You’ve invested in marketing and advertising. Traffic to your online store is better than it’s ever been. But sales? Not quite what you were expecting.
Why? The answer may be there, in front of you. There, on your screen: it’s your product pages.
Here are a few common mistakes that may be standing in the way of converting your site visitors to buyers.
Not Focusing on the Products
While the site has to be visually appealing, you can’t forget about the user experience – how your customers navigate your site to find the products they want, get the merchandise in the shopping cart, and checkout.
A good default is to keep the site simple – don’t add stuff that may detract from your selling merchandise.
Terrible Product Images
Do you like buying things sight unseen? Your customers don’t either. Poorly photographed products or images that a just too small or blurry can kill conversions like a plague. They don’t adequately convey the merchandise and can ultimately dull your brand.
What can you do about it? Outsourcing is always an option, but not every ecommerce retailer can afford to make that investment. Another option? Do it yourself, but do it much better than you were doing it before.
Once you have those beautiful product pictures, include more than one image. Customers can’t touch your product, so they want to see it from every angle. And consider close-ups to point out the finer details.
Include Unique Selling Points and FAQs
Provide detailed and engaging product content that highlights your products’ benefits, features, specifications, and unique selling points. Interesting and relevant copy will help keep your reader engaged.
Be careful not to overdo it. People don’t want to read 1,000 words on why your product is the best.
Better yet, make the pages scannable and include plenty of white space. Use bullet points, headings, subheadings, and short paragraphs to make your content easy to read and scan.
Always include a product FAQ at the bottom for those shoppers who need to know more. This way you can avoid cluttering your product page.
Not Including Related Products
Similar or complimentary items are placed near each other in a traditional retail store. This allows the customer to peruse and compare to make the right buying decision and possibly purchase something they had not previously thought about getting. How can you translate this in-store experience to your online shop?
Use a product recommendation tool. Your customers will get a more personalized shopping experience, while you could ultimately see a higher average order value.
Optimize for Mobile
Optimize your product pages for mobile devices, as more and more shoppers use their smartphones to browse and buy online.
This means downsizing your image files. There is a delicate balance between file size and image quality. Play around with your settings to find the right balance for your product images. And don’t forget about file type. A different file type might produce better results depending on your particular image.
Some general guidelines are:
- Use JPEG format for most product images, as it offers good quality and a small file size. Use PNG format for images that need transparency, such as logos or icons.
- Use a square (1:1) aspect ratio for product images that appear in thumbnails, carousel ads, collection ads, or shops. The minimum image size is 500 x 500 pixels, but we recommend 1024 x 1024 pixels for the best quality.
- Use a larger aspect ratio (such as 1.91:1) for product images that appear in single-image ads or banners. The minimum image size is 500 x 500 pixels, but we recommend 1200 x 628 pixels for the best quality.
- Use a large size (such as 800 x 800 or 1000 x 1000 pixels) for product images that have a zoom or detail view feature on your website. This will allow customers to see more details of your products.
- Aim for an image file size below 70 KB, without sacrificing quality. You can use Photoshop’s “Save For Web” tool or other online tools to compress your images.
A good-looking site is non-negotiable, but design can often run wild. Sometimes, we get so excited about what we can do, like adding dancing elves or falling snow, that we sometimes forget about the people or your potential customers who are actually using the site and why they are there.