88% of consumers would prefer to buy directly from you.

There’s a surprising disconnect between customer shopping preferences and actual customer shopping behaviors – and that opens up a tremendous opportunity to market your brand directly to customers. In short, customers would prefer to buy directly from brands, but often end up purchasing products on a site like Amazon.com instead.

And now it’s time for brands to take back their customers. According to an April 2015 survey from BrandShop, almost 90% of consumers would prefer to buy directly from a brand’s site if they could. However, only one-third (37%) of customers actually buy directly from brands. So what can brands do to win back their customers?

#1: Create a branded e-commerce website

The first and most important step that companies can take is set up a branded e-commerce website that makes products directly available to consumers. If you build it, they will come. According to Nielsen’s recent “Global Trust in Advertising” report, branded websites are the second most-trusted advertising format. The only type of advertising format that’s more effective are word-of-mouth recommendations from friends and family.

This is actually a very important insight because it shows the remarkable sway that popular brands have over consumers. BrandShop also found that consumers are 57% more likely to start their online shopping journey on a brand’s website than on a retailer’s website. So half the battle is already won. What brands have to do is find a way to keep these hard-earned consumers. So what can they do to make their websites stickier?

#2: Integrate customer ratings and reviews

One option is to leverage the power of customer ratings, opinions and reviews. According to that same Nielsen report, consumer opinions posted online are the third most-trusted form of advertising. That means that if customers go to your website and don’t see customer ratings and reviews for each product, they might give up and go to a different website. These reviews are an important form of “social proof” that your products are worth buying.

That’s why so many brands are now embracing social media as a way for consumers to share products and product opinions with friends. If you are a fashion retailer, for example, you want people “pinning” your latest outfits to Pinterest or sharing Instagram photos of your friends having fun at an event. It’s also why many brands will give away coupons or run promotions for customers to post online reviews. It helps to generate buzz about your brand.

#3: Join the mobile marketplace- Shoppi

The third and final step you can take to market your brand directly to customers is to make your digital presence as mobile-friendly as possible. In short, you need to join Shoppi.

We’ve now reached a tipping point where consumers are just as likely to be checking out your brand on a mobile website as on a laptop or desktop. That means you need to embrace a mobile-friendly responsive design so that all of your products display perfectly. And it means that you have to tailor promotions and incentives to on-the-go mobile users via Shoppi App- find out more here.

If consumers are reading your emails, they’re probably reading them on a smartphone or tablet -- and possibly while they’re at the shopping mall. So you have to embrace the world of mobile commerce (m-commerce). Think of smartphones as the gateway to the mobile marketplace. People are ready and willing to buy with their smartphones.

Final lessons

There are some caveats, of course. That same BrandShop study also suggests that brands need to grow their digital channels without alienating their retail partners. One suggestion is to continue promoting retail partners’ sites and in-store events on your brand’s mobile presence.

However, that doesn’t mean you can’t take back your brand. That’s particularly true in areas like fashion, beauty and home furnishings, where consumers typically develop great loyalty and affiliation with brands. If given a choice between buying the same product through online retailer or your brand, guess which one they’d pick? Yes, that’s right – 88% of consumers would prefer to buy directly from you. That’s a great opportunity that you can’t afford to pass up.