Plugging leaks in your store's product pages is one of the most effective conversion hacks in eCommerce.
Okay, maybe calling it a "hack" is a little inaccurate; it's not like optimizing these pages is a hidden trick known to a select few people. Yet, we're constantly surprised at the numerous product pages we review simply going through the motions. We're talking pages that seem to presume all the heavy lifting is complete and that a basic image gallery, some descriptive text, and a "Buy Now" is all that's necessary to attract a sale.
In this article, we'll explore tactics that'll help your product pages stand out from the noise. We want to help you create pages that make visitors sit up and think: "Yes! This product is a thing I need in my life."
Let's get started.
Address Your Visitors' Concerns
If you've developed buyer personas for your target audience, you'll know that they'll share a range of concerns that act as conversion obstacles.
If this research has shown that your typical customer is very risk-averse and wary of hidden costs or exorbitant shipping fees, you must address this as quickly as possible.
You do not want your visitors to view your product page with any sense of hesitation in the back of their minds. You want them to absorb your sales content with confidence, free from the worries that may prevent them from clicking on the "add to cart" button.
Concerns that hinder a conversion are unique to every site's target audience, but some are pretty universal.
Take a look at how online mattress retailer, Zoma, resolves some of the most common worries their target audience has.
image source: zomalseep.com
Right below the product gallery is a small but highly informative testimonial section showing images of recognizable athletes who are happy customers. Credibility issues solved.
Below the testimonials is a series of icons that highlight some of the products' unique selling points. Among them, two major concerns are instantly obliterated: the customer has a 100-day satisfaction guarantee, plus the retailer commits to free shipping and returns.
Know your target audience, understand their worries and address these clearly in your sales content.
Keep Things Nice and Simple
The amount of time you have to grab your lead's attention is ridiculously short. People are easily distracted, and the last thing you want is for them to land on your product page, only to have your main selling points overshadowed by needless clutter.
This principle is extra important in the space above the fold – the area of the screen displayed without the user having to scroll down the page.
This area is prime real estate. Your primary objective is to instantly make your visitors aware of why they cannot live without your product. No other information is necessary here. You'll want:
- concise sentences that get to the point immediately
- engaging imagery that shows your product in as many meaningful contexts as possible
- calls to action that invite the user to start the purchasing process
Everything else can go below the scroll.
Let your designers know that you're more comfortable with negative space than with needless information and other UX clutter that doesn't help motivate a decision.
Converse really embraces this semi-minimalist approach with their awesome product pages. Knowing that the look of their iconic sneakers is the main selling point, Converse has done away with pretty much any other informational element above the scroll line.
image source: converse.com
All that's visible is a customizable gallery showing how great their shoes look, eight words of text, the price and a social proof link.
This approach isn't ideal for all eCommerce products, but it is incredibly effective if you're selling something that has a solid aesthetic that you want to accentuate.
Show People Using Your Products
There's a reason product galleries are given such prominent placement on any noteworthy product page. Your prospective customer needs to see what they're buying. If a shopper can't touch or interact with something, the next best thing is being able to scrutinize it from every possible angle.
It's become best practice to use the gallery to showcase a product in all its glory. Not just angles, but every single configuration must be considered. Every way it can be opened, folded and stored must be illustrated.
This tip is vital for online clothing retailers. It's one thing to see a dress, t-shirt or swimsuit against a white background, but another thing entirely to see how it "sits" on a human body.
There's no need to go all "Vogue" here. You don't have to break the bank hiring a world-class photographer and a group of supermodels. A couple of simple photographs showing some people who are comfortable in front of a camera wearing your product is all you'll need.
Baja hoodie retailer Orizaba Original is an excellent example of a clothing store that made this work on a budget.
image source: orizabaoriginals.com
Go the Extra Mile With Social Proof
Nowadays, social proof isn't just about showing your visitors they can trust your site. Sure, that's still the main reason for including testimonials and product reviews, but there's just so much more sellers can do with social proof.
Some online retailers have started using customer feedback as user-generated sales content. If your customers are willing to capture a star rating and write a couple of sentences about why they liked your product, they'll also be willing to tell a brief story about how it has helped them solve a problem or improved their life.
Online shoe retailer, Zappos, has built some genuinely exceptional social proof around their customers' willingness to provide highly detailed, value-added information about their objective experience with their new pair of shoes.
You'll notice how the Zappos site rates shoes based on specific metrics that have an obvious meaning for the prospective customer.
Star ratings on these product pages aren't just a reflection of the customers' general feeling about the shoe but rather a more granular assessment of specific attributes. Things like "arch support" and "true to width" are all given individual ratings.
This content is the kind that the brand could never generate on its own. It has to come from an existing customer. And it's information that your leads will love to see.
It shows that you take their satisfaction seriously. It shows that you respect how challenging online shopping can be, and it will certainly make your product pages stand out from the crowd.
Promote Bulk Discounts
Most online shoppers know that buying in larger quantities usually results in a discounted price. And many online retailers are very comfortable offering this to their shoppers. It's been a successful sales tactic since the dawn of commerce.
What many product pages fail to do, however, is to highlight this benefit with enough clarity, waiting for the shopper to select a certain number of items before revealing the discount.
While this isn't a massive problem, we view it as a wasted opportunity. If you're trying to motivate a more significant purchase, why not be super upfront about the discount your shoppers will enjoy by selecting a larger quantity?
Sleep-aid manufacturer Somnifix perfectly executes this tactic by placing three pre-packaged item collections in a highly visible location on their product page. Each of these options is intentionally designed to display the exact amount of money shoppers will save, along with the length of time each option will last them.
image source: somnifix.com
In the hands of less-skilled designers, these elements could easily have felt like visual clutter, especially given the amount of information each of them contains.
But Somnifix obviously made an apparent effort to involve experienced designers who did a fantastic job of making this complex layout feel elegant and accessible.
BONUS TIP: Don't Forget About Your Product Category Pages
Product pages aren't the only area of your store that benefit from standing out. Your visitors will inevitably form an impression of your wares while looking at a category page.
While not all the tips discussed in this article apply to a product category page, some align in principle.
Let's take a look at LFA Capsule Fillers' excellent empty capsule category page and see what we can learn from it.
- The inherent "busyness" of a category page is negated by using a simple color palette.
- Each product image shows a more detailed depiction on the mouseover, essentially acting as a micro-gallery.
- Unique selling points are always highlighted below the product selection area.
- Attribute "grids" easily communicate the differences between each product type.
image source: lfacapsulefillers.com
Some Final Thoughts
If you're serious about conversion – and I mean adamantly serious – you'll spend as much time perfecting your product pages as you do assessing the channels that bring your visitors there.
The three most important things you can do as you audit your product pages' effectiveness are:
- Read more articles like this one. The web is full of eCommerce specialists happy to share their knowledge.
- Look at what your competitors are doing. There's no shame in replicating a strategy that works for someone else.
- Put yourself in your customers' shoes. Think deeply about what makes you, as a customer, click on a "Buy Now" button.
Compared with all the moving parts that make up a sales funnel, optimizing a product page represents a relatively minor challenge. So get cracking because the effort-to-reward ratio is very much in your favor.