Why Product Pages Are So Important
In the world of e-commerce, you only get so many chances to convert someone from a window shopper to a customer. Product pages are your best chance of persuading someone to make that transition, but they’re not easy to get right.
In this article, we’re going to take a closer look at exactly what makes product pages so crucial, diving deeper into the psychology behind online shopping. Then, we’ll offer some pointers on how to decide on the right approach for your pages.
Understanding a customer’s journey
Before we can understand the role product pages play in converting an online shopper into a customer, we first need to understand how the buying process works. Generally, it tends to go a little bit like this…
- Initial research: For more considered purchases, buyers tend to spend a little longer in this phase than they might for cheaper items. Nevertheless, most purchases tend to start with a problem, a dilemma or a need. In the first instance, we might search for something like, ‘how do I clean stains off a rug’ – we don’t yet know which type of product we need to get the job done.
- Weighing up the options: After we’ve researched a little and understand which kinds of products might be suitable for us, it’s time to delve deeper and determine which specific model or brand we want. To continue on from the example above, we’d begin looking at the top-rated cleaning products to determine which one is best suited to the particular type of stain on our rug.
- Ready to buy: By this stage, we know which brand of carpet cleaner we’re looking for – we just want to find a safe, trustworthy and good-value company to buy it from.
Sound familiar? Knowingly or not, most of us tend to follow a process similar to this when we’re buying new products online. Product page content can prove instrumental in steps two and three. When shoppers are doing their initial research, they’re likely to turn to blogs, guides or knowledge base articles. But by step two, they’re actively weighing up their options – and if your product page content is good enough, they’ll be able to skip straight to step three without leaving your site. You’ve got a buyer.
If you’re wondering how to create content that does this, don’t worry – we’ll give you some pointers in a moment.
Your final opportunity to convert
Before we look at how to write your product page content, let’s remember that this is your final opportunity to convert a prospective buyer into an actual one. You can have top-tier landing pages, an all-singing, all-dancing homepage and a raft of knowledge base articles, but if you don’t sell yourselves (and your products) at this final hurdle, you’ll lose customers.
The content on your product page becomes even more important when it ranks highly in search engines. If one particular product ranks above most of your landing pages, make sure the content on it is outstanding.
Tailoring your content
Finally, let’s take a look at a few top tips to help you write great product page content.
- Make it unique: Don’t be tempted to copy and paste information from the manufacturer or from other websites. Keep the content unique to your website – it’ll rank better as a result.
- Check the tone of voice: Make sure you use a tone of voice that’s consistent with the rest of your site, and don’t be too pushy – that’s usually off-putting!
- Sell yourself, not just your products: Of course, it’s vital that you talk through the advantages of your product here, but don’t neglect to mention the reasons why a shopper should order from you. There’s no need to be modest here.
- USPs, USPs, USPs: The internet is flooded with e-commerce sites, so make sure your product pages stand out. Remind the customer of what makes your company and your products unique.
- Encourage people to get in touch: If a buyer’s not yet ready to convert, encourage them to call or email you with their questions. You never know, you might win yourself a repeat customer.
- Everything in one place: Include helpful information about delivery, returns, technical data, and so on – aim to answer every common question a customer might have.
