How to create the perfect product pages for your e-commerce

Selling online today has become very accessible.

You can find a multitude of practical e-commerce solutions on the market. Their cost is relatively affordable depending on the one that you choose.

Among these solutions, you may want to try Shopify, WooCommerce, Prestashop, Ecwid or even Wix. In the end, they all offer you to easily sell your products online. With an e-shop, you can communicate more easily your offer on the Internet.

Note however that easing the access to online sales is also synonymous of having a lot of competition. This means that we will always find a better e-commerce site than ours, presenting more clearly the information or better communicating on its products.

Positioning becomes more complex than it seems, especially when you have to deal with e-commerce giants such as Amazon or Galaxus – to use an example more meaningful to us (and also nicer than Amazon, no doubts about it!).

That being said, no need to give up!

Selling online in 2022 when you are a local business is a great idea. It should even be your #1 focus, especially after the lockdowns we’ve experienced in the last couple of years.

It’s a pretty simple investment that is quickly refunded, that can make a big contribution to your monthly revenues. But ultimately, you still need to know how to present the information properly.

An online sales site that converts requires a detailed, clear and unique presentation of its products.

As simple as it may seem, a good product page must easily convince the visitor of the product’s interest. Your visitors must be able to quickly take action and add the product to the cart.

This is a key step in the customer journey, because it is the moment when a user will be able to complete his order or on the contrary… leave the site.

Online retailers often neglect the appearance of their product pages, inserting too short or vague texts, sometimes poorly written or misspelled, or even non-existent.

The visual side is also a very – or even more – important aspect.

At the end of the day, keep in mind that ergonomic product page, nice to navigate and easy to understand will allow you be different yourself from your competition and eventually develop your sales.

But why differentiate yourself?

For the simple reason that today, when we buy a product on the Internet, we compare a lot.

Products features, prices, opinions… We compare it all. We want to be sure our purchase decision is the right one after making the best choice possible.

So when online users visit several websites before ordering, we might as well present product pages that make them want to buy, and make us sell!

No need to look for the perfect product page to use for all your products, it does not exist! It will in fact depend on a multitude of factors, including

• your business sector
• your audience
• your products
• how your customers consume

That being said, there are some key steps to take into account in order to have an e-commerce with efficient product sheets.

To quote a well known notion in digital marketing: segmenting is key!

Indeed, the more we publish products, pages or specific ads audience-related, the more we will develop our chances of success because each action will be much more targeted.

Concerning product pages, this will consist for example in identifying key information that will help selling each product better.

We must therefore make sure to personalize each product page as much as possible in relation to a visitor’s needs, and to answer his problems with an ideal solution.

Thinking SEO is great. But even Google said it, thinking for humans is better (if not mandatory).

So include keywords in your product page, but don’t do “keyword stuffing”. Meaning do not put keyword strings thinking that search engines will like it.

Truth to be told, search engines are today smart enough today to understand that content is not meant for humans. And since their goal is to provide the best information to their users, it is better to go in that direction.

Showcase the qualities of the product based on visitors’ expectations. Be careful to offer easy-to-understand content.

Besides, put yourself in their shoes: will they understand your technical jargon?

It is better to remain understandable for everyone, to make sure you don’t lose potential customers.

To optimize the retention of your visitors, also about technical optimization: optimize the loading speed of your pages and make sure they are mobile-friendly (responsive). Mobile friendliness and navigation speed are also key factors for SEO.

Adopt page templates that respect a proper structure for your product pages! In general, this is also valid for your entire website.

These page templates will allow visitors to easily identify the information from one page to another.

Your visitors will understand more quickly what you offer. This will even contribute to their loyalty.

Identify which features are important and which are less important to visitor’s buying intent.

Remember that your product pages can be separated into 2 distinct parts: the content that is visible without scrolling vertically and the content that is displayed after scrolling. The more you scroll, the less information you retain.

This is why important information should be placed first!

Among the elements to be placed before the scroll, we may find:

• The product title
• Photos (with good quality, please!)
• The price, easy to notice
• Product availability
• Product variants: colors, models, sizes etc.
• Customer reviews
• A visible call to action: “Add to cart”, “Buy” or “Order now”

Among the elements to be placed rather after the scroll, we can find:

• An exhaustive description of the product, which makes you want to buy
• Possible shipping costs to avoid bad surprises
• Detailed customer reviews
• A module of similar or complementary items

This is one of the most important points.

And for a good reason, as 78% of consumers are looking for detailed information among product features.

Moreover, 87% of them will never buy again from a site that provided them with inaccurate information.

So you might as well write detailed and comprehensive product descriptions!

Again, make sure it is structured properly.

Make it easy to read and list the main features so that your visitors can quickly understand the information.

Highlight the benefits of the product. You can list the key points of the product, but you should especially address the solution that the product provides to the user.

Product-related content is a real selling factor. In 2017 we saw that 87% of buyers considered the product description as one of the most important and decisive criteria in the purchase decision.

For more clarity, remember to make sure the design enhances the page content: use color choices that don’t interfere with understanding the content and consider using easy-to-read fonts!

You can integrate some free fonts by choosing from Google Fonts.

Again: we compare a lot today when it comes to buying products online. It is therefore essential to stand out from the competition.

Be careful not to copy and paste product descriptions from competitors, and especially from suppliers.

If you are several shops to have the same supplier and that everyone copies the description thinking to save time, it may hurt you more than anything else. Plagiarism is indeed very badly seen by the search engines which will make sure to sanction you.

So create unique content, in your own style and that simply makes you want to go further with your brand or your products.

Pay attention to detail. Everyone appreciates quality and will be seduced by eye-catching details.

If you find that writing takes too much time or you don’t have enough inspiration to write nice, impactful product descriptions, use tools that allow you to do so!

Who would want to buy a product without knowing what it will look like?

This point is essential and is also valid for the rest of your site: use beautiful photos and quality visuals (and let’s stop with logos please 😭).

Incorporate different views of your articles so you can picture them from different angles. Stay consistent with your visuals: style, background and quality must be articulated around the same idea.

Your visitors must be able to see the details of the product and to imagine it easily by zooming in, so choose high definition photos!

Your conversion rate can increase by 35% thanks to qualitative content that allows you to see the product in a more pragmatic way.

Also consider presenting the product in a situation: clothes being worn, a bike on the road, an alarm clock on a nightstand etc. The context allows us to imagine what the product would look like in our daily lives.

However, avoid not very exhaustive montages or fake photos of the situation. Go for authenticity. It’s better to take a picture with your phone on which you will add a nice filter than making a lame copy-paste that will not showcase the product properly.

Note that 70% of users need to see at least 3 photos before adding to the cart.

Keep in mind that it’s better to pay a professional photographer to get great pictures than to pay for bad ads or to invest money into useless technique!

Calls to action buttons, or CTA, must be very easy to distinguish from the rest of the elements. Indeed, what could be worse than having to look for the button to order?

Apply a color that contrasts well with the rest of the content so that visitors are encouraged to click on them.

Finally, use a simple, descriptive word or phrase on these buttons such as “Order now”, “Buy” or “Add to Cart”. Originality here is counterproductive and will harm you more than helping you out.

In your template, at the bottom of your product pages, you can integrate a module of similar or recommended products that could be of interest to your customers.

These modules, often enabled by default or at least easy to create with e-commerce platforms such as Shopify, help generate additional sales.

We are very sensitive to other people’s judgment on products.

So sensitive, in fact, that 86% of users would like to read at least 3 reviews before selecting a product.

Think about integrating the possibility for existing customers to rate products.

Whether it’s your establishment on Google My Business, customer testimonials or simply 1 to 5 star ratings directly on your products, the weight of reviews is crucial in our buying process.

Along with relevant and detailed product descriptions, testimonials and customer reviews are among the 7 factors that influence purchase.

So include the possibility to leave reviews!

To improve your sales in general, it is essential to focus on the user experience of your online store.

You need to make sure that the customer journey is well defined, that information is easily accessible, that the site is fast and that the interface is beautiful and pleasant according to your branding.

On the pages or product pages – and again, this works for many other aspects – put yourself in the shoes of your visitors and customers. As an e-commerce visitor, what information do you like to find easily? And under what form?

Stay clear and concise, use existing tools to save time and get inspired by the best!

At Coteries, we use, like or find the following sites well done and/or efficient:

• Galaxus
• Digitec
• Pomgo
• Zalando
• Logitech

Contact us if you want to create your e-commerce!