When a customer clicks on a product page, it’s like she is in your store, holding your product in her hand, and determining whether or not it is the right product.  BUT-- online customers spend an average of 15 seconds or less on a webpage.  Yup, just 15 seconds!  Are your product pages communicating effectively AND influencing your customers toward a purchase?  Let’s find out!

In this post, we’ll cover:

1. What your customers want to know about a product

2. What makes a great product page

• Imagery

• Videos

• Descriptions

• Add to Cart and Buy It Buttons

• Wishlists and Product Recommendations

3. How to organize your product pages to make it easy for your customer to learn and BUY.

WHAT YOUR CUSTOMERS WANT TO KNOW

Before you identify what you customers want to know, you have to know your customer.  Make sure you write down your target audiences’ buyer personas and their customer journey.  These tools help you understand who you are selling to and what they are thinking at every stage of the decision-making process. 

If you don’t have these mapped out yet, don’t worry, there are plenty of free templates out there for you.  My favorites are Hubspot’s Buyer Persona Tool and Customer Journey Map Templates.

Now let’s go back to imagining your customer in a physical store, holding your product.  Just by holding the product, they’re determining:

Physical Details:  “Do the physical traits meet my ‘buy criteria’?” 

• How big/small is it? 

• How heavy/light is it? 

• What is its shape/color/smell/taste? 

• How does it feel?

• What is it made of?

Features:  “What makes this product special?”

• Is this a brand they know and like?

• Is it made in a special place or a special way?

• Does it do, or have something that is first, best, or unique?

• Does the product have a story behind it?

Benefits:  “Will this product have the effect I am searching for?” 

• Will it make the customer feel a certain way?

• Will it make the customer look a certain way?

• How does it enhance your customer’s life?

Now these are all pretty generic questions, but if you know your customer and your product, you can shape your product page to sell like it is a friendly associate helping your customer.

What makes a great product page?

Your product pages need product images, videos, and descriptions to answer all of the questions above in a way that is consistent with your brand.  Don’t forget the customer needs clear next steps so the product page is not the last page they visit on your site.

Product Imagery:

1. Include multiple images from different angles. Each angle should give customers a different piece of information.

2. Choose a theme with a zoom or a click-to-enlarge function so customers can see details. Images should be high enough quality for proper zooming, but less than 2.5MB in size to ensure the page loads quickly.

3. If possible, include an image that imitates your target customer’s lifestyle. Images taken in context gives your customer a better understanding of the size and scale of your product and helps her visualize owning the product. For a health and wellness product, before and after comparisons are also powerful images that immediately highlight features and benefits.

Product Descriptions:

1. Product title, brand, and price should be at the top of your product page.

2. Write two short sentences that state the greatest benefits your customer will experience with the features they deem most important.

3. Below that, complete the picture with a bulleted list.  Bulleted lists improve your search engine optimization for Google’s featured snippet. The list should have 2-3 words per bullet and include: 

• Material composition

• Care instructions

• Size and fit guide

• Country of origin

• Weight and dimensions

• Directions of use

“Add to Cart” and “Buy Now” Buttons

Add to Cart – Your add to cart button should be the most prominent link on your product page.  Make sure its design is a clear contrast from your background and other text colors, and consistent with your brand.

Buy Now – Most Shopify themes offer a dynamic checkout button where your customer can skip the cart process and go straight to shipping and payment. It’s called accelerated checkout. If you have a popular third-party payment processor like PayPal activated on your site, chances are your customer will have their credit card and shipping address already saved on their account. Place it right below your add to cart button so your customer knows she can easily bypass multiple steps to complete her purchase.

Wish Lists and Product Recommendations

Wish List – Turn those ‘NOs’ into ‘NOT YETs’ by using wish lists.  When she does find the right product, but it’s not the right time, the wish list feature allows her to come back to it later, share with others, or send someone a hint for future gift options.

Product Recommendations - If your customer decides this isn’t the right product for her, give her options.  Product recommendations are a powerful tool keep interested shoppers browsing.  Show her similar products, best sellers, and complementary products that might be better fits.  Added bonus: Product recommendation apps let you know which products your customers are interested in, which can lead to great marketing opportunities!

How to Organize Your Product Pages

Again, the average customer spends 15 seconds on a page. The keys to effective product page organization are making your product page scannable and putting your most important content above the fold. Depending on your theme, you may have more content above the fold than the bottom.

Above the Fold:

• Website Header

• Main Product Image

• Product Name and Brand

• Product Price

• Variant Options

• Quantity Selector

• Add to Cart Button

Below the Fold:

• Alternate Product Images

• Product Video

• Product Description

• Wish List Button

• Other Recommended Products

time to tweak your product page

Product pages are simple to build, but harder to master. To have high-converting pages, all the information your customer needs to know has to be tailored to them, complete, and organized. You got this!

Need to improve more than just product pages?

If you want to take your entire website up a notch, Let’s chat!