle where we humans feel obliged to pay back(reciprocate) to others who did something for us.

How many times have you bought a product that you didn’t need but the vendor has helped you with some other thing?

We all have this compelling tendency to not let them go empty-handed, we will somehow find a way to make up for the deed they did. In eCommerce, you can use this principle as a psychological trigger and increase your conversions.

Alright, let’s talk about cart abandonment for a moment. Customers are more inclined to abandon their cart when they find out that they’ll get no profit from the deal. So, this is where you can use reciprocity.

Here is Tiffany & Co making use of Reciprocity, on the occasion of Mother’s day they offer complimentary shipping. Now this will trigger the customer to purchase the product in a way to pay back for Tiffany’s generosity instead of abandoning their cart.

Offering Free shipping is one of the easiest ways to induce reciprocity. You can even enhance it by adding a purchase threshold like, “Free shipping for orders above $75”.

Now the customer will start adding more products to their cart to make it eligible for Free shipping. Here you can use cross-selling strategy to help costumes add more value to their cart thus increasing your sales.

Reciprocity is not only a good psychological trigger, it can also help you create an emotional connection with the customer and foster loyalty.

Decoy effect

We see this psychological trigger every day and everywhere. This is one of the easiest triggers to put forth and the conversion it can bring you is immense. Decoy effect can easily help you convert leads to customers.

Still wondering what is a decoy effect? It is the practice of displaying a decoy product priced close to the expensive product in a way to trigger the customer into purchasing the expensive product.

Now does it ring any bells? This decoy effect tactic has been used for ages starting from physical stores to SaaS product pricing pages and now on Shopify stores.

This makes the customer purchase the expensive one because there is only a minor difference compared to the second expensive product.

So, decoy effect in a way is a tactic to make the expensive product desirable by using a decoy of the same product.

Here you can see even Apple uses the same decoy principle. If there were only two Macbooks, the customer would’ve chosen the least expensive($1499) one.

Since, there is a decoy involved which is priced closer to the expensive product, the customer will automatically desire to purchase the expensive one because he’ll feel that it is the best bang for the buck.

It is proven that using Decoy effect as a psychological trigger in your Shopify store can increase your sales by 16%, so price your decoys wisely and boost your sales outreach.

Liking

This is one of the most common human tendencies. We are always more comfortable around the person that we like and trust, don’t we.

This psychological trigger is similar to that human tendency, a customer will be more comfortable and ready to purchase a product from the Shopify store that he/she likes and trusts.

This can only happen if you invest your efforts in creating a meaningful emotional connection with the customer and make him develop a trust in your Shopify store.

Are you wondering how to make them like you?

Simple, people love to learn about you before they purchase. So, share your values, your motivation and what drives you, your goals and how did you reach it, a good story can win a plethora of hearts.

Reach out to the customers and ask for their pain & pleasure points and tell them how they can overcome those with your products.

Under Armour’s story will inspire you, they tell us how they started from the roots and where they are today due to their grit and determination.

Sharing your stories like these using psychological trigger words will make your Shopify store likable for all the customers and you can easily convert leads to sales.

Commitment and Consistency

Finally in our emotional trigger list comes the Commitment and consistency psychology principle that can influence your customer’s purchase decision greatly.

What commitment and consistency mean is that people expect their behaviors to be consistent with their core values. You can use this as a psychological trigger in your eCommerce store.

Because once a customer gets committed to your Shopify store/brand they’ll be consistent to stay connected with the committed brand.

It is similar to the relationship between us and our barber. Once we get committed to a barber it will be hard for us to abandon him, we will compel ourselves to be consistent with our barber.

Every customer will have this tendency and you can take advantage of it and boost your sales.

Send them resources to make them commit to your brand, you can send ebooks or free trials or review products to get their commitment.

Nike lets you customize your own shoes and they’ll make it for you and send them. These small commitments can go a long way as the customer will remain consistent with the brand.

Wrapping Up

Using psychological triggers is the best way to encourage your customers to purchase and boost your sales. But to achieve this success you must know what emotional trigger to use and how to use it to convert leads to sales.

That’s why this article was crafted to illustrate the most commonly used psychological triggers with examples to help you find the right trigger that can get your customers going.