Improve the different parts of your e-commerce product sheets:

When a visitor arrives on your product page, it’s the first sign that the person is engaged and interested in your offerings. And whether the visitor completes his or her purchase journey is directly correlated to the quality of your product page. To meet its objective, the product page must attract, inform and convince the future customer. In physical retail terms, the product page is like the salesperson who must convince the visitor to purchase a certain product. To increase your chances of a purchase and ensure maximum engagement, you should analyse and optimise certain key aspects of the product page, which are the following: 

Product description 

The description places the important information in front of the future buyer’s eyes (product name, general description, technical specifications, tutorials, recommended usage, etc.). There are many best practices when it comes to writing and creating titles, describing characteristics, and hierarchising information. The key is finding the right balance between providing enough information to be comprehensive without being repetitive. 

If the product page contains several sections, whether the content is all on the same page or displayed across different tabs, be sure to measure all elements: clicks, navigational sequences, and scroll depth. 

Remember to also analyse your product pages’ SEO performance. If your content is well indexed by search engines, it will be easier for your visitors to find. The result: you’ll generate more traffic and boost the number of potential sales. This kind of optimisation can be achieved by working on your site’s tree structure, HTML tags, internal linking, and ranking in Google’s mobile-first index.   

Beware of usability issues

Does your product have a very low conversion rate, despite having a comprehensive description? Usability issues could be the cause. Have you placed all pricing information, the “add-to-basket” button, the product name and description, any promotional info, and reassuring elements above the scroll line? Be sure to keep this information in front of prospects’ eyes at all times to engage them. 

Certain analytics variables can indicate the level of customer engagement – time spent on page, or the depth of vertical scroll. These metrics can help you establish a clear correlation with adds-to- basket.  

Session-replay tools can also help you understand usability and click zones, including HotJar, Decibel Insight, AB Tasty, TeaLeaf, and GlassBox, which can help you go deeper with your analysis and optimise your product pages. 

Product visuals: best practices

An image is worth a thousand words. And that’s true in e-commerce, too. Remember that sight is the only sense used in your online store, as visitors can’t touch, smell or test the product before buying it. The image is the first element that incites the user to place an order. It’s recommended to use large-format, HD visuals (but be careful that they’re not too heavy), avoid image clipping, provide several different zoom options, use 3D, videos or animation… 

On the analysis side of things, don’t forget to consider:  

• Optimising your images for search engine indexing. Images can be a source of traffic to your product pages.  
• Potentially running A/B tests that could help you determine which image is most efficient. Set a testing period that is sufficiently long to obtain results you can act on. 
• Analysing where visitors click on your image visualisation options (like the zoom), as well as their interactions with video players (play, stop, refresh). 

Put all results into perspective with the volume of overall visitors to your product pages and the add-to-cart rate, and set off on your optimisations!  

The importance of customer reviews in the buying process

Reviews can convince your potential buyer that his/her future purchase will be dependable and a good choice. True reassuring elements, customer reviews can seal a deal… or break it. 74% of Internet users have changed their minds about buying a product due to reading negative comments. This explains why we sometimes see fake reviews on certain e-commerce sites: Some studies have found that as many as 1 in 3 reviews are fake. Today’s Internet users tend to be wary… so our advice is to always remain authentic and honest with your consumers. 

When dealing with customer reviews, be responsive and answer your customers each time. And make good use of all this feedback to improve your product offering, catalogue, services and products. You’ll gain customer satisfaction points!  

Cross-selling and upselling 

The product page is also where an implicit negotiation takes place between two parties. If a visitor consults the product page of a 55-inch smart TV costing 579 euros, you can also suggest similar products from a higher-end range or which give you a greater margin (upselling). This is also the right time to think about complementary purchases. In the case of a smart TV, certain accessories may also interest your customer: HDMI cables, wall mount kit, etc. (cross-selling). All related products highlighted on the product page should be subject to a deeper analysis. Look at which associated items perform well: Measure the displays of these products, clicks through to their product pages, and their contribution to conversion. These insights will help you better manage your highlighted complementary products. 

No matter the element you’re measuring, continuously improving your product pages requires a test-and-learn approach. And digital analytics is inseparable from testing. Indeed, digital analytics is necessary for detecting your site’s weak spots and optimisation levers ahead of tests, and to make precise observations when analysing your results. Happy optimising! 

Get even more best practices, advice and recommendations from e-commerce experts in our series of articles dedicated to e-commerce, and in our free guide: