Five best practice tips for optimising product pages

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Posted 12 July 2012 12:20pm by David Moth with 1 comment

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Nothing is more frustrating for e-commerce sites than seeing hundreds of customers abandon their basket for no apparent reason.

All the hard work has gone into improving search rankings, driving engagement through social and working out the best PPC strategy, only for potential customers to lose interest once they arrive on-site.

To combat abandonment, one of the key areas that retailers need to focus on is the product page. These need to include a huge amount of product information without appearing too cluttered.

Lingerie retailer Bravissimo was one such company. Using QuBit analytics, it found that 29% of people were exiting the site on product pages, and as many as 30% of users were not navigating below the fold. This meant customers were not seeing the cross-sell or matching items. 

With this in mind, here are some best practice tips for product pages...

Improve product presentation

Feedback showed that Bravissimo users wanted to see more specific product information regarding size and stock availability and more detailed images on the product page. 

First time customers in particular expected the delivery and returns policies to be readily available before making a purchase.

Bravissimo managed to improve conversion rates by relocating product images above the fold and reformatting product and purchase information into tabs. Users were able to answer any product related questions from within the product page as a result of these changes.

Maximise cross-sell opportunities

Bravissimo's analysis of customer feedback found that a number of users were not seeing matching items alongside products searched. These items were 'hidden' below the fold and many people were not scrolling down far enough to see them.

To remedy this, it created an additional call-to-action below existing product details and above the fold, allowing visitors to browse and purchase with greater ease. 

This improvement to the product pages alone resulted in a 13% uplift in conversions across all product traffic which is worth an estimated £2.3m in revenue.

360 views

While most e-commerce sites offer customers a number of images for each product, 360 views are less common. 

Simply Group's research found that there is always an angle customers want to see products from that hasn't been displayed.

Adding 360 views led to a 20% rise in conversion rates for these product pages, and also led to a drop in returns rates.

However, it can be difficult to produce 360 images to the necessary quality, and it is also a costly and time-consuming procedure.

Alternative product images

The Simply Group, which operates several online stores, analysed the effectiveness of images and videos on its sites and found a direct correlation between showing the product in that colour on the page, and the sales of that colour.

By simply adding that colour option to the choice of images on the product page increased sales threefold, so it's well worth the effort of taking another product photo and showing a picture of products in every available colour.

Use of video

Though product videos are becoming more common, a majority of retailers shy away from using them as a way of showcasing their products.

As we highlighted in our blog about product video best practice tips, the impact on conversions is too good to ignore:

• Using video demos of items on product pages increased sales for Zappos by between 6% and 30%. 
• Shoppers who viewed video on Stacks and Stacks product pages were 144% more likely to add to cart than other shoppers.
• On Ice.com, the conversion rate for shoppers viewing video on product pages increased by 400%, while return rates dropped from 12% to 9%. 
• Shoeline.com improved the conversion rate by 44% for product pages containing videos.
• Videos on the simplypiste.com product pages increased conversion rates by 25%, as well as leading to a reduction in the number of returns.

Adding videos can also improve SEO, and answer consumer questions about the product.

This video on the simplypiste website showed shoppers how much the backpack can carry, the number of pockets, zips etc. The addition of videos like this led to a 25% uplift in conversion rates.