As of 2021, nearly 18.1% of total retail sales across the globe are projected to be carried out through eCommerce. This advent is not new and the upward trend has been consistent for a while. However, the rise of eCommerce sales and the extent to which customers are depending on them have changed drastically in the last couple of years. Even then, the odds of being able to run a successful eCommerce store are fairly low considering the high competition and low switching costs for customers.
After all, only 1.94% of total website visitors go ahead and make a purchase. This means that for every 51 website visits, you get only 1 transaction. With such odds, every eCommerce store needs to focus on providing a top-notch user experience to its customers. Product pages are instrumental in defining the quality of user experience of an eCommerce store, and here are a few ways they can be made powerful.
1. Place Prominent Call-to-Action Options
Your product page is where your customer is going to spend a lot of time during their decision-making process. Since it might make or break a potential transaction on your store, product pages should be designed to be actionable — from start to finish. Optimizing your call-to-action (CTA) buttons should be at the top of your priority list when you are designing a product page, as they prompt users to take action.
Your content should complement your CTA buttons, and making them prominent is a great way to get your customers’ attention. Use bold colors to highlight your CTA buttons so that they stand out from the rest of the content, and ensure that this color should align with the color scheme of your website while triggering the desired emotion in your customer.
Pro tip: Even simple and common CTA options such as “Add to Cart” or “Buy Now” can be impactful if presented with the right content and placed at the right places within the product page.
2. Create Crisp and Informative Product Descriptions
If you have not already heard this umpteen times — product descriptions are the most significant part of your product pages. The copy on your product page is impactful and highly related to the conversions that you are targeting through the product page.
Nearly 81% of online shoppers research products online before purchasing, making it quite important for eCommerce retailers to have a well-defined product description. After all, chances are that your product description becomes the decisive factor for the customer to choose your store to buy products from.
Your product description needs to be crisp and convey the primary features and benefits of your product seamlessly while meeting the required SEO standards. While there is no specific tone or structure for how product descriptions should be written, they should ideally reflect your brand voice and language. Convey all the important information that your customer needs to know to make a purchase decision, and complement it with a CTA button so that they can act on it immediately.
Pro tip: Attempt to bridge the gap between features and benefits through your product descriptions and avoid using jargon that could confuse your buyers.
3. Include Plenty of Images and some Videos
So, when you shop online and land on a product page, what is the first thing you look at? The product image right? Because it showcases how the delivered product will look. One of the things that makes the experience of brick-and-mortar store shopping so satisfying is that you can touch the product and scan it till you are satisfied. The element that replaces this experience in online shopping is the product image.
Your product image needs to be high-resolution and zoomable, for a smoother buying experience. The images you include have a major impact on the overall UX of the website, and it is highly recommended that you click images from various angles to give that extra edge of confidence to your customers.
Remember: you need to accomplish this while ensuring that it does not negatively impact your page load time. You can include videos too, which can offer a better visual reference of your product to customers, but here too, the page load time should be taken into consideration.
Pro tip: Give context to your images through models if your product is wearable, or in other cases through furniture or complementary setup, so that the customer can have a better idea of whether the product is a good fit.
4. Update Stock Levels in Real-time
Another great way to amplify the quality of your product page is by keeping it live and updated in real-time. This might seem like a small factor, but it can make a world of difference when the customer is informed and is looking to make a definite purchase.
Keeping the product page updated requires you to make price revisions as per the vendor requirements, and put up brand promotional offers if applicable. The other important factor here is managing the stock levels appropriately and giving accurate information about them to your customers. Maintaining and monitoring stock levels is an important part of the eCommerce fulfillment process and it is, after all, one of the core functions of an eCommerce store.
Let your customers know when the stock levels for specific products that they might have wishlisted are low. Make it a point to also indicate the same on the product page so that the customer is aware that if the purchase is postponed, the product might go out of stock.
Pro tip: Find creative alternatives to writing “the product is about to go out of stock”. It renders a unique spin to the otherwise procedural update.
5. Help Personal Shopping Options
Shopping can be a daunting task for many. Not all your customers are people who love buying things and there are even more people who hate the process. For such people, traditional retailers offer the alternative of shopping assistants or personal shoppers who help at every step of the way.
While replicating this in an eCommerce store is not always feasible, they have the option of adding features that can make the shopping experience for such customers easier. In some cases, it can be as easy as having the right filtering and sorting options. For others, it could include showing the generation direction in which the customer can explore, or displaying products that are related to the ones that your customer is interested in.
Pro tip: Enabling live chat has become a great and simple way for eCommerce companies to provide personal shopping assistance to customers.
Closing Remarks
eCommerce shopping has its share of pros and cons for customers who are used to shopping by traditional means. For such customers, having a stellar user experience can make all the difference. Since customers are likely to spend most of their shopping time on product pages, it is important to curate them with a goal-oriented approach in mind. Even having the right buttons, descriptions, and images can help your customers decide that they want to give your online store a chance.
Author bio
Tim Robinson is Digital Marketing Manager at PACK & SEND, a 25+ years old and respected brand in ecommerce, logistics, and freight delivery solutions. Tim has 20 years of combined experience in sales and marketing. Logistics, D2C, franchising, business planning, and operations management are his core expertise. Connect with Tim on LinkedIn.
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