In the competitive world of eCommerce, every click counts. This is especially true on your product pages, which are your best chance to catch a visitor’s eye, pique their curiosity, and eventually convert them into a paying customer.
However, creating a product page that converts involves more than just adding an image and a price. It’s all about knowing your customer, anticipating their wants, and providing a seamless shopping experience that motivates them to take the next step.
In a previous article, we talked about creating eCommerce landing pages that convert. In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the key elements you’ll need to build a product page that converts – and eCommerce mistakes to avoid when building it.
Visuals
High-Quality Images
A significant percentage of online shoppers rely on product photos to make purchasing decisions.
Effective visuals are crucial for online stores because customers can’t physically interact with the products. To compensate for this limitation, it’s essential to prioritize professional product photography that emphasizes key features.
Therefore, incorporating professional-looking images taken from different angles is vital. These images should highlight the details and features of the product.
For example, Colourpop, a cosmetics company, provides a compelling example. They showcase their products with professional photographs taken on a neutral, plain background from various perspectives.
Multiple Images
A common question among store owners is: how many product photos should I have? The answer depends on the nature of the item being sold. For instance, scrolling through eight images of a t-shirt could be overwhelming, whereas the same number for a house on a real estate website might be too few.
As a general guideline, aim for at least four to five images that effectively convey the key qualities of your product. These images should encompass a variety of perspectives, including close-ups, lifestyle shots, and 360° views.
A practical example is Zillow, a real estate marketplace, where the majority of listings feature more than 20 images. This is the “default” for real estate websites and listings with only a handful of photos generally do not do well.
Image Zoom Functionality
Zoom functionality is particularly useful when customers want to see the details of a particular product. For example, the patterns on a piece of clothing. It also comes into play in images of larger products (for example, a house) in which a smaller image doesn’t show enough detail.
Video
Adding video to product pages can dramatically improve your conversion rate, especially for products that benefit from demonstrations or walkthroughs.
Consider adding product videos for a more immersive experience. But before adding video to your product, make sure it is short and optimized for mobile devices.
Product Views Through Multiple Angles
To offer a thorough perspective of the product, incorporate multiple images taken from various angles. An illustrative example is the drone company DJI, which uses 3D and augmented reality (AR) to present their products. Visitors to their site have the ability to rotate the product a full 360 degrees, enhancing the depth and clarity of the viewing experience.
Linked Product Swatches and Variations
Clearly display different options like color, size, and material.
Images that link to product variants. An example of this approach is demonstrated by Patagonia, a clothing brand. In their product display, images are directly linked to specific product variants. For instance, by clicking on color swatches, like red or black, the corresponding product images seamlessly adjust, providing customers with a visual representation of their selected options.
Content
Clear product name
Write a short product title that highlights an important feature and includes keywords that are relevant to your target market and your product.
Compelling Product Descriptions
Write your product descriptions by emphasizing key features, benefits, and the overall value proposition. When writing these descriptions, be sure to incorporate keywords that accurately represent the product.
Customers not only seek information to fulfill their needs, but search engines also prioritize pages with relevant keywords. By integrating appropriate keywords into your product descriptions, you not only enhance the customer’s understanding but also improve your page’s ranking in search engine results.
Add Social Proof
Most people trust consumer evaluations as much as recommendations from friends and family.
Showcase customer reviews and testimonials to increase trust and trustworthiness. Positive comments from satisfied consumers should be highlighted on your product page, as these testimonials act as social proof.
Display customer reviews prominently on your product page to successfully optimize it and encourage purchasers to share their experiences.
Address Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Enhance your product page by including a concise and clear Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section. This serves to proactively address common inquiries that customers may have.
For instance, Skinnydip effectively implements FAQs on all their product pages to provide helpful information and preemptively address potential questions from customers.
Provide Clear and Organized Product Specifications
Ensure that detailed product specifications are listed in a clear and organized manner. Zenni Optical serves as an example by offering comprehensive product specifications, helping customers make informed decisions. If your products are particularly dependent on highly-specific details (as eyeglasses are), it pays to include this information directly on the product page.
Size Guides
Help customers in selecting the correct product size by providing clear and accessible size guides. SNUG, a furniture store, demonstrates this effectively by displaying dimensions for their furniture, helping customers in making informed choices.
Shipping and Returns Information
Make sure shipping and return information is clearly visible and understandable. Nothing hurts consumer trust more than an unclear or unfair-seeming return policy.
Clarity on issues such as cost of shipping, timelines for delivery, and return processes allows customers to make informed decisions and creates confidence that their needs will be met successfully.
Furthermore, clear shipping and return policies provide an incentive for customers to return for future transactions.
Conversion
A clear call to action (CTA)
Make sure your product page has a clear and obvious call to action, whether it’s “Buy Now” or “Add to Cart.” The primary purpose of your product page is to persuade clients to click the “Add to Cart” button.
Trust signals
Add trust signals such as customer reviews, trust badges, and safe payment indicators to boost your customers’ confidence. Integrating trust badges, linking to a privacy policy, backing up claims with certifications, and providing familiar checkout alternatives all indicate to customers that your business is reputable and uses a secure checkout system.
Offer multiple payment options
Provide various payment methods, giving customers flexibility and boosting confidence in the transaction process. For example, Colourpop accepts multiple payment methods on their checkout pages.
Showcase related products
Increase cross-selling opportunities by displaying complementary or similar products to encourage additional purchases. One way to increase average order value (AOV) is by employing upselling and cross-selling tactics to encourage customers to buy additional products. You can do this on a product page by suggesting related or recommended products.
Scarcity and Urgency
Create a sense of urgency by displaying the remaining stock or offering limited-time deals. You can encourage clients to make decisions more quickly by providing time-limited discounts or emphasizing low stock levels. Incorporate urgency and scarcity components into your call to action (CTA) button to encourage clients to take instant action. Use phrases like “Limited Time Offer” or “Only a Few Left in Stock” to create a sense of urgency.
Implement Exit-Intent Popups
Exit-intent popups are a kind of popup that is triggered when a visitor is about to leave your site. Exit-intent popups can be used to capture leads before users leave the page. Take advantage of the opportunity to engage visitors by displaying tailored popups when they show signs of leaving, asking them to stay or sharing their contact information.
This method is excellent in preventing abandoned shopping carts and discouraging visitors from leaving your site without completing a purchase or other desired action. However, it is also important to note that you can over do popups and negatively affect your brand. Only implement exit-intent popups sparingly and after the user has spent a considerable amount of time looking at products.
User Experience
User-Friendly Purchase Process
When building your website, make sure that the purchase process is intuitive, easy to understand, and effectively navigates visitors through product information and the checkout process. The objective of optimizing product pages is to create a page that not only highlights your products but also motivates visitors to take action and complete a purchase.
Mobile Optimization
Customize the page for mobile devices for users who access the site using smartphones and tablets. Given that smartphones account for more than 60% of eCommerce (and rising) purchases in the United States, ensuring mobile optimization is critical. Test your product pages thoroughly across many browsers and mobile devices to ensure that your call to action remains prominent, creating a seamless buying experience regardless of how people choose to shop online.
Fast loading
Enhance page loading speed to reduce bounce rates and provide a smooth and efficient shopping experience. Achieving faster load times involves proper image compression and optimization of every file for quick loading. Additionally, confirm that third-party plugins are not impeding your site’s performance with excessive code, ensuring a swift and responsive user experience.
Easy navigation
Improve the user experience by streamlining navigation with a well-defined menu structure and an easy-to-use interface. The navigation menu is a critical component of your eCommerce store and should not be ignored.
Aside from helping customers find products, navigation menus also have a considerable effect on SEO.
Here’s an example of how Amazon lists all of their product categories using navigation bars:
Breadcrumbs
Integrate breadcrumbs into your website to provide users a clear indicator of their present location, making navigation easier and improving the overall user experience. Breadcrumbs are a great strategy for keeping visitors on your ecommerce site interested. As with navigation menus, breadcrumbs both help users navigate your site and improve SEO.
There are a few types of breadcrumbs that you can integrate in your store:
- Location or hierarchy-based breadcrumbs
- History or path-based breadcrumbs
- Attribute-based breadcrumbs
Live chat support
Source: Intercom
Enable live chat support to reply to consumer inquiries as soon as possible. With new AI tools, you can also handle simple questions more efficiently.
Sticky Add-to-Cart Button
Ensure the add-to-cart button is easily accessible across the entire page. Maintain its visibility as users scroll, allowing them to conveniently add products without having to scroll back up. In the realm of eCommerce, strategically incorporating a sticky add-to-cart button can significantly enhance user experience and positively impact conversion rates.
Concluding Thoughts
When building product pages, it’s critical to include essential components and follow best practices to increase your sales. Businesses can create compelling shopping experiences that resonate with customers and encourage loyalty by using high-quality imagery, insightful information, and user-friendly design. Ultimately, the goal is to simplify and make the consumer experience more user-friendly.
