Improve Your Ecommerce Conversion Rate - Part 1

Everyone wants more sales, but sometimes it’s hard to put your finger on just what’s preventing them.  We decided it would be a good thing to create a series of blogs geared specifically to help you improve your ecommerce conversion rates.  This is the first article in the series.  We’ll try to release these once a week, so be sure to check back to see the latest article. So, the first place to look when you want more sales from your ecommerce site is: 

The product page

The product page is the most important page in any shopping cart.  If you skimp on the product page, your sales WILL suffer.  We know, you are busy, and it’s boring and time consuming to go in and add lots of pictures and write that detailed product description.  You just want to be DONE so you type in a name and price, slap up a photo, and that should just be enough.  But it really doesn’t work that way.  Remember, the goal of the product page is to PERSUADE people to buy.   Images: Product pages should focus on that one goal and eliminate all the other clutter.  A clean slate with big nice photos is what you want.  Did you see that I said ‘photos’, like with an s? That’s right, you need photos from every angle. Include detail photos, showing different areas of the item.  All your photos should be high quality, not little bitty images you stole off another site.  It’s ok to use manufacturer’s photos, but make sure they are nice and use a lot of them!   Remember, buyers can’t touch or feel your item, they can’t pick it up and see how heavy it is.  You need to give them as many visual ques as you can. Take a look at Nike.com’s product page: click here They have 7 images of the shoe in the matching color, then all the color options as well.  The photos are professional and close up.  You can zoom in and see the texture of the material and you can tell that the swish is embroidered on, not applied. Now that’s a great product page!  Descriptions: The next thing to notice is the detailed description. We suggest you offer both a short concise version (say in the first paragraph) and a long and in-depth version.  What does Nike do? You have to scroll down a bit, under the other recommendations (we will address these later).  The description for this shoe is six paragraphs long!  It covers everything from the origin and design inspiration to how it feels and supports your foot. However, it’s not clinical sounding.  It’s fun to read!  That’s what you want.  You want to answer the questions in the buyer’s mind.  You CAN’T expect them to ask a question by phone or email and wait for you to answer.  They will have spent their money on something else by the time you get your answer written. You must be proactive in the product description and think like a buyer, actually a bunch of buyers, and answer those questions up front.  On this page, Nike even called attention (in the fit tip) that these run large. Reviews:  Now scroll down a bit further, look at the reviews.  They have LOTS of reviews and they show the most recent 5 on the page.   Most shoppers look for at least 3 reviews or they won’t buy a product.  Cultivate a positive review experience by making it easy to review a product a person purchases in your store. So, how did they get all those reviews?  They ask for them!  After you buy shoes, a few days after your order arrives, you get an email with a link to the product and a nice request to review your purchase.  There are automated systems that will help you with this, but you can also just create a draft email and send it yourself if you have to.  Share options: Did you notice the share button right under the photo?  Nike only allows you to share it on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.  The three social media sites with the most users in their target market.  You don’t have to allow people to share EVERYWHERE.  That whole share bar you see frequently looks messy and people skip over it.  Nike’s version is clean and to the point. Related products:  OK, now back to those product recommendations.  Maybe i don’t like something about the product.  It just isn’t the perfect one for me, for some reason.  Nike gives me 4 more options right away.  Related products is another area a lot of site owners don’t spend much time on.  This is a great place to put similar items, or items that are frequently used together.  Don’t overwhelm me with too many, though.  Four is about right.  This is an excellent opportunity to sell me more stuff, so why not spend some time here and add a few items to each product page. I hope you have benefited from this discussion and look forward to next week’s topic: Shipping!  Now get busy going through your product pages and making more sales. 🙂