10 Best Practices for an Effective Product Page
November 13, 2019
If you already have a physical store, then going online to expand your market reach is the obvious next step. Having an online presence will open up markets that you otherwise wouldn’t have access to.
Making your products available online means taking your brand to the international stage. That can be very exciting, as it has the potential to dramatically increase the growth of your business and your brand on a global scale.
Once you have an e-commerce site, a visitor lands on your website, wanders around the various category pages, and then clicks on a product. It’s the moment of truth, and you have to have a well-designed e-commerce product page to increase the stickiness factor. You need to make sure that your product page is stuffed with information. Since visitors cannot touch, wear, or feel your products, it is the product page’s design and content that determine whether or not a visitor turns into a buyer.
In this article, we’ll look at 10 best practices to improve how your website displays products, presents product descriptions, and showcases positive customer reviews.
- Create Readable Product URLs
This is a simple fix, but it makes a huge difference to visitors navigating your site. You shouldn’t allow your product pages to generate long, unreadable URLs like this:
www.verylongurl.com/products/838374hfjdkdisjjdmdmmmdskjfuf76d
Instead, aim for shorter and more concise URLs, like this:
www.shorturl.com/products/black-shoes
Short, readable URLs make it easier to organize your site because you can clearly read what the product is with each link. They also make it easier for users to share links to your products, which can help with SEO.
- Use Big and High-Quality Product Images
Research has shown that content that is supported by relevant photos gets 94% more views than content that is not. This figure holds even greater significance when it comes to e-commerce product pages.
The image on your product page visually communicates the details of your product to users.
Images have a huge impact on the usability and overall UX of the website, as well as increasing conversions and sales. Therefore, one of the main e-commerce product page best practices is to use an image that is larger, high-resolution, and zoomable. Also, use multiple photos of the product from different angles to give visitors an overall look at the product.
You should also consider image optimization so that it does not take up a huge amount of storage space on your site. If images are not properly optimized, they will take time to show, and most users will not appreciate the extra time it takes the pages to load.
- Include Accurate and Informative Product Descriptions
Accurate product descriptions communicate value, get people excited, and make them switch from visitors to customers instantly.
Keep the product description short or long, depending on the need, and make sure to include important keywords so that the page ranks well in search engine rankings.
It pays to go through all of your products and write an original description for each one. Having unique descriptions is a great way to make your site stand out from others, and it also shows that you have put effort into your online store. This might mean a little extra work, but the end result will be a product page that looks amazing.
Mention product benefits and features: A feature is essentially a fact about your product. The benefit answers how a feature is useful for them, your customers. Tell them exactly "how" a particular feature is useful for them and "why" they should make this purchase. Product descriptions that bridge the gap between features and benefits can lessen the buyer’s guilt and ease the buying decision. For example, mentioning that a certain 100% organic cotton shirt is sweat-free and anti-allergenic justifies its high price.
- Display the Price
This tip sounds like it’s not a hard thing to remember. If you don’t want potential customers to leave, it is very important to show how much your product costs with up-to-date pricing information.
The price that you display must be the price that the customer sees when they finally hit the checkout page. Nothing kills a product-based website faster than badly implemented pricing structures, so make sure that all of this data is properly entered and that your customers are getting correct pricing information when they complete their purchases.
If you have any special offers, you should make sure they’re being processed correctly before you start the promotional period. If you have discounts that do not activate at checkout, you can be sure that customers will not finalize the sale, and you may even lose them forever.
- Make the Size Selector User-Friendly
Size is one of the major deciding factors for anyone who comes to your website to make a purchase.
Size (small, medium, large, and extra large) varies for people from different parts of the world. Your product page should have a size selector and a size guide that will tell them the measurements in inches or centimeters.
- Add Prominent Call to Action
One of the most important elements on an eCommerce product page is the call-to-action (CTA) button.
A CTA could be an add to cart button, a buy now button, or anything else. It has to be easily seen and should compel the visitor to act.
When selecting a color for a CTA button, keep in mind that it has to be a color that will target the audience that you are hoping for, and of course, it has to be in harmony with the rest of the color scheme on your website. Ideally, you want the CTA to stand out so that it grabs the customer's attention.
- Effective Title
Beyond the images and descriptions, your product page needs to give a high-level, informative title for the product right off the bat.
Be as accurate as possible with your product titles. If you’re running a website that sells multiple models or many different products in the same general category, you need to make sure that each product is properly labeled so customers can tell one product from another.
The title should be well-written, unique, and concise. You should include all the top features of the product in the title. This also includes ensuring that there are no spelling mistakes.
- Emphasize Customer Reviews and Ratings
One of the most important things on a product page that customers always look into are product reviews. Sharing genuine user feedback builds trust and gives prospective buyers a sense of what to expect in terms of product quality and customer service.
Allowing users to leave comments also helps you gather negative feedback in a timely manner, so problems can be quickly resolved. Comments and reviews on your site may be the best way to learn about product issues.
- Show Users Related or Similar Products
Some users want to look for another product similar to what they’re viewing because it might be out of stock or the size they need is not available. Make sure that similar products are present, so they will not have a hard time searching for similar ones.
This increases customer trust and satisfaction.
- Don’t Forget about SEO
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is essential for your webpage’s visibility and ranking in search engines. It helps optimize your product listings and improve how users are able to search for your products.
Remember to use keywords correctly, especially in product descriptions. There are many SEO guidelines to keep in mind, but remember the basics, such as keywords, header usage, consistent URLs, and creating an effective structure for your content.
If your store doesn’t show up prominently in users’ search results, they’ll never even know it exists, much less be able to buy something from it. You need to optimize your site so that it ranks highly in search results. Keeping an eye on your SEO is the way to do that.
Conclusion
Customers love e-commerce websites that speak directly to them. Making your website requires understanding your visitors’ expectations and then molding it according to their needs.
Every online store is different, with a different set of target audiences, products, specializations, etc. All the best practices mentioned above are very helpful, and you could use them to improve your product pages.
Go4Global is a digital agency offering various online services, including e-commerce website and mobile app development. We create eCommerce sites that are powerful, effective, and affordable. Get in touch with us today and let us help your business succeed online.