The ecommerce marketplace is bustling with new online stores opening up daily as it becomes easier to launch an ecommerce site in current times. Along with the simplicity in starting an online store comes the increased competition to gain customers’ attention. Ecommerce sites have to make the experience of online shopping simple, convenient and pleasant for users in order to make them stick around and make a purchase.
The optimization of both category and product pages is vital to getting more traffic to your online store and converting those visitors into customers. Most visitors come to the product page by visiting the category page first, unless they visit the product page by searching for it specifically. Therefore, it is important for ecommerce sites to optimize both their category and product pages. This article describes some tried and tested steps to ensure that your category and products are up to the mark and engaging to customers.
Include a Value Proposition
It is imperative for an ecommerce site to include a value proposition at every point in sales funnel, which includes the category as well as product pages. A value proposition is a statement that clearly communicates distinct, assessable, and verifiable benefits users would attain from buying your product or service. The value proposition of your online store should be focused on the customer and the advantage your store can provide to the customer through its products or services.
Including a value proposition on category pages and product pages is easy and has a huge effect on decreasing cart abandonment and increasing conversion rates. A value proposition could be as simple as a banner on top of each page announcing a discount or free delivery on purchases exceeding a certain amount.
For instance, Nordstrom gives the simple value proposition of ‘Free shipping. Free Returns. All the time” to its users. This very simple but effective statement carries a lot of value for the users as it promises them free delivery and returns for the present and future as well.
Easy & Useful Filtering
Most ecommerce sites display a large number of products, even within a separate category or subcategory pages. In order to facilitate browsing of relevant products for customers, online stores should provide the option of filtering and most already do. Filtering is usually offered on price, size, category, etc. This feature comes in handy when the user is searching for a certain type of product within a particular price range.
Pakistan’s leading clothing brand Khaadi offers customers the option to filter by category, size, price, color and material on their online store’s product category pages. This narrows down the available options according to users’ requirements and speeds up the process of finding the desired product for users.
Also, ensure that the filtering on your online store is helpful for users. You should carry out A/B testing of your filters to find out which filters are useful and necessary and eliminate the unnecessary ones.
Product Information
The product pages of ecommerce sites must be designed in a way that shows all the significant information about the product at first glance, including product description, price and reviews. Product descriptions must be easy to read but comprehensive. Online stores can display concise information about the products above the fold and can give users more info as they scroll down the page.
The price of the product should also be visible above the fold. It is recommended to display ratings and reviews as well, to reinforce users’ trust in the products showcased on your online store. Moreover, you can offer users the option of adding their comments/feedback on the product page.
Goto.com.pk, Pakistan’s fastest emerging ecommerce site offers basic product info above the fold and provides more info below the fold.
In another example, the product page of Myntra shows the rating and price of the product above the fold and product specifications underneath. This answers any query potential customers might have about the product and helps them in making up their minds about buying the product.
Create a Feeling of Urgency
An online store has only a few seconds to convince users to shop from it. If they find the category page or product page unhelpful or uninteresting, they move on to another store. Creating a sense of urgency is a popular selling trick that often works quite well. Here are some ways to produce a feeling of urgency and entice users to buy.
- Time limitation
This is done by stating the time limit of the discount or campaign.
- Quantity limitation
Another popular gimmick is to list the number of items left for a product to sell out.
- Contextual limitation
Online stores can tempt users to purchase by mentioning some upcoming holiday or event, such as Mother’s Day.
Gul Ahmed, another leading clothing brand of Pakistan, attempts to create a feeling of urgency in customers by using quantity limitation with the slogan, “Be Fast. Not all Sizes Last” for its sale.
Sometimes users are just surfing online and do not have buying intention at the time of browsing through an online store. On the other hand, sometimes users have already shopped a lot of stuff and can’t afford to buy more. For such users, ecommerce sites can add Secondary CTA’s such as ‘Add to Wishlist’ to motivate users to take some kind of an action that may lead to a transaction in the future.
For example, Daraz.com.pk, one of the leading online stores in Pakistan, gives secondary CTA of sharing the product page and adding it to Wishlist under the product name, on the right side.
Conclusion
With the recommendations given in this article, you now possess substantial advice that you can use to bring refining your category pages and product pages. Now it is your responsibility to implement these guidelines to begin obtaining positive results in the form of increased conversions. Remember the results of implementing changes/improvements to your category/product pages cannot be gauged overnight and need time and patience to bear fruitful results.
