5 Ways to Optimize eCommerce Product Pages (With Examples)

Product pages matter.

I realized the importance of product pages by studying user recordings for my client’s eCommerce sites.

I discovered that when users first land on a new site they scurry around really fast, almost like mice searching for cheese in a maze. They notice a few details, but their primary objective is to confirm if this site has the answer to the question that brought them here.

This rapid movement happens on all pages leading to the product page.

But on the product page something quite different happens.

On the product page, the buyer comes to a grinding halt.

Why?

It's because they know what happens beyond the product page – they need to pull out their credit card.

And this is why the product page matters so much to the marketer.

The product page is the last chance the marketer has to convince and persuade an interested shopper. And as I have seen from hundreds of user recordings, the shopper isn’t even paying much attention before reaching the product page.

So, you can’t afford to have part of your story on your homepage and part of it on the category page because the user will likely have ignored it.

Did you know that 75% of shoppers find product photos to be a major influence on their buying decisions?

And it's not just photos. 74% of consumers who watch an explainer video end up purchasing the product. Adding on to that: 88% of users won't return to a site after a bad experience. This truly shows how crucial a well-designed product page really is.

You need to have your whole story– start to finish– on the product page itself.

In this article, I’ll reveal 5 optimization strategies to maximize product page conversion rates (and increase revenue).

Wait…

What do product pages have in common with Digital Asset Management?

Well, no matter whether you are in the creation, management or distribution phase of digital content, it is all about connecting with your audience and showcasing the value of your product – with the goal of getting customers to buy your product.

Yes, you need pictures of your product in all different sizes and formats so your customers can see what they buy. That’s important.

But images don’t SELL the product alone.

SELLING happens through your product descriptions.

Optimize product descriptions and you’ll generate more sales.

How do you do that?

Let’s take a look.

Picture story

50% of our brain is devoted to image processing.

This means that when the user arrives on your product page their attention is fixated on your product images (as shown in the heatmap evidence below).

*Source:* *https://www.sitecentre.com.au/blog/website-ux-principles*

Aside from the high engagement on the product image and call to action button, what else do you notice?

Here’s what I noticed: There is no engagement on the product description.

This is a problem for the marketer because the product image and button are pulling attention away from the product description, which is where the marketer is presenting the sales pitch.

I have a simple solution for this; the Picture Story.

A Picture Story is a picture with sales copy blended into it.

Here’s an example:

BOOM! is a successful direct-to-consumer eCommerce website.

(the product page below has 55,089 reviews).

Image source: https://www.boombycindyjoseph.com/products/boomstick-trio

The image in the screenshot above just shows the product.

Here’s how it could look like if it was converted into a Picture Story:

Notice the difference? I’ve added copy just above the products.

This selling angle of “Your entire makeup bag, in three sticks” is a powerful idea and is explained in a section within the product description.

But it’s visually separated from the product image.

We simply included it as part of the product image so the shopper can see the product and also understand what makes BOOM! Special.

(side note: BOOM! is not a client of Frictionless Commerce. I am simply using their site to show how we build Picture Stories).

Price Justification

I have been working in the eCommerce space for the last 13 years.

I have seen dozens of customer survey reports.

And in every single report, price is always near the top of the list.

This makes sense. And this is why you need to master Price Justification.

Product descriptions are written in a way that makes the reader feel the product is good value for money. The problem with this approach is that the reader has to go through the description in order to understand the value.

Therefore, a different approach is needed.

We know the buyer is thinking about the cost when they are looking at the price tag.

This is what the user is fixated on when they land on your product page:

So why not address price concerns at that location itself?
Ora Organic (not a client) sells a vegan vitamin D supplement. If we worked on this page, we’d add a Quality Matters link right next to where the price is first mentioned. Like this:

Once clicked, we’ll show this explanation:

In the copy, we explain why the supplements are more expensive.

We justify the price early. And ultimately, it’s about showing they care.

Your Sales Pitch

Now we're getting to the real meat – the sales pitch.

The best pitcher, wins.

Here is how we think about the product description:

The reality is that shoppers are bombarded with hundreds of ads every day.

If they stopped to objectively evaluate the merits of each ad they would be paralyzed – so they don’t.

Instead, our brains have developed mental shortcuts to navigate this neon maze.

These mental shortcuts kick in so fast and operate so deep in our subconscious that shoppers don’t even know they are being used.

There are 100s of mental shortcuts but in the course of the last 13 years, after running countless A/B tests, we’ve identified nine (9) key mental shortcuts shoppers use to grade sales pitches.

(Use these 9 shortcuts as a cheat sheet for your sales pitch to increase conversion rates).

The 9 fundamental truths about shoppers:

They are skeptical of “too good to be true”
They find expertise sexy
Root for people who beat the odds
Are fascinated by surprising details
Are visual animals
Need motivation to break habits
Love personalized experiences
Like knowing they’ve stumbled onto something rare
Must overcome their negative thoughts

The framework above is the basis on which we develop every single A/B test at Frictionless Commerce. It isn’t just a fun marketing list, it’s the culmination of everything we’ve learned.

(It works. We have dozens of case studies to prove it and have examples for each of these nine mental shortcuts in our conversion copywriting guide).

Implied Marketing

Now that the sales pitch has been constructed, we need to make subtle tweaks to it.

There is more marketing today than any point in the past. Each brand is claiming to have the newest tech, lightest materials, best customer support, greatest taste.

When consumers feel they are experiencing ‘marketing speak’ they start discounting the message to counteract the marketer’s typical exaggeration.

The antidote to this is to craft your pitch using implied messaging.

I’ve created a short video for you that explains more:

(Enjoy the video? Get more buyer psychology tips by subscribing to my channel).

Back to implied marketing…

Let’s say you are an energy drink mix company and want to let the world know how great your product is.

Here is the stated version of the pitch:

THERE ARE OVER 122 ENERGY DRINKS ON THE MARKET. THEY ARE ALL TERRIBLE.

Not bad, right?

But it feels like “marketing language”.

Here is the implied version of the pitch:

THERE ARE OVER 122 ENERGY DRINKS ON THE MARKET. WE’VE TRIED THEM ALL.

The implied scenario isn’t saying we’re better than the competition.

It just states, “we’ve tried them all.”

When the buyer reads this, they have to fill in the empty space themselves. So, they fill it in with, “We’ve tried them all. Ours MUST be better than the 122 we tested.”

In essence, the reader spells out the punch line by themselves.

Add Feedback Beacons

How do you know if crucial aspects of your sales pitch are resonating with potential buyers?

Most brands determine this is by looking at their overall site conversion rate.

If the overall conversion rate is good, then they conclude the page is working.

But this is only presenting the overall picture.

It's possible that one part of the sales pitch is doing incredibly well (in terms of persuading the buyer) but another part of the sales pitch is missing the mark.

As a marketer, my job is to continue refining/enhancing concepts that show promise while eliminating ones that don’t. In this scenario I’d want to enhance the part of the sales pitch that’s working and kill or rework the part this isn’t.

But how does the marketer identify what’s working and what isn’t?

Here’s how we do it.

Next to the most important aspects of our sales pitch, we add feedback beacons.

Here’s a practical example of a test we did for PillowCube.com.

One of the ideas in our test was Price Justification. In the Price Justification lightbox, we added a section that talks about our philosophy for building incredible products and our commitment to pushing the limits:

At the bottom of the explanation, you will see {Yes} / {No} buttons.

These have been added as feedback beacons.

Clicks to the buttons are recorded in the back end.

Now the marketer can know if the potential buyer was satisfied by the explanation presented.

If the number of votes for {No} aren’t incredibly small (relative to {Yes} votes) we can conclude the buy wasn’t impressed with the explanation presented.

This is the ultimate marketing cheat code because now, if the {No} votes are high, I can rewrite this section and retest it without having to reconstruct my whole concept.

Conclusion

Humans are complex.

And that’s why there is no silver bullet to increasing conversion rates on eCommerce product pages.

What you have to do is experiment, collect data, analyze and improve – page by page.

Fortunately, I’ve done the hard work for you.

The 5 techniques shared in this article are a culmination of everything I’ve learned over 13 years in marketing. I hope they’ve inspired you to try a new approach to how you do marketing in your organization.

Test them out, find out what works and do more of it – and let me know on LinkedIn.

Resources you’ll love: