When you make an online purchase, your mind is gathering and interpreting a vast amount of information, but all you are probably aware of, is the fact that you are making a purchase which you feel good about. Do you realise that there is a science that goes into you ‘feeling good’ about an online vendor?
In this post we are going to dissect a good quality product page and show you how to do it on your website.
Here is our specimen:
Now Lets see what makes this design tick:
1: Incentive for large orders: Free shipping is a high motivator as the buyer perceives that the cost of the product diminishes, and they will often be motivated to purchase an extra item to attain that value. This will help the vendor increase the average spend per order.
2: Make buyers feel safe with guarantee/return policy: If a buyer knows they can always return the product for a full refund, they will be more likely to order it. This will often play in the best interest of the vendor as buyers will usually keep the item rather than go through the hassle of packaging and return shipping it.
3: Increase the urgency of the sale: This can be done in several ways, like a limited time only offer, but in this case they have used shipping to accomplish it. We automatically expect to have to wait for items we order, but if you know you are going to receive the product on the same day (as this vendor promises) or even overnight, it will increase your interest and add urgency to the sale because the sooner you buy, there is a direct correlation to when you will receive it.
4: Good search feature: As indexing and search services continue to become more sophisticated and prevalent, online stores with many products will greatly benefit from powerful search functionality as customers will be able to find what they are looking for faster and will thus be more likely to complete the sale on your site rather than someone else who has made searching easier.
5: Increase Buyer confidence with product reviews: Customers love to see what other customers had to say, but if you really want to get the greatest effectiveness from your reviews- don’t sensor them. Allow the occasional negative review, it turns out that people are more wary of 100% five star ratings because they assume the responses are fake, or at best selectively shown. The occasional neutral or negative feedback actually adds credibility to all the positive ones.
6: Large and clear price: If visitors don’t know what your product costs within the first glance at the page, they will not be taking that second glance. This would be better integrated in the design of this page, but it is still totally acceptable.
7: Minimize risk perception: This will change depending on your industry, but at least for the clothing industry, sizing is a strong perceived risk, as people rarely make a purchasing decision without trying the item on, therefore, the designer of this site has tried to overcome this perceived risk by not only providing clear sizing information (including sizing guide near the purchase button), but giving detailed measurements of the model in the picture so you can make an even more informed decision.
8: Clear Call to action: “Add to Bag” boldly demands your attention on the lower right of the page. This button is placed where it should be visible on nearly every device, and it is large enough so you automatically sense its importance in the visual hierarchy. Ultimately this is the button you want them to see, every other element of this page should be pulling down barriers between your buyer and this button.
9: Excellent photo quality: Photography is totally essential to an online store, and its importance compounds when you are selling aesthetic items (products which derive value from the way they look) clear, large images with the ability to zoom in will convert best.
10: Multiple photos: Very few products are well represented by a single image, you will find that your customers have all kinds of questions in their minds that can be answered by a photo taken at the right angle.
11: Enough info to satisfy a fact addict: Some shoppers care about how your product will make them look, some care about what it is made of as they have an allergy to consider, still others are more interested in how it will feel while wearing it. This is why you need to provide information from all points of view, it is a way of removing objections and roadblocks to the sale before they even come up.
12: Increase buyer confidence: Trust is a big deal on the internet, so having trusted vendor badges from well known sources on your site makes a big difference to the skeptical buyer who has only recently got a credit card or the veteran shopper who has been bitten by online fraud before.
13: Give them a way to remove roadblocks: No matter how well you prepare to deliver ALL the information your visitors will want, there will always be edge case customers who want to know something you have not listed, and it is important that these people have a non-threatening way to do so. This vendor has used live chat to fill this need. You can do it via an enquiry form, a phone number or possibly even an FAQ, but think about what option would make the most sense to your target market. If you are in a position to run live chat, it would be a good option as their questions get answered before they leave the page, increasing the probability of them completing the sale.
14: Coupon code to increase value perception: Finally, there is a generic coupon code offer at the top of the site, this is a great way to make your clients feel good about the sale, the knowledge that they can get a discount, tangibly increases their value perception, and is another motivator to make that purchase.
Click here to see the whole page along with the captions.
So there you have it! 14 moves you can make to increase your sales and make your customers happier.
What is important to you when you buy online? Are you trying any of these already? Let us know in the comments below.
