In the internet marketing world there is this misconception about how long you have to get a person to make a purchase, and I wonder where it really came from and why nobody has really thought it out.

Let's put on our thinking caps for a minute and figure this one out. Use a brick and mortar mall for an example. People are "surfing" the mall all the time. Thousands of them, maybe millions. But the processes are the same as the internet. There are 4 distinct groups of people running around that mall.

Let's start with the 4th group. The group that has no idea what they want and may not want anything at all. Maybe they are waiting for the movie to start. Maybe they are waiting for the kids or friends. In other words, they are not really doing any serious shopping. They are just surfing. Today, the younger generation does this alot on the internet. I've watched this with my children and their friends. They go to websites just to "check it out". No intent to buy anything. Matter-of-fact, no MONEY to buy anything. My son loves to go to Rolls Royce websites. Like he can afford one.

How long do you have to get one of these people to buy something from you? 3 seconds? 2 seconds? Never? You really don't have much chance of a sale here and should not even bother with them. Sure. 1 or 2 may buy something or even come in and look around a bit but are they really worth your effort? Obviously you have to put SOME effort into them, but they should not be your main focus.

I'm going to jump back to Group 1. These are people who go into the mall knowing exactly what they want and who they want to get it from. These are you loyal customers. You don't have to worry about 3 seconds with them. They are already sold. You can focus on getting them to buy MORE stuff or just on making sure they remain loyal. Buyer incentives and such.

Now comes the Group 2. They probably comprise your largest group of people. They know what they want and are checking everything out. They may not have an exact idea but they know they want say a widget. They look at the directory and see what places carry widgets and go check them out.

These people are where you should be focused. What are they looking at? First thing they see is your entrance. If it is a mess and hard to get around in, they are gone. So a nice neat easy to use entrance is essential. Give them the ability to search on your site (a greeter) to find what they are looking for easily. Do the hardsell on them once you have them inside. Show them what they want but recommend upsells etc. You have more than 3 seconds but also less than 3 seconds to grab these people. If they walk up and see a nasty store front and right next to it is your competitor with a very nice front, you will lose them in less than 3 seconds. But once they are in, then you have time to get their attention and get them sold. As long as everything goes smoothly. If they get inside and find the aisles are too close together, the cash registers are hard to find, nobody to ask for assistance, etc etc they will leave.

Group 3. These may be your 3 second group. But actually they are less than that. They are wandering the mall just window shopping. They have money but no real idea what they want to spend it on. You have to grab their attention quick as they walk by. Now on the internet this is advertisements. Get them to your homepage or a landing page and grab their interest NOW. No 3 seconds, but 1 second. They have to see something they want NOW. They will not go any further into the site unless they see something that grabs their attention.

So really there is no 3 second group. Where did this idea come from? Marketing research? I've done that. While working at a big firm building e-commerce sites for companies the 4 groups above are what we found to hold true. The basic truth of the matter is that you have to have a good site that is easy to navigate and displays what people are looking for right away.

Donald "DonOmite" Hammond has been building websites for over 10 years. He has worked with many companies in the ecommerce arena and done studies on what works and what doesn't for getting people to buy at a site.