High Consideration Products: How To Move B2B and DTC Buyers Down the Conversion Funnel

Discover effective strategies for navigating high consideration purchases in both B2B and DTC contexts

There are several of these “moment of truth” high-consideration zones in ecommerce, where visitors decide whether or not to spend money on your store 

They could bounce after a few seconds if nothing captures their attention, or because they couldn’t find what they were looking for quickly enough. They could select an item and add it to their cart, only to be told it’s out of stock. On the other hand, they could select an item, see that there are only five left, and add it to their cart right away. 

They might have their credit card out on the table, get stumped by the shipping options and dates, and decide to buy later. Or, they could get swayed by free shipping (a key tactic for retaining holiday buyers) and buy right away.

With so much going on inside a customer’s mind during these moments, it’s essential to prioritize the user experience at each stage if you stand any chance at converting them. This guide shares how to do just that for both B2B and B2C high consideration purchases—particularly for products with high stakes that your customers may not easily buy into. 

What is a high consideration product?

A high consideration product is an item with a longer than average purchase decision time span. Most often, the product has a higher financial commitment and a greater perceived risk compared to lower consideration items. 

Low consideration purchases, like a $4.99 umbrella, for example, likely don’t require the customer to place a lot of pressure on making the right decision to buy. They have the disposable income and, if it’s raining outside, the immediate need for an umbrella. The decision is made in a matter of minutes.

Expensive purchases perhaps an item with a long life span, like an office chair, requires a lot more thought. Prospects have multiple sales objections you need to handle before they convert into a paying customer, and the stakes are higher. Do they have $699 to splash on a new piece of furniture right now? Can they get a better deal elsewhere? Is the purchase a priority?

How does consideration in the funnel differ between B2B and B2C?

The B2B buyer process

High involvement products tend to be more commonplace in business-to-business (B2B) sales cycles, since the decision-making process naturally involves more people—up to eight, according to one report. 

Finance, procurement, and supply chain teams each have their own opinions and requirements of a product. You need to proactively determine which resources the individual needs in order to escalate the purchase in their chain of command. But you’re not just selling to this one individual; each customer needs to be heard before you get the green flag that enables the purchaser to buy. You’ll likely spend time offering team-wide product demonstrations, negotiating terms, and signing contracts.

B2B is also dominated by software or services, which naturally tend to retail at a higher price than physical products. It’s not uncommon for enterprise B2B software and service providers to demand thousands in exchange for their offerings each month, some with additional implementation costs or early termination fees that quickly stack up. 

Most businesses determine whether a new product or service is a success by calculating the return on investment (ROI). The higher the initial investment is, the more money they need to earn back to generate a positive ROI, which is why buyers of most high consideration products need to be almost certain they can recoup this investment before committing to a purchase.

The B2C buyer process

Brands that sell to the end consumer still have customers that linger in the consideration stage, even though the buying decision largely comes down to one person: the shopper. 

High consideration purchase journeys for business-to-consumer (B2C) products typically revolve around expensive items. Price-conscious customers need to overcome the mental block of losing money in exchange for a product. 

That said, a product doesn’t have to be expensive for prospective buyers to linger in the consideration stage of your B2C sales funnel. Potential customers who are concerned about a product’s value for money, personal satisfaction, or the emotional fulfillment they’ll receive from an item can get stuck at this stage, hence why supporting documentation like reviews or buyer’s guides are commonplace in DTC ecommerce marketing.

How to move high consideration buyers down the funnel in B2C

Offer low commitment alternatives

There’s a lot of anxiety a customer needs to overcome before buying a high consideration product. The simplest way to overcome this is to reduce the commitment required by your customers. It’s easier to make a choice when you have less to lose.

Smaller commitment alternatives that turn a high commitment item into a low consideration purchase include:

• A free trial 
• Smaller sizes or versions of a product 
• Low deposits
• Money-back guarantees
• Generous warranties
• Buy now, pay later deals 

Take the Leesa mattress—a high consideration product that retails for upward of $600. Not only is the price a barrier, but it’s also recommended that consumers buy a new mattress only about once every five years. So customers need to know they’re not only getting a good deal price-wise, but that the mattress they’re buying is durable enough to last half a decade.

Leesa helps customers overcome these obstacles with a 10-year warranty and a 100-night trial. It can help on-the-fence shoppers buy product with confidence, knowing there’s a backup plan if they make the wrong choice.

Leesa offers a risk-free 100-night trial for its high consideration products.

Build a branded community

It’s easier to nudge a customer to cross the final hurdle if you offer visually engaging, highly interactive experiences that keep them interested throughout the conversion funnel. It’s the equivalent of offering them “skin in the game”: If someone knows they have a personal stake in a process, they’re more likely to complete a task. In the context of ecommerce, that means buying your product.

Chubbies’ backstory, for example, is rooted in the founders’ personal experience. They felt alienated by traditional retailers because they didn’t relate to the shirtless men wearing their clothes. So, they launched Chubbies in 2011 to help similar people find an alternative. 

Coincidentally, this was the time when social media was taking the world by storm. Chubbies set a mission to help its customers live in the moment—even encouraging them to get the “5 p.m. on Friday” feeling every day of the week in a pair of Chubbies shorts. 

This backstory isn’t limited to the About Us page of the brand’s DTC storefront; it’s the foundation for the community it built. Chubbies’ TikTok and Instagram profiles are packed with user-generated content contributed by customers doing fun activities while wearing its clothing. It also invites loyal fans to share their input, even if that involves suggestions for areas for improvement. 

“We would love for our customers to be telling the story, and honestly, if we’re missing the mark, we want them to tell that story,” says co-founder and chief marketing officer Tom Montgomery. “We want to learn about that and change the product because for us, that’s the evolution.”

Play on loss aversion

Loss aversion is a psychological concept that proves humans find it more difficult to lose something than gain something of equal value. 

Most often, the “loss” in a purchase decision is financial—especially if you’re selling an expensive high consideration product to a prospective customer who doesn’t have the disposable income to buy it without a second thought. They need to overcome the mental block (and the pain associated with it) of losing that sum in exchange for the product.

While you can’t do much to prevent this internal monologue, you can play on the loss aversion bias by telling potential buyers what they’d lose by not buying your product. In the case of a $499 home gym equipment set, losses that a customer could avoid by purchasing might be: 

• 30 minutes driving to the gym every day 
• A $29 monthly gym membership fee
• Poor health from skipping their workout at the gym because they don’t have time to go after work 

Shopify Plus merchant Crossrope puts this into practice for its smart jump rope. Retailing for $199 (much higher than the standard version you’d find in any dollar store), Crossrope shows the losses someone would experience if they chose an alternative: they couldn’t tone multiple areas of their body, train anywhere, or try a variety of movements. The fact its Crossrope is cheaper than these alternatives is the cherry on top. 

Crossrope’s comparison table shows what customers have to lose if they don’t buy.

Sell the bigger picture

Not all B2C purchase decisions are logical. Expensive products still sell because the brand has sold a vision—the emotional fulfillment or the social status they’ll achieve after becoming a customer. 

Streetwear brands are notorious for this marketing strategy. Logos of brands like Represent, Supreme, and A Bathing Ape have become social symbols. Customers buy because they want to fit in with the crowd and show their trendy aesthetic to the people around them—not necessarily because of the product quality (although that’s on offer too).

You don’t have to be a streetwear connoisseur to implement this tactic. Luxury stationery retailer Milligram uses it to sell its $44.99 special edition ballpoint pen. 

Its product description doesn’t just focus on the technical aspects of the pen, it sells the atmosphere of what the pen feels like: “The delicate tones of autumn pink evoke the changing colours of the leaves at the turn of the seasons, lending this pen a wistful feel that feels almost poetic.” 

Milligram sells the scene in which its pen can be used.

Perfect microcopy

“Microcopy” is a word to describe an incredibly powerful technique. If copy consists of words that people will read to persuade them to think or do something, microcopy consists of words that most people won’t read—but that still influence them in a major way.

Take this example from Impact Dog Crates. Right above its cart icon, tucked away in the corner, there’s a “Talk to a Crate Expert” button. If the customer is already browsing the product, there’s no reason to make this button huge—it’ll encourage them to click away. But if the shopper is hesitant for any reason and on the verge of clicking to close the window, they’ll see this link in the top right corner. And maybe, just maybe, they might consider asking an expert.

Impact offers extra help if high consideration buyers are stuck.

In contrast, have a look at Filter by Molly Mae. It chooses to highlight free delivery in this consideration zone.

This type of information, while not necessarily useful at this specific stage in the customer journey, could encourage them to add to their cart to meet the requirements for free next-day shipping—bumping up your average order value as a side effect. 

Customers get free delivery on orders over a certain threshold.

Limit options or offer suggestions 

Most products don’t vary too greatly. Visitors typically can choose amongst different types of colors or patterns. At most, maybe they can alter the design, or customize certain modules.

Naturally, some products are a bit more complicated. Technology is not as straightforward as clothes, for example. But what if you saw something like this when comparing different cameras on a retailer’s website? 

An overwhelming comparison table that adds more friction for high consideration buyers.

At a glance, this comparison table screams analysis paralysis for the average visitor. While certain options are clear, there are other ones that aren’t as apparent. For example, what’s the viewing angle I would need for my use case? Do I need a body heat recording trigger? Is the Wi-Fi worth it—and is it reliable?

Anyone interested in this is probably curious enough to buy. It’s best to encourage them at this stage using elements like:

• Default options for certain situations or circumstances (e.g., “Great for the office” or “Recommended for travel”)
• A best value suggestion, or one for high-intensity recon, etc.
• Checkboxes or red and green accents to show the losses on offer when somebody chooses a lower value product 

That’s not to say that comparison charts should be ousted from your DTC storefront. Of course, they can be useful—it’s helpful for the more expert shopper. However, if even a portion of your shoppers aren’t experts, you’re going to scare them off when you could have encouraged them to add to cart in that consideration zone.

How to move high consideration buyers down the funnel in B2B

The techniques we’ve discussed so far apply to B2B sales, but business buyers tend to have an additional layer of scrutiny due to the sheer number of stakeholders involved in the buying process. Here are four extra tactics to move high consideration B2B buyers down the conversion funnel. 

Offer self-serve ecommerce functionality

Traditional B2B buying experiences were long and convoluted, littered with friction that left buyers with no other choice but to contact your inbound sales team. Evolution in the ecommerce technology space means that that no longer needs to be the reality. In fact, 90% of B2B buyers expect a DTC-style customer experience from the retailers they’re buying from. 

Offer self-service throughout as much of the buying process as possible, including a password-protected online storefront that displays transparent pricing and self-guided demos. Your goal is to provide a plethora of detailed but valuable information that empowers customers to do more on their own, without the need to contact your customer service team.

Shopify makes it easy to do this with B2B features like:

• Personalized price lists. Offer bulk discounts on larger orders to reduce the cost per unit and help B2B customers overcome price-related concerns.
• Company accounts. Invite stakeholders to interact with your password-protected B2B storefront through a company account. This is especially important if you’re selling wholesale products to retailers with multiple stores or warehouses, each with their own buying or procurement manager.
• Vaulted cards. Give existing customers the confidence to repurchase by eliminating friction in the process using features like vaulted credit cards, allowing them to reorder inventory in a few clicks. 
• Smart search and filtering. Customers who use your internal site search function will likely convert at a higher rate, because they know what they want and have higher intent than a standard visitor. Maybe they’ve already done research and just need a place to buy. Perhaps they’re in a rush and need to buy quickly.

Sell B2B on Shopify from the same back end that powers your B2C storefront.

Reference neutral opinions from third-party endorsers

Authentic customer reviews are very important. They can tip the scales in favor of a product (or break the deal). Contrary to what you might think, a couple of poor customer reviews actually lead to increased conversions (by 67%). That’s because having a few poor reviews make the good reviews look more trustworthy and believable.

In order for you to accommodate this consumer behavior, make sure that your reviews are placed where they are easy to find in the consideration zones on the product page of your B2B ecommerce storefront. That includes:

• Beside product pricing information
• Beneath product descriptions 
• In the cart or checkout page

The type of people you’re collating these reviews from matters, too. Lean on the credibility of actual users or industry experts by incorporating their perspectives and opinions. The more neutral this type of social proof is, the better.

Offer flexible B2B payment options

Payment terms are one of the greatest differences between B2B and B2C ecommerce, especially in the context of wholesale. Businesses acquire inventory at a lower cost from a retailer and expect to pay for it once they’ve resold it. 

Even if you’re not selling to wholesalers through your B2B storefront, payment-related issues can still cause buyers to linger within the consideration stage. They’re either unsure whether the business can afford it, whether it’s a priority right now, or how it impacts cash flow. 

Experiment with flexible payment options for B2B buyers to mitigate this problem, such as:

• B2B payment terms (e.g. Net 30)
• Lease-to-own schemes
• Low deposits 

You could also offer self-serve ROI calculators that help buyers determine how much revenue they’ll need to make before the high consideration product pays for itself.

Showing that your $1,999 monthly subscription for enterprise software has a three-month ROI (versus a competitor’s seven-month average) makes it easier for buyers to justify the decision and get approval from stakeholders. They have a clear expectation on when they’ll earn the money back—a clear framework to base implementation upon. 

Be proactive with customer support

B2B ecommerce is moving toward self-serve, but that doesn’t mean you have to sit back and wait for buyers to reach out when they’re in desperate need of assistance. Customer support should be proactive, delivering personalized messages before a buyer feels the need to reach out (or gives up entirely).

Proactive B2B customer support is proven to reduce buyer’s remorse, and consequently prevent refunds. According to Gartner, buyers who receive helpful information throughout their buying decision were 2.8 times more likely to experience purchase ease, and three times less likely to regret their decision.

Say your sales analytics shows that the average B2B sales cycle lasts three months, for example. Throughout that time frame, you could stagger email campaigns that increase in urgency as the B2B buyer approaches a final decision. This might start with introductory offers or one-pagers to showcase your offerings, leading up to time-sensitive discounts and detailed case studies from other brands similar to theirs.

Help customers feel confident buying high consideration products

Even though the fundamentals of these consideration zones are simple and straightforward, many of the best retailers overlook these little details that can produce huge improvements to their websites.

If you want to get serious about it, conduct an ecommerce CRO audit to pinpoint areas of friction within the experiences you’re currently offering to B2B or B2C customers. A shortlist of bottlenecks that are driving customers away is the best starting point when optimizing the sales process for high consideration products with limited resources.

High consideration FAQ

What does “high consideration” mean?

“High consideration” refers to a product that requires a lot of thought. Customers place much weight on their purchase decision, researching and comparing it to ensure they’re getting the best value for their money. They need a lot more supporting documentation before feeling confident that they’re making the right choice.

What is a high consideration example?

The purchase decision for a high consideration product is much longer and more complex than a low consideration one. Examples include luxury watches, expensive electronics, vehicles, and B2B software.

Does price affect consideration in a purchase?

Price sensitivity can cause people to overthink their purchase decision when buying an item they’d consider to be expensive. They mentally justify the cost of the product and weigh whether they need it.

What are examples of high involvement products?

High-involvement products require a lot of research and commitment before a customer buys them. Examples include cars, real estate, and luxury items such as watches or purses.