If you sell products on your site, you know your product pages need to provide your visitors striking product images, strong descriptions and details on specifications. But if you want to go beyond the bare minimum and offer more comprehensive information and an enjoyable user experience, there’s always more that can be done. Here are four additional steps you can take to bring your product pages to the next level.
1. Add social sharing buttons
Including social sharing buttons to sites like Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest is an easy step that simply helps site visitors share your products when they want to. While encouraging consumers to share your products on social media is essentially free marketing, including social share buttons can also directly result in online sales. Pinterest is especially important here, since designers or consumers exploring ideas for their next project or remodel will often want to pin products that they’re considering buying. In fact, a survey from HelloSociety found that 88 percent of consumers have purchased a product they've pinned on Pinterest.
Given the prominence of sites like Pinterest in the lighting and home decor industries and interior design world, adding a share button is a no-brainer. As a bonus, you can also include a printer button so visitors can print product images with ease. Here's an example of social sharing buttons from a Lightology product page:
2. Add product videos
If your site visitor is unsure of exactly how a product looks from all angles, they might hesitate to purchase, hovering over that “add to cart” button while never pulling the trigger. Product videos help your visitor get a more complete, in-depth idea of how a product looks and performs. For housewares e-tailer Stacks and Stacks, adding a video component to product pages made customers 144 percent more likely to add products to their cart.
Additionally, an Animoto Online and Mobile Video Study found that 73 percent of respondents were more likely to purchase a product or service if they could watch a video explaining it beforehand. It also found that 96 percent of consumers find videos helpful when making purchase decisions online. If your customer is going to make an online order, they want to feel absolutely sure about what the product looks like, so anything you can do to increase purchasing confidence is a win for you and the customer. When it comes to video, give the people what they want.
3. Include a shipping time estimate
You might already know to include shipping details like shipping costs or your return policy on your product pages. People want to have an idea about the shipping process and cost before they start initiating a purchase. A Baymard Institute study found that 64 percent of users look for shipping costs on the product page before deciding to add a product to the cart. But beyond featuring the shipping cost, it's a good idea to include a shipping time estimate on your site if you can. Here's an example from Lightology's site:
Including a quick estimate like "Usually leaves warehouse in 2-4 weeks" is an easy way to give users a better idea of what to expect from ordering from you without having to make any phone calls. Be sure to be honest with this estimate — you don't want to disappoint customers with slow shipping times.
4. Allow reviews
Today's online-savvy consumer likes to do their research before making a purchase, and that research often includes scoping out product reviews. Making space on your product pages for reviews sends the message that you care about your customer's experience with your products, you believe in the products you sell and you have nothing to hide. All of this will increase your visitor's trust in your business.
Product pages are an often-overlooked component of a strong retail website's design. If you take a few extra steps to optimize your product pages, your customers will surely be thanking you — and you might even see an uptick in online sales. What do your product pages look like? Let us know in the comments!
Photo: Pixabay
