Good UX can literally multiply revenues overnight. Consider this – the average conversion rate of an ecommerce product page across industries is 2.35%. In contrast, the top 10% of sites convert at nearly five times this rate at 11.45%.
What separates these high converting product pages from the average ones is a deeper understanding of buyer psychology and elements that make them trust your business and buy your products.
Read also: The Best Product Page Design Examples You’ll Want to Copy
In this article, we will take apart the average ecommerce product page and identify the elements that separate it from the high converting ones.
Main Elements of a High Converting Ecommerce Page
Product Title
The product title is important for two reasons. Firstly, it helps with ecommerce SEO (or ASO as the case may be).
Search engines need clear product headings to understand what the specific page is about. More importantly though, a clear product name tells a visitor what the product is all about. Take the example of these two product pages below.
Both these pages sell the same product (“Belvedere Colombo Hornback Crocodile Shoes” to be exact). Yet, in the first example, the product name only reads “Belvedere Shoes” while the latter has the exact product details listed in the name.
For some context here, Belvedere is the name of the shoe brand. There are dozens of shoes sold under this brand and by only listing the brand name here, the page on the left does not give the search engines enough information about the product being sold.
From a buyer’s perspective too, the page on the left does not offer enough information for them to click through and visit the page.
Product Description
The product description serves the same purpose as product name – it helps the search engines gather more details about the page. It is important to include all the right keywords and phrases that will help the algorithm understand the page better.
From a buyer’s perspective, what matters is how well the product description is organized. A prospective buyer needs a product page to answer specific questions they may have about the product.
This could be things like the material used to make the product and technical specifications as well as other details that communicate how the product solves a buyer’s problems.
In the above example, the product on the left has a one line description which is essentially something that must have been the product name instead. What you see on the right is from Amazon.
The description here contains specific reasons why a prospective buyer would be interested in this particular brand of earphones – the sound quality, the build quality and the style.
In addition to this, Amazon also has a lengthy description on the second fold that includes the tech-specs. The description thus not only helps the geeky buyers get all the information that they need for their purchase, but is also comprehensive enough for search engines.
Product Image
A lot of ecommerce stores do not make their own products. They either source from a supplier or sometimes even dropship directly from the distributor to the customer.
As a result, the product image used on the site is often what is provided by the supplier or distributor. These photos are often not captured under the right lighting and are not of a resolution high enough to permit zooming.
This might also interest you: How to Take Product Photos that Sell
From a buyer’s perspective, such images add no value and do not contribute towards a purchasing decision.
What you see above is a comparison between two websites selling false eyelashes.
To be honest though, the website on top is not the worst example for product images. They have a high-resolution image of the product which is certainly a good thing. However, if you are a first time buyer of this product, the image offers no perspective on how it makes your life better.
The buyer is perhaps left with a few questions – would a semi-circular eyelash fit them? How long are each of these eyelashes? Wouldn’t false eyelashes that are too long make you look silly?
In sharp contrast, the product image on the second website answers any question a prospective buyer might have. The image in this case is in fact an interactive slider and a buyer may click and drag the slider to see the ‘before and after’ effects of using the false eyelashes.
A picture is worth a thousand words and this is certainly a powerful way to use images to demonstrate the impact of your product.
Call-To-Action Buttons
Buyers typically go through a moment of ‘purchase anxiety’ before they place an order. This is why many websites choose to display an ‘Add to cart’ option instead of ‘Buy now’.
Users are more comfortable clicking on the ‘Add to cart’ button since they know that they can still choose not to buy after clicking the button. However, this also increases navigation which tends to bring conversion rates down.
The right CTA will not only assuage your buyers and help bring their anxiety down, but also minimize navigation.
In this case, we are comparing two websites selling a brand of men’s belts. The page on the left has two CTAs – ‘Add to Wish List’ and ‘Add to Cart’. The page on the right is from eBay and has four CTAs although only two are prominent – ‘Buy It Now’ and ‘Add to Cart’.
In the first instance, neither of the two buttons let the buyer make the purchase immediately. In both these cases, the buyer is expected to add the product to a list and make the purchase at the very end. While this may perhaps contribute to higher order value, they also have an equal chance of bringing down conversions because of the additional navigation required.
EBay on the other hand has two prominent buttons to cater to the two kinds of customers. Those who are in the purchasing mindset may click on the ‘Buy It Now’ button to go ahead and place an order rightaway.
Other visitors who are still contemplating (or have purchasing anxiety) may click on the ‘Add to Cart’ button.
Supporting Information
Speaking of purchasing anxiety, there are a few more points to note here. In the screenshot above, you will also notice the ‘30-day returns’ policy prominently showcased on the eBay website.
This, along with other messages like ‘Free Shipping’ and ‘Powered by VISA’ exist to alleviate anxiety among buyers. Such messages also help establish credibility which contribute towards higher conversions.
Besides the points above, a high converting ecommerce page also needs to work on building customer trust and establishing credibility through third party ecommerce reviews, social proof and easy customer services channels (like live chat or toll-free phone support).
Final Thoughts
The bottom line here is to rip apart every component of your site and identifying the flaws with it and features that would make it better and conducive to higher conversions.
A continuous process of testing and experimenting on the various components will slowly but surely take your website towards the conversion rate achieved by the top sites in your industry.
About the author: Anand Srinivasan is the founder of Hubbion, a suite of free business apps for project management, email discovery, etc.
