Best Practices For eCommerce Product Pages

Ecommerce product pages are money makers. Unfortunately, most eCommerce business owners somehow miss that memo. 

If your eCommerce product pages are left as they were, they’d do nothing for you. 

Do you know what you see on most product pages? Technical jargon, confusing copy, and the content is written in a way that focuses more on features (and not benefits). Most eCommerce product pages also have thin content (not much meat there), load slow, and are a visual nightmare (with too many fancy design elements getting in the way of your business and your customer). 

Most eCommerce product pages are already on a losing streak if you were to leave product descriptions and product copy the way they are going to be, by default. 

Before we start with best practices, here are some “rules” that every product page must follow: 

• Fast loading pages, each of which is easy to navigate and simple to use. Ideally, use a white background for your pages. 
• Simple layouts and without any fancy design elements. Content should not shift while the page loads. 
• Use H1, H2, H3 tags (also great for SEO) to demarcate titles, subheadings, and actual product copy. While you are at it, assign ALT text to each of the images on the product description page. 
• Use images, effective product descriptions, and product videos. 
• Every page should have an effective (yet simple, and “not too clever” Call-to-action (CTA). Stick with “Buy now”, “Add to Cart”, “Pick it Up”, “Grab This Now”. 
• Along with the Call-to-action button, add other buttons such as “Add to Wishlist”, “Remind me later”, “Send me a Brochure”, or “Sign up to Get a Discount”. 
• Show the cumulative ratings accumulated from reviews gathered from your eCommerce site or third-party sites (such as Yelp, Google Reviews, TrustPilot, and others). 
• Allow customers to choose variants, combine bundles, or pick what they want (applies to product combos, sizes, colors, and even the ability to add on accessories). 

Now that we covered a few, undisputable basics, let’s focus on the bigger -- and more critical tasks to help you master the best practices for eCommerce product pages. 

Here are a few fundamentals to ensure that you follow the best practices for eCommerce product pages: 

Product Copy: Effective Copywriting is Simple (Yet Powerful) 

If you only had to do “one” thing for your eCommerce product pages, do this: write effective product copy. 

Product page copy (content) can make or break your site. 

Write product descriptions in a way that anyone can understand (and be convinced) about the product itself. Don’t use jargon and don’t confuse features for benefits. 

Features are mostly technical, benefits are what people get. For instance, writing that a mobile phone has a 5060mAh battery means nothing to most people. 

Writing that the battery lasts for two full days is something most mobile users can understand (and get excited about). 

Need an example? Take a look at this product description page from The Perfect Product Page Structure for Your Ecommerce Store

Notice how the copy is written: 

• The promise: We move heaven and earth so you are happy with your order
• Variety at no extra cost: Print a different design on every round sticker, for FREE (see how the word “free” is highlighted in CAPS?). 

Of course, you’ll see some of the basics covered -- a lovely, self-descriptive and visual image, simple titles, product copy that’s easy to understand, accumulated reviews showing up (in green), and the option to choose variants (sticker size). 

Product Images & Videos: Show it In action 

Here’s the best tip in the world to use your product images and product videos for eCommerce: Show these products in action, while still keeping the visualization great. 

Instead of displaying images and videos of your product itself, show how it looks when it’s being used. 

How does that Snap-off Knife look when someone is cutting something with it? What does that Impact drill look like in someone’s hands? What do those shoes look like when someone’s wearing them? 

Talking about shoes, see how this looks like in action: 

Show It All Together, On The Product Page 

The best results are a combination of everything above: copy, images, videos, descriptions of benefits, talking straight to your target audience, offers, discounts, options to choose variants, social proof, and more. 

It also helps if you can further add reassurance such as: 

• Product images -- in all their color and glory -- displayed in a way that shows all aspects of the product. 
• Awards (if any) your brand grabbed in the last few years
• Accumulated reviews and rates, right on the product page (for social proof)
• Repetition of features and/or benefits right under the “Add to Cart” button
• Additional buttons (to create a wishlist, to sign up for a discount, to share with a friend, to refer someone else). 

Here’s how it looks when some of these best practices come together on a single product page: 

Treat product Pages as Proxy Landing Pages 

You already know that landing pages convert well. Technically, eCommerce product pages are landing pages as well (except that they are a lot heavier on content, links, and buttons) than a typical landing page is. 

However, instead of just letting this pass, it helps if you make the effort to treat eCommerce product pages as landing pages. 

If you do that, all the best practices of landing page design also apply to eCommerce product page design: 

• Clean and fast design
• A clean hero section featuring your product, with powerful headlines, supporting subheadings, and product copy. 
• Simple layout, without clutter. 
• One landing page per product (which now means that you’ll have a single eCommerce product page per product). 
• No extra, unnecessary clicks (to other pages on your eCommerce site)
• Visually striking, exemplary images, and videos on the top section of the page 
• Repeating social proof elements (awards, logos of associations in the industry, ratings, and reviews) 

Follow these best practices for your eCommerce product pages and you are guaranteed to have better conversion rates, more revenue, and admittedly more sales (along with profits). 

Need help in designing profit-pulling and effective eCommerce product pages? Check out our services for eCommerce design as well as our eCommerce optimization services, funnel reviews or audits , eCommerce marketing strategy consultation, and more.