Getting a potential buyer to land on your product page means you’ve done something right. It means that someone is interested in what you sell, and there’s a good chance they’ll buy from you.
That means your product page had better be good. You’ve only got a couple of seconds to grab their attention and convince them to give you some of their hard-earned paychecks.
The job of your product page is to cause everyone who views it to say one of two things:
- “This is exactly what I want! Hurry up and take my money.”
or - “This isn’t what I want... Time for me to go somewhere else.”
Let’s take a quick look at a Woot.com product page and see what is going on that works well.
- The product name is clear. This isn’t a weird, in-warehouse title. It’s meant for humans.
- Shipping and scarcity-creating information right beside the big, obvious buy button.
- Funny stories that match their brand personality leading into a reason why you should buy this product.
- Well-formatted, benefit-focused descriptions.
- Multiple white backgrounds, high-quality product images.
- Social proof in a quick-glance format.
- Relevant Upsells increase revenue without being obtrusive.
Why is it so important to optimize product pages?
Let’s think about the possible outcomes when someone views your product page:
- The best possible outcome. They make a purchase, love it, leave a great review, tell their friends and the entire internet how wonderful you are, and then buy from you again.
- They understand that what they are looking at isn’t right for them, and they go on their way. This isn’t really a negative outcome, though, because it’s better to have a non-buyer than an unhappy buyer.
These first two outcomes happen when your product page gives them all the information they need to make a buying decision and they understand exactly what they are getting. The product page is performing perfectly. But… what if it doesn’t?
- They don’t get enough information to make a good decision, so they don’t buy from you. This is a lost sale. The product page didn’t do its job well enough. You would have made money here if the product page was better.
- The worst case scenario. They buy from you, aren’t happy with their purchase, and return it. Now, you refund their money, restock or scrap the product, deal with a negative review, and accept that they may tell others not to buy from you. The word-of-mouth marketing impact of a bad experience is real, but so is the opposite - a referral program ensures that the positive experiences generate recommendations just as reliably.
These negative outcomes happen when you haven’t conveyed your product in a way that matters to the buyer. The buyer has to make a decision based on the information you give them.
Good product pages make more sales. They lead to more happy customers, more good reviews, and a more profitable store. If you want to improve your conversion rates, product pages are a great starting point. Alongside product page optimization, tools to boost your conversion rates that reward customer advocacy give you a sustained lift well beyond the initial visit.
What makes a good product page?
Good product pages are focused. They show us all the information we need to know about a product. They convey a sense of the ideal buyer and how the product will meet their needs.
The content of your product pages must communicate everything that a buyer needs to know about your product before they make a purchase decision:
- What it does
- Who it’s for
- How much it costs
- What makes it different
- What it’s made of
It’s a lot of message to get across in little space, but if anyone is going to give you their money, it’s your job to make sure they feel good about doing it.
Luckily, you’ve got powerful tools to make that happen.
Images convey information about your products quickly and easily to buyers. High-quality images are a must-have for a high-performing product page.
Words that speak to and focus on your buyers show the difference between you and the competition. Words allow you to tell stories and create a connection between the product and the buyer. Injecting brand personality humanizes the sale and adds to the gap between you and your competition.
Design is the visual language you use to order your content. Good product pages are easy to navigate, uncluttered, and attractive. This article is focused on optimizing the actual content of your product page, but here are some resources for improving design:
- 10 Design Tricks To Increase eCommerce Store Conversion
- How to Create a Picture-Perfect Product Page for Your Ecommerce Business
- 9 Best Practices to Optimize your eCommerce Product Page
A picture is worth 1000 sales: Best practices for product images
The biggest thing we lose when we buy online is the ability to see something in real space. To touch it, to feel its weight, to gauge its quality. We can’t fully overcome that. But we can make sure that our product images are top-notch and relay every possible bit of information about the things we sell.
Quality
Whether you are shooting your own product photos or hiring a professional, quality matters. Investing in photo quality is one of the single most important things to optimize the performance of your product pages.
- White backgrounds put the focus on the product. They give you a uniform look, make for easy editing, and avoid distraction. Clean, evenly-lit, shadow free images show your product at its best.
- High resolution lets viewers zoom in and see all the juicy details. Zoom quality is important. Buyers want to know exactly what they’re getting, and grainy images with indistinguishable details will cost sales. Uniformly sized, square images between 1000 and 1600 pixels per side are ideal (but always make sure to check your marketplace’s requirements if you’re not self-hosting your eCommerce site).If creating great images that don’t slow down your page speed seems daunting, Pixc can help you create perfectly sized, beautiful product photos that sell.
- Lighting is critical. Small differences in lighting can give your products an entirely different personality and change the way buyers perceive quality.
Context
White backgrounds are great for showing off products themselves, but there is a solid case to be made for providing context in your photos as well. Using intentional backgrounds and setups, you can add brand personality and build a connection with the viewer that white backgrounds just can’t convey.
- Show your product in use, if possible. This gives it a sense of being a viable solution to your customers’ problems, shows scale, and puts a concrete image of themselves using the product into their mind.
- Appeal to your target demographic by including your product in settings and scenarios they are familiar with. Avoid conflicting imagery or distracting backgrounds. The product is still the focus.
- Match the featured product with upsells and accessories to create a complete image and framework for the product in the viewer’s mind.
Completeness
To combat your buyer’s inability to pick an object up and examine it closely, you’ll need more than just one or two images, no matter how high-quality they are. Think like a customer, and ask yourself what you would want to see before you buy.
- Take pictures from every angle. Even better, use 360 degree photography to give customers control over their view. Seeing every aspect of a product makes buyers more confident that they won’t waste time or money.
Source: Pixc
- Consider your product uses. If you have a package or all-in-one product, show all the individual elements. Selling something where the internals matter to the buyer? Open it up and show them the good stuff.
- User-generated images can be used directly or to give you ideas for new product photos. No one knows what your buyers want or how they use a product better than they do.
Words tell the story… of why someone should buy from you
The pen is mightier than the sword, and great product copy is mightier than fear of the buy button. As a consumer, I will spend hours scouring product descriptions and specifications before I make an important purchase. Stores that communicate the value of their product win the sale.
Product Name
Your product name should accurately convey what it is that you’re selling without being overly technical. Having product names that match what buyers will search for increases your chances of showing up in a prominent spot in search results.
Descriptions
It seems counterintuitive, but product descriptions shouldn’t just describe the product. Chances are, the buyer has other options very similar to what you’re selling. If they don’t feel a connection or see a difference, they’ll go for the lowest price.
- Know your buyer. Descriptions are where buyers make a connection with the product. It’s your chance to make the product stand out to the people that will love it.
- Write descriptions that matter to the people who pay you. Tell a story, convey a sensory experience, evoke an emotion. You want the reader to envision themselves using the product, and being happy about it.
Art of Manliness did this with a Zippo lighter. You can buy some form of Zippo in almost any gas station around the world, what is there to say about this one that could possibly make it unique? But to any man who has read the book they quote in their product description, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, what was just another Zippo has now turned into an emotional must-buy. At the time of writing, the lighter was completely sold out.
- The benefits are the part that matters. Features are product-focused. Benefits are buyer-focused.For any feature that you want to highlight in copy, explain why it matters to your buyers. Boots aren’t just “Double stitched”. They’re “Double stitched to last through years of wear and tear”.
- Don’t talk about quality. Your competitors say they have high quality, too. This is like starting a sentence with “I don’t mean to hurt your feelings, but…”.You should only be selling high quality products. Describe the aspects that make your product great, and let your buyers make their decision.
- Format your descriptions in a way that’s easily readable. Bullet points are great, but even longer descriptions work if they are clear and scannable. Walls of text make buyers close the page, so break them down into short, relevant sentences and paragraphs.Daily deal site Woot.com does a wonderful job of turning features into buyer benefits while also formatting their descriptions personally.
Additional Information
Sometimes, there is more to convey about a product than what fits easily into your product description. If it matters to your buyers, you should find a way to let them know. This could include:
- Manufacturing or harvesting processes
- Materials and ingredients
- Obscure features
- Technical specifications
- Size and sizing information
- Required equipment or accessories
- Assembly or installation guides
Additional information is best placed below the fold, with the focus of the page on the product images and main description. Drop-down tabs, toggles, and in-set sections are a great way to display additional information without cluttering the page.
- Social proof can be added by showing numbers of purchasers, snippets of reviews, or overall ratings of a product. You want buyers to see that other people have purchased and were happy with their decision.
- A service-related copy is important, too. Especially if it’s a buyer's first purchase with you, they want to know what the buying process is going to be like. Pricing, shipping, and any guarantees or warranties should be displayed clearly in prominent positions, preferably near the big button. Knowing this kind of information can secure a sale if the buyer is on the fence.
Conclusion
Optimizing your product pages to make sales doesn’t require a magic touch. All it requires is the willingness to focus on your buyers and on how your products fulfill their wants and needs.
Answer questions, create a desire for the product and show it off at it’s very best. Do those things, and you should have a high-performing product page.
Hey! Improve your product pages further with our Ultimate Storytelling Guide here.