True or false? All product pages are made equal.The answer? No, not exactly...Although many modern product pages are made to look the same through pre-built website templates, not all implement best practices and user experiences that help drive positive customer experience.Since product pages are arguably the most important pages on your ecommerce site we want to share 2021 best practices and additional techniques you can use to persuade visitors to purchase and provide a top-notch UX experience that drives sales.2021 Product Page Best PracticesTruth: An ecommerce product page can often make or break a sale. Just like if a website page takes too long to load, having a clear and visually appealing product page will greatly reduce the click-out rate of a shopping experience. To make sure you are up to date, review best practices below to refresh or skip down to our Optimized Strategies for Modern Product Pages!
Let’s take a look at the best practices, first:Clearly State Basic Information and NavigationWhen structuring your product pages, it’s important to show the basic shopping information clearly. Before a customer clicks on “Add to Basket” they need to ensure they can see these key basic pieces of information:
- Name of the product
- Price
- Availability
- Sizing
- Variant of Product like Color/Pattern
- “Add product to cart” or equivalent
Although this seems pretty basic, ensuring basic information and easy navigation happens during a shopping experience is huge for user experiences.Create Engaging and Informative Product PhotographyThe perceived value of your products is often judged on the quality of your visual content. That means having high-quality product photography can be a driving factor for sales. In fact, visuals prove to be one of the strongest factors on visual shopping platforms like Instagram, Tik Tok, and Pinterest.With that said, customers are banking their purchases off visuals you share, so there is an added responsibility to share truly representative photos of products you sell. So, best practices require businesses to create content that illustrates all facets of your product.Different photo styles can convey a variety of different information about your product. By mixing and matching these three types of photography in your ecommerce storefronts, you’ll give shoppers a well-rounded understanding of your product:Studio PhotographyStudio shots are at the core of product photography. These are shots of your product on a plain background with plenty of light to highlight and give your customers a glimpse of your product.Studio shots are a simple way to show potential customers what you’re selling. The clearness, lighting, and simplicity are really what will draw in your customers, especially when they’re looking at thumbnails. The key is simplicity.Lifestyle PhotographyLifestyle shots are the photos that help inspire your customers to purchase and make them feel like they “need” to have the product in their own personal lives. These are the stylized photos that showcase products the way they are intended to be used/look.This inspiration style of photography is why social platforms like Pinterest do so well. You are setting up products in a visually appealing way to help sway shoppers to make a purchase from your store. With Lifestyle photos, it is important to be thoughtful with your styling but if styling is tough for you, you can always take a more simple approach to Lifestyle product photography. The simple definition can be that you have a product worn or used by a model. This helps customers see how the products are worn, how they fit, how they scale to a human body, etc. In short, on a psychological level customers want to see products as it would appear in their own lives.Scale PhotographyA scale photo of your product is one that visually communicates the size of your products.Showing scale in your product photography helps put your customers at ease! So think to include enlarged photos for detailing, sizing guides about models, and other scale models to help people gauge product.Compel Through ReviewsAlthough the product and the photography should speak for themselves, product pages work even better with customer reviews—even just star ratings! In reality, shoppers now almost never purchase a product without knowing more background information so the immediate benefit of reviews is that they immediately share positive associations and convince shoppers it is a “safe” buy. Another added benefit to reviews on product pages is you are also helping the store’s searchability online! If customer feedback appears on each product’s page, reviews can help pages be found on search engines via unique keywords! Create Content Above The Fold“Above the fold” is an old phrase that dates to when newspapers were the main source of daily news. Newspapers quickly realized that if they wanted to sell papers, they would need to put all of their most important headlines in this area above the fold to attract customers.This concept carries over to the digital world in that important information needs to be at the top of the page without scrolling. As a best practice, yes you should make the top of your page all about value propositions and enticing people to engage further but know people are accustomed to scrolling and it’s okay to space things out strategically! In fact, one study found that, on mobile, half of users start scrolling within 10 seconds and 90% within 14 seconds.We live in a world of scrollable information in feeds, so plan for impact above the fold but do not be afraid to expand beyond it. Above the fold is an outdated concept to strictly follow! Focus on putting the RIGHT information above the fold. Inspire Sales Through Urgency Urgency is one of the most effective ways of boosting conversions on your product pages. As a business, you want to create a sense of product movement, popularity and social “FOMO” to drive sales. To do this well be sure to utilize the following techniques on your website:
- Show how many people have recently bought a product
- Put a timer on keeping the item in a shopping cart
- Include alerts about limited stock, like “Only 1 left. Buy now!”
- Guarantee same or next day delivery for an order made within a specific time
- Show the number of people viewing an item
By driving the idea that products are moving quickly and using interactive pop ups, you will greatly inspire potential customers to buy sooner rather as a means to not miss out on products they love.Since we are talking about taking quick action, let’s take a look at more tactics you can actively try in your website's product pages this year!
7 Optimized Strategies for Modern Product Pages
As we look beyond the best-practice basics, take a look at creative ways you can deepen your product page impact with these persuasion strategies: 1. Feature User Generated ContentOn top of sharing your own branded photos of products as discussed above, many businesses find success in featuring UGC (User-Generated Content) like Instagram photos as they carry a large social proof for your product!Consider including an Instagram plugin featuring people who have bought/worn the products as it helps build engagement and allows customers to see real-life product images! As people want to see themselves in the content they consume, sharing “real” customer photos make the product that much more real in their own lives! 2. Create Upsell Opportunities Through Bundling As many businesses have products that work well together, think through giving potential customers bundling options with other products to create a more “complete” purchase experience. So for example, if you have a sugar scrub that works well with or is part of a set, why not offer bundling options where customers have buy the full set or part of a set?By offering bundle options businesses can:Enhance the customer experienceMitigate decision exhaustionIncrease order value Understand the products purchasedWhen you make the effort to better inform customer on product variants, they tend to be happier and feel more supported to have a better customer experience. 3. Offer Related Products We have all shopped for something that has quickly sold out, but you do not have to lose the sale there! Show customers similar products or alternatives! (or enable them to sign up for a reminder in case the item reappears)By including an email opt-in form, along with suggestions of similar products, you can effectively take advantage of what would otherwise be “lost” traffic! Think to include options like:Customers also liked...People also viewed...Commonly pairs well with...Offer color variants…Think outside the initial product inquiry and inspire customers to scroll through other products.4. Offer Discounts On Product PagesSince viewing products on product pages is one step closer to clicking “add to cart” it might be best to place discount codes to these pages rather than main pages to better influence purchases. With 92% of consumers in the U.S. using coupons when making purchases last year, this will be an important element to add to product pages! To do this, simply offer a discount code in exchange for emails or phone numbers! This can also be a place to share if they have earned “free shipping” or are close to earning free shipping with only $___ left to go! Implementing a discount strategy adds a layer of time sensitivity to your customers’ purchasing journey and it can lower your cart abandonment rate. Make sure your offers are easily accessible with a promo code line!5. Add Wish ListsAs customers might not be ready to purchase now, providing a way for potential customers to collect and save items in a profile will help customer experience, reduce abandonment and improve retargeting efforts. 6. Include Return and Exchange PoliciesUnlike shopping in person, when you browse online, you can’t pick up the product. You can’t touch it or hold it in your hands so all you have is the website content a business provides.As a business looking to minimize purchasing friction and risk, providing a great return and exchange policy will be extremely helpful. Good return policies show that you prioritize the customer experience and that you're confident about your product. Return policies immediately lower potential risk and therefore help customers feel more confident about purchasing. 7. Collect Purchasing Decision DataKnowledge is power, so people's product preferences while they shop.There are multiple options for businesses to collect meaningful data about customer preferences. One of the most popular we see at Ampry is adding buttons to shopping pages that ask for customer feedback and opinions like “What color do you like best?” As customers react nothing happens on their end but the site owners start to gather customer data that can help formulate categories like “most popular” for businesses. When gaining these insights, you can then use it to create content and strategies more likely to close sales.Product Pages to Make the SaleAs the marketplace is full of competition, you want to ensure your product pages provide a seamless experience for customers. Our hope is that the above tactics give you not only a basic checklist of things to have on product pages, but inspire you to try new strategies to deepen customer experiences with your brand. If you want to work with an agency that has a long history of improving customer experiences on product pages and websites, reach out to us or sign up for Insights Newsletter to better improve your conversions. To you what makes for a good product page? What elements do you find most helpful? Comment and share your favorite features below!