We all have been in a physical retail store, considered items that looked pretty or even useful enough, felt convinced enough to buy, and then left with nothing. Something just did not feel right – oh yes, the store was empty except for you. It is almost a law that empty stores and restaurants especially will find it hard to get customers, regardless of the offering.

Unfortunately, as much as we would like to think that consumers are rational, independent-minded creatures that assess offerings based on their merits, they are doubtful by nature and thrive mostly on a herd mentality. With higher-end products or services, consumers always want to know who else is buying, just as investors always want to know who else is investing. The effect of seeing boatloads of people buying something is so powerful that, while it definitely can provide assurance to a doubtful prospect with some purchase intent, it can convert non-potential customers with no purchase intent whatsoever into customers.

Things are no different online, though the mechanisms may be different. Having an online business presence does not mean that retailers can shelter themselves from the “empty store” effect by using alluring graphics and having an elaborate product line. Most ecommerce websites are assumed to be ghost towns, unless proven otherwise onsite or offsite. An effective tactic to generate tremendous buying interest and/or confidence is to show off existing customers. Even better, show off customers that can talk and act independently a.k.a. a community, who will continually create the asset that we want most for free: user-generated content (read: SEO benefits and generic social proof, not of the “customer testimonials” variety).

Give onsite customers the chance to show off their purchase or that they exist. A community might seem like a distraction, but think about it, online shopping is really an individualistic, unilateral activity. Even if you have millions of customers, they all shop in individual silos and go through identical yet separate sales funnels, unaware of each other’s presence. Nurturing a community is basically removing the silos and just letting them see and communicate with each other. That seems to have a positive impact on sales in real life; there is no reason that that would not have a positive impact on sales online as well.