Losing customers on your product display page?
Your product display pages are pivotal in your ecommerce website, the point where visitors convert to buyers. If you are getting a lot of visitors to your website but not a corresponding number of sales, your product display pages (PDPs) may be to blame for losing prospective customers at a key moment in the buyer journey. While it is vital to have a great hook on your landing page and a smooth journey through your shopping cart and checkout pages, these mean nothing without high-converting product display pages to turn visits into sales.
Why is the product display page so important?
Ecommerce customers have chosen the ease and convenience of shopping online over the physical experience of going in-store. This means they have forfeited the ability to see, touch and interact with the product. The PDP is your opportunity to give them all the information they want – what does the product look like? What is it made of? What size is it? What have others thought of it?
This page is your chance to persuade the visitor that this product is exactly what they are looking for. The goal is simple: convince the customer to add the product to their cart, ready to purchase. There are many features and messages that can be added to this page to embellish the buyer journey; to help convince the undecided with further details, to show related items, and to share customers’ own photos and testimonials. But it is vital that none of that distracts from the core goal of the page.
Product information and the attention economy
You’ve probably heard the term attention economy. It usually comes up when talking about social media and targeted ads. The idea that the main resource companies such as Google, Facebook and Apple are vying for is literally your attention. That’s where the money is. And it’s true for ecommerce too, you need visitors to stay on your website and be interested in your products for long enough to buy.
But that’s where it gets tricky doesn’t it? Suddenly you aren’t just competing with your market competitors, you are competing with Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Email, phone calls, the dog barking, children, the doorbell…
So you need to get to the point quickly and tell the customer everything they need to know at a glance. Give them the option to read more if they want to, but make it possible to make an informed decision straight away on the product display page. Before something else drags their attention away.
Make it quick but make it good
The trouble, however, with trying to communicate too quickly, is that you run the risk of leaving out essential, persuasive information. Issues such as not enough photos of the product or insufficient detail in the product description are common causes of abandonment.
Baymard lists 95 guidelines for the perfect product display page and they found in their research that of only 18% of the top 177 online retailers in the US have “good” or “acceptable” product pages.
This presents you, as an ecommerce merchant, with a great opportunity. With so many businesses performing poorly on the product display page, (Baymard found 82% of businesses scored “poor” or “mediocre”), getting your own PDP right will give you a real competitive edge. Where others could be losing customers, you can win them over with a simple but effective page design.
1 simple tip to supercharge your product display page conversion
Create a “product card” with only the essential details, laid out at a glance, above the fold. That is to say, ensure that everything your customer needs is immediately in front of them when they open the PDP, no need to scroll. All the other details you would love to share for extra persuasion and upselling come below the fold for customers to scroll through if they want to. But they need to have everything necessary to hit the add to cart button right up there, ready to go.
So what exactly are the essentials? Precisely what information does your customer need before they can click add to cart? That’s where our 13 years of specialist ecommerce experience comes in. Over a decade of working closely with clients, designing, evaluating and adjusting their product display pages, has taught us what an ecommerce customer needs:
8 essential elements above the fold on your product display page
1. Images of the product
The importance of high-quality photos cannot be overstated. The more pictures the better, showing the product from different angles and in different settings, include people in your photos for scale, show close-ups of components and show the different colour options. Help customers visualise themselves owning and using the product. Images taken by customers can be fantastic as well for social proof but as the quality of these is likely to be lower than your own, a gallery of images from social media and submitted by customers will be better further down the page. The product card, above the fold, is a curated space.
2. Product name
The product name should tell the customer exactly what they are looking at. Descriptive names which include keywords such as materials, colours, and uses, will rank higher in search results as customers can easily find the product matching their requirements. Giving your products non-descriptive names can add character and personality to your store but consider carefully whether customers are going to be googling “Gerald the Garden Mate” (a very bad, made-up example of a non-descriptive name but you get the point) or are they going to be typing in “raised garden beds”?
3. Social proof
Link to your Trustpilot or other review platforms, showcasing what other buyers have thought of the product. You can share full reviews, customer photos, influencer endorsements, etc further down the page. But a simple star rating on your product card places the social proof right at the top, putting your customer at ease from the start. Be sure to follow up on each sale with a request for feedback to build up your ratings and gain future customers’ trust.
4. Brief description with key details
Keep it to short, skimmable bullet points to give an essential overview. The description is another chance to include keywords for SEO purposes, making your products easier to find. Make sure your language is simple and jargon-free so first-time customers don’t feel excluded. Address pain points and common objections to persuade your customers that this is the right product for them.
5. Options such as colour or size
This will vary depending on the product in question but make sure any variations the customer may need to choose are immediately available to them. Make sure size options easy to understand, whether shoe sizes, clothes sizes or object dimensions, make it clear which measuring system you are using to avoid confusion.
6. Quantity
Always give the customer the option to purchase multiple items at the same time as easily as possible. The more products in their basket, the higher the order value.
7. Price
Probably the most obvious one on the list but your customer won’t buy from you without knowing how much money they are parting with. After the add to cart button this is the most important piece of information you can give, make it bright and bold for easy price comparisons and for customers that already know what they want or are in a hurry.
7. Add to cart button
A clear call to action. This is the single most vital part of your product display page. It is in fact the entire point of the page. Make it stand out with a bright, contrasting colour. And preferably, make it “sticky” meaning it stays on screen no matter how far down your customers scroll.
The screenshot above is an example of an optimised product card we created for Quickcrop on BigCommerce, including all of the essential information. You can see it also has an “add to wishlist” button. This isn’t an essential part of the product card but it can be useful depending on what kinds of products you sell. For example, high-budget items which visitors may need to bookmark for later purchase. Or in a case like this, when the customer may be planning to buy a collection of products to redesign their garden space, the ability to save them all and view them side by side will help to plan and therefore to buy.
Essential elements above the fold for B2B product display pages
The information to include in the product card varies between B2C (business to consumer) and B2B (business to business) stores. This is because B2B transactions can be a lot more complex with additional considerations such as price variation based on quantity. Businesses are also often repeat-customers, needing to restock on supplies as efficiently as possible. So product codes are essential to facilitate fast and precise searching and ordering. That is not to say the product card will look entirely different, just that it needs some additional vital information:
1. Images of the product
2. Product name
3. Product code
As well as a straightforward descriptive product name, B2B businesses usually provide product codes. This allows for efficient ordering systems and lets customers review a catalogue and then type in only the codes they know they need or repeat previous orders. It also makes the merchant’s product management system much easier to organise with a wide range of similar products.
4. Social proof
5. Brief description with key details
6. Options such as colour or size (if relevant)
7. Quantity
8. Price
9. Price per unit
Businesses will often be ordering in bulk and it is common practice to provide different price brackets depending on quantity. This is important information to share with the customer upfront to help convince them this is the right product and the right store for them.
10. Add to cart button
This screenshot is an example of a B2B product card on the product display page we created for Shopfitting Warehouse. Simple and to the point. Making use of a clean layout and white space for an uncluttered, professional-feeling page.
How can Calashock help?
We are Award-winning BigCommerce experts with 13 years of specialist experience helping merchants to accelerate their growth with sensational ecommerce transformations. Whether you need help optimising your product display pages to increase sales, you’re considering re-platforming, or looking to grow your business overseas, we build bespoke sites that are beautiful, intuitive and maximise return on investment. Get in touch with our expert team if you’re ready for the next step in your ecommerce journey.
