Ecommerce companies are expected to spend nearly $1.5 billion on ecommerce platforms this year.
That number is expected to increase to over $2 billion by 2019.
Ecommerce probably won’t see huge jumps that it’s seen the last 20 years or so, but in the coming years ecommerce will continue to be a way many people buy things.
However, just because consumers will shop online doesn’t mean that they’re going to enjoy every ecommerce experience.
Ecommerce user experience, at the basic level, is no different than in-store shopping experience.
A consumer will go into a store that smells bad, looks run down and is poorly organized only if they absolutely can’t live without something that’s inside.
That puts a lot of pressure on the merchandising team. And even then consumers will look for any other option out there that doesn’t provide them with a bad experience.
Ecommerce works the same way.
If you have a website that is slow, confusing and unsecure you might get people to buy if you have something they absolutely need, but you’re not helping your case.
And the pages that are often big culprits are the product pages.
Here are some tips on how you can create better product pages for your ecommerce website.
Tip #1. Cut The Clutter
We’re looking at this from a user experience standpoint. We’re not talking about SEO or social media or anything like that. We’re talking about the visitor on the page and getting them excited about purchasing the item they’re interested in.
The biggest issue that has seemed to plague ecommerce product pages for 20+ years is that there is too much going on.
Check out an ecommerce page even on the king of all Amazon, who I love. There is usually so much going on with the page that your eyes go crazy.
I actually think one of the best when it comes to clutter is Etsy. They obviously have looked at the priority of content and elements on their product pages and what wasn’t in the top 10 on the priority list was cut.
You don’t see banners across the top. You don’t have email pop-ups everywhere. The social sharing buttons are pretty well hidden.
Create a priority list for your product pages and if something is low on the list you can probably just cut it. Focus on the main goal for the page and you can really hide the rest of the stuff that doesn’t accomplish that goal.
Tip #2. Show The Price
Many shoppers now are usually looking for the price once they get to the product page. They’ve probably seen it on the results page when they’re comparing items, but if you’ve ever shopped on an ecommerce site you know that mysteriously the price can change on the product page based on different options you can choose.
And the frustrating thing with product pages is that the price can be hard to find. Not on all sites, but on some the price is below the fold, in a color that disappears into the background or whatever else is going on.
Show what the price of the item is. It’s something your customers want to see before they add it to their cart. You don’t want them to not know the price, get to the cart and then abandon the cart.
Show the price. It doesn’t need to be the item that stands out the most on the page, but don’t let the price disappear.
Tip #3. Shorten The Titles
Titles have gotten a little out of control on ecommerce sites. They have turned into descriptions of the product more than titles.
It’s hard to read titles that take up four lines on a product page.
In general, people like shorter titles. Shorter titles can also lead to shorter URLs, which are also preferred by Internet users.
Keep your titles short. You want to say what the product is called, but beyond that you can create descriptions that go into more detail or even sub-headings below the title that show the next level of description after the title and before the description.
Tip #4. Feature The Most Useful Reviews
Reviews are great for ecommerce companies, but sifting through a bunch of 5-star reviews is not really something that consumers want to do.
They want to see how a group of people rate a product overall. So showing that the product has an average of 4.7 stars from 100 buyers is a good thing.
But reading a bunch of people saying that they loved it really isn’t that helpful. So enable the function, and some ecommerce companies do this, that allows people to vote or view reviews. Then show the most helpful reviews the most prominent.
This will help your visitors determine if they really want to buy the product.
Tip #5. Provide Enough Description
Finally, it’s important to provide enough description for your products. Some companies do this really well.
I don’t think it’s about a certain word count. What it is about is taking a visitor through the sales process that they would go through if they were buying the item in person.
Any question the most common customer would have should be answered in the description. If you leave out an answer to a common question you’re going to have visitors wondering if they should really buy the product.
You can learn from this by reading the reviews for products and picking up on things they are saying and things that might be missing from the descriptions.
Conclusion
The product page is perhaps the most important page for ecommerce companies, but it’s often overlooked. Too often the biggest issue is clutter when you try to fit too much on the page for free of leaving something out. But that clutter can lead to a big mess.
Cut back on the elements on the page. Make a priority list based on the goal you want for the page and cut out things that don’t fall in the top 10 or even in the top 5.
After that there are a couple other things you can improve and you should see better results especially during the holiday season.
