You might be excited about launching your online business. Good! Or perhaps excited because you are generating lots of traffic on your product pages. Even better. How about your conversion rates? Ever wondered why they are so low?
Your conversion rates may be so low because of how boring your product pages are – no creativity, no reviews, super boring designs, low-resolution images, and many more flaws will not encourage people to buy for your e-store.
You may be asking yourself: what do I need to do to make my e-commerce product page a high converting one? How can I boost sales and promote my brand to one people can rely on to purchase quality products?
If any of the above have been bothersome to you, then you, freight no more. Your solution has come! In this article, I will take you through the primary ingredients in creating and managing an effective product page using personal experiences and practical examples of working product pages.
Before we dive right in, I want you to understand that there is no special formula that once applied would guarantee conversion optimization, although there are a few steps that have been proven by research and from personal experience of Mr. Jacoby Mondy, the CEO of Digital Brandz and Koolest Nerd, to turn a product page into a successful one. The following steps, if followed duly, will guarantee a perfect e-commerce product page.
- Your product description must be outstanding
- Available items should be displayed
- Use thorough images
- Advertise with videos too, if possible
- Clearly define your return policy
- Give out freebies – free shipping is not a bad idea!
- Make sure your reviews are displayed
- Be creative with your call-to-action button
- Keep optimizing
CREATING OUTSTANDING PRODUCT DESCRIPTIONS
- Your product description must be audience-centered
You must have your target audience in mind when coming up with product descriptions. For instance, the product descriptions on a website selling items for high school students must be fun and engaging. The same principle applies when you are drafting product descriptions for pages selling baby wears – you must use a mild tone.
- Your product description defines your brand.
Whichever tone is suitable for your target market must be used consistently. This is because consistency stands at the core of branding, and your e-commerce store is a brand you should work towards building. People should feel your brand whilst going through the product’s description.
- Your product descriptions must be clear and concise.
The description of each product must highlight its features and also give details of the benefits buyers stand to gain from purchasing the products.
- Your product descriptions must be unique.
Products’ descriptions should also be unique as pages with duplicate content are penalized by Google’s ranking algorithm.
A typical example of an e-commerce product store that follows this principle is New Age Ceo, an e-commerce store that sells kid wears. On their landing page, four products are displayed with the titles:
“NewAgeCeo Mint Tracksuit”
“NewAgeCeo Special Edition Varsity Jacket”
“NewAgeCeo Crop Chenille T-Shirt”; and
“NewAgeCeo Sweater-Black”
These titles are very concise. On further clicking on one of the products, say the New Age Ceo Sweater-Black, the following product description is shown:
NewAgeCeo Sweater-Black.
Lightweight, pullover hoodie
Drawstring hood, ribbed trim, kangaroo pocket.
Unisex fit!
Soft, pre-shrunk cotton blend.
Form Fitted
Midweight, crewneck sweatshirt
Made in USA.
The above 8 sentences have given the prospective buyer clear and concise, yet descriptive, details of the product.
- Make sure you have keywords in your product description
Another thing you should put in mind when creating your product description is Search Engine Optimization. Make sure the descriptions are titled and contained with keywords and phrases that will rank your products.
Using the right keywords would also help project your page as a user-friendly one, especially if your site has internal search tools. Your site visitors will not have to search for long before they find the products they are looking for.
DISPLAYING AVAILABLE ITEMS
People tend to get annoyed when they click on a product they wish to purchase and find out that it is out of stock.
Make sure your products displayed on the product page indicate whether or not they are available. This improves user experiences and prevents your users from wasting their time.
Jluxlabel for instance is an e-commerce store that uses the phrase ‘New Arrivals’ to label goods that just arrived in the store and are still in stock.
Research has shown that people tend to have greater desires for products that are about to get out of stock. So, you should differentiate between available products and those that are unavailable. If possible, state the number of that particular product that is available to create a sense of urgency.
USING THOROUGH IMAGES
- Images must be vivid
Images used to advertise your products must be very vivid. Remember people shopping online do not have the luxury of a thorough physical examination of the product they wish to buy. You should at least bring them close to the reality of the products by putting out thorough images that would create a mental picture of the product they are about to purchase.
- Images must be of high resolution and taken at different angles.
The images should be of high resolution and also taken at different angles to show different parts of the products. If the products are wearable ones, images with people wearing them is a better option as the buyers would appreciate the fitting of the wears the more.
A typical example of a multi-angled imagery representation of products is as practiced by Waistsnatchers here.
You may also provide images with a 2D or 3D view option. This practice is common among e-commerce stores that sell jewelry. Malabar is one of those e-commerce stores.
ADVERTISING WITH VIDEOS
A step further from advertising with pictures is the use of videos. Videos are very effective tools for showcasing your products and in turn, increasing conversion rate.
Several e-commerce stores have experienced a great rise in conversion rates after introducing videos to their product pages.
It has been shown by research that buyers are less likely to return a product if they watched a video about it.
- Videos should be short and descriptive.
Videos should be as short as possible, descriptive. It should also highlight features and uses of the products if it is not a common one.
- Videos should have the right thumbnail.
The thumbnail of your video would go a long way in determining whether or not people would play it. So, your videos must have the right thumbnails.
If your video is going to be a YouTube video it must be edited in such a way that the best options for thumbnails are selected by YouTube.
- Videos should put SEO into consideration.
Your search engine rankings can also be boosted with you adding videos to your product page. This is because the videos will have titles and description tags which are both metadata that boost your Search Engine Optimization. This is why you must consider SEO when creating the metadata (title and description) for your video.
With a video, you have better chances of landing on a Search Engine Result Page because product pages that have video displays are not very many.
DEFINING YOUR RETURN POLICY
- Your return policy should give your customers assurance
In the course of business, you may have to deal with customers that want to return the items they purchased at some point. These customers even before they make a purchase would want to be assured that if something goes wrong along the line, in the course of them doing business with you, you have their back and would be willing to help them.
- Your return policy must be detailed.
Several e-commerce product stores offer free returns and also a return policy would carefully detail that. For instance, Spergo Billionaire contains a return policy on their page under which they carefully detail situations in which you could return a product.
Your business may not offer free returns, but you must make sure you have a clearly defined return policy that contains information such as: who would be paying for the return, the possibility of the return being changed for another item/cash/store credit, or not, the mail class that will be used for the return and any extra fee that may be charged.
Your return policy must be easy to understand. It must not be threatening and you must avoid using legal jargon for writing it. It should be written in the same tone that your customers expect from your product page.
- Your return policy must not come off as being hostile.
In general, try to monitor your words. Avoid the use of certain words that would make you come off as being hostile. Words and expressions such as ‘refuse,’ ‘not our problem,’ ‘entirely your fault,’ ‘we will not assist…’, and so on should be avoided. Do not make it sound like you want to punish them, but rather make it sound like you are eager to assist them.
You should come across as eager to help them make a return instead of sounding like you want to punish them for making the return in the first place. A longer return period may boost your customers’ confidence in your products.
- Your return policy must outline a precise return period
Your return policy should define the period products can be returned. This time frame must be reasonable.
Typically return periods are usually between 14 and 90 days
GIVING OUT FREEBIES; ESPECIALLY FREE SHIPPING
These days people expect free shipping when they shop online. They may even go as far as labeling a shopping which they paid for the shipping as a ‘negative online shopping experience,’ a study has shown.
Customers may abandon sites not offering free shipping for their competitors offering the same. The rate of abandonment would even be worse at high shipping fees.
Research has shown that people’s online purchase is greatly influenced by free shipping. People may even want to shop more from an e-commerce store if they offer free shipping.
- Free shipping should not be done at the expense of your profitability
Free shipping should not be done at the expense of your profitability. You can follow the following business hacks if you want to offer free shipping
- To offset the expense of free shipping, try increasing the product price by a certain percentage.
- Provide free shipping if a certain purchase amount is reached. Amazon.com offers free shipping on orders costing above $35. Yours can be less or more, but make sure you are not running at a loss.
In an article written by Professor David Bell, a professor of marketing at Wharton University, he claims that a $6.99 free shipping offer may be more appealing than a price slash of $10.
- Be open about the specifics of your free shipping offer
You do not have to have a free shipping offer. It is okay if you do not have one. If you are going to charge for shipping, outline it on your product page.
Being open about all expenses is one of the most critical parts of a successful shipping policy.
When it comes to fees, BustedTees.com is upfront. Each delivery option, along with its price, carrier, and estimated arrival date, is displayed on the order form.
- Use zip code databases to determine the extent of your price slash
Use tools that determine these expenses using your consumers’ zip codes because fees such as tax may change depending on the region. Free zip code databases and plug-ins are available from sites like Zippopotamus and GetPostCodes.
DISPLAYING REVIEWS
Customers place significant weight on what others have to say about your items. They read reviews most of the time before making purchases. People are more likely to buy from your site if it displays customer reviews.
- Strategically position your reviews on your product page
Popular e-commerce stores always keep a link to product reviews. In Amazon.com, the link is strategically positioned next to a star rating system based on consumer feedback. You can read all of the reviews by clicking on the link, or you can look at the reviews by clicking on the stars.
Incorporating reviews into your site can also help with SEO because it adds more unique material to your site.
- A few negative reviews also matter!
Don’t be scared to preserve a couple of negative reviews. According to a study conducted by MIT, providing critical evaluations, even if there are few of them, can increase sales compared to only good reviews.
BEING CREATIVE WITH YOUR CALL-TO-ACTION (CTA) BUTTON
Your Call To Action button should direct your customer through the checkout process and to the point of sale. It is a very important element on your product page whose success is influenced by several factors.
Even though there is no exact formula for building the most appealing CTA button, you should make sure you consider its design, size, color, and even copy as this has a significant impact on your conversion rate.
Your CTA button should be placed where it will be noticed. Make sure it stands out by adding white space or separating it from other elements on your page.
- Use action words
Use action words that create a sense of urgency. Commonly used action words include:
- “Add to Cart”
- “Buy Now”
- “Make an Offer”
- “Watch”
- “Start Your Free 30-Day Trial”
- “Get Information and Prices,” etc.
Action words used should be warm and personal rather than generic and too formal. They should replace demands with rewards.
- Keep an eye on the color psychology of your page.
Your CTA should be colored in such a way that it stands out from the rest of your website’s color scheme.
When developing your CTAs, it’s crucial to keep color psychology in mind. Colors are known to elicit specific feelings and perceptions. Colour Meanings has a great post about colors and their meanings. Run your split testing with different colored CTAs with this in mind.
KEEP OPTIMIZING!
Never stop improving on your e-commerce store continuously. Gradually implement the steps that I have detailed in this article, one at a time. In no time, with consistency, you will have a high product page conversion rate and then your e-commerce product page will be a perfect one.
Perhaps you have other conversion tips that you’ve been applying on your e-commerce product page that have not been detailed in this article, do feel free to share in the comment session. I’d love to hear from you!
Connect with Jacoby on his website and social handles for success tips:
www.facebook.com/koolestnerdever
www.facebook.com/Digitalbrandzmarketing/
Be First to Comment