CRO Tips & Tricks: Product Page Best Practices

In our previous CRO post, we discussed the importance of site-wide elements like fast load speeds, mobile optimization, and sensible navigation. We also covered homepage features like badges, pop ups, and CTAs.

Now it’s time to get into one of the most important pages on every e-commerce website: the product page.

Whether your e-commerce store has one product or hundreds, the product page is the last page a customer visits before making an add to cart decision -- often just a step or two away from purchase. The role of the product page is to make that add to cart decision as easy as possible for every potential customer. 

Unfortunately, time and time again we see e-commerce brands invest the majority of their time, money, and energy into getting a potential customer to their site and not nearly enough into converting a potential customer into a customer. The difference-maker is usually the product page.

So let’s get into how to optimize your Shopify store’s product page.

 

COVER THE BASICS

Before we dive into some of our favorite conversion rate optimization techniques, we want to start with the essentials. Every product page should include the following:

 

High-Quality Product Photos (and videos where applicable)

We can not stress the importance of high-quality product photography (and videography) enough. There is nothing that will dissuade a potential customer faster than bad product photos.

Here are a couple of recommendations when it comes to product photos:

• If you have multiple products and/or variants make sure all of the images are the same size across the different product pages.

• Use a mix of product stills (just the product with a solid background) and lifestyle photos (people using/interacting with the product).

• If you have photos from Instagram that performed particularly well from an engagement perspective, test using those images on your product page.

 

Kin Euophorics has some sick product photography.

Price

This may sound like a given, but you’d be surprised at how many product pages make it really difficult to find the price of the product. There are definitely different places you can put the price, but it should always be visible on the page from the get-go.

If the product is on sale, be sure to show both the original price (with a strikethrough or something like that -- Shopify can do this for you) and the sale price.

 

Variants

The different sizes, quantities, colors, etc. of a given product should be clear on the product page. Typically, you want to make the most popular variant the default and allow the user to make selections from there.

 

We implemented a feature for Loeffler Randall to dynamically showcase a given product's variants.

Availability

First of all, it should be immediately clear whether or not a given product is in stock. If a product is out of stock, use this as an opportunity to capture an email address via a “let me know when this is back in stock” function.

Using an app like Klayvio can make automated out of stock email flows.

 

More on strategies around scarcity in a bit...

 

Description

The key to a great product description is to think of the questions that a potential customer could have. For example, food products will include the ingredients and apparel products will include the materials.

In and around the product description is a great place to implement features that make for an even better user experience -- think features like size guides, personalization, and product comparisons.

 

LEVEL UP YOUR PRODUCT PAGES

Now that we’ve covered the essentials, it’s time to get into some of our favorite CRO tips and tricks for product pages.

 

Scarcity

As we alluded to in the Availability section of the product page, scarcity can be a powerful tool for merchants. For verticals such as apparel, introducing limited edition variants of popular products can prove to be a great way to drive up conversion rates.

Not only do limited edition products carry an inherent aura of rarity (which can be enough on its own to sway a purchase decision), they are also a great way to encourage returning customers.

 

Reviews

We’ve touched on the importance of reviews before, but it’s a feature we believe is worth mentioning again. User-generated content (UGC) is a proven conversion rate booster and reviews are particularly well-tailored to making a product page all the more compelling.

Reviews/ratings are usually placed on two areas of the product page:

• Under the product name

Birdling showcases product reviews at the top of their product pages.

 

• Below the fold

and the bottom of their product pages.

 

Bundles

Upselling is often one of the biggest difference-makers for merchants when it comes to increasing average customer value, but it can also be a boon for conversion rate as well.

In bundling products together and (in most cases) offering a discount for buying multiple products, merchants can encourage potential customers to spend more than they may have originally planned to. This works especially well with products that are particularly complementary -- think snowboards/bindings/boots, coffee beans/mugs, etc.

 

 Allswell Home bundles their bedding products and attaches a 10% discount.

 

Payment Options/Subscriptions

Providing multiple payment options is a great, high-level way to ensure that any given potential customer can complete a purchase if they choose to. Payment plan providers like Afterpay take the payment option a step further, allowing customers to pay for a product over time.

Similar to bundling, subscriptions often provide an initial savings that incentive potential customers to spend more over the long term. Not to mention, the convenience of a subscription option for products that are used up in regular intervals (coffee, soap, etc.) can make a significant impact on conversion rates.

 

Making CRO Simple

We’ll keep cranking out these tips & tricks articles, but if you’re craving a more personalized CRO experience for your brand we’re ready to chat: team@simplistic.com