The longer visitors stay within the pages of your e-commerce site, the more familiar they become with it — familiarity breeds comfort. When a website visitor (your potential customer) feels comfortable they are more likely to trust whatever your website has to offer — products, services, opinions, etc. That trust will lead hopefully to a long-term customer relationship.
But to reach that point, it is essential that your website has a good deal of “stickiness.” While good content and a pleasant design can help a website build a base of repeat customers, the piece de resistance is to create a sense of community within your e-commerce business. That is exactly what the software discussed in this chapter does — any or all of these tools can be used to help an e-commerce business build a community within its niche market. A vibrant online community translates into a sticky website; that, in turn, means more profit for the business owner.