With Canada’s biggest digital retail conference, DX3, just around the corner, I’m feeling inspired to share some eCommerce optimization insights of my own.
Managing an eCommerce site is often coupled with an seemingly infinite to-do list... a list so demanding that sometimes it can be easy to overlook some of the important little things. And ultimately, it’s those little things that have a big impact on your SEO, bounce rate, customer attrition, and conversion. The devil’s in the details.
Rather than give you another laundry list to tack on all at once, let’s split this into a two part post. Today, I’ll focus on tips for optimizing product pages and site search - and next week I’ll look at optimizing the customer journey through check out.
1. Know your customer. Taking the time to really get to know who’s buying your products or services can really pay off. It’s critical to have a firm grasp on your buyer personas and ideal customer so that you can give them what they want. Here are a few instances where knowing your customer can help build trust and ultimately help increase conversion.
If your audience is primarily creative professionals, ensure you have high quality product imagery and the correct image size renderings when displaying products. They’ll expect this level of professional detail when shopping around online. Say your audience is green-conscious, then be sure to show your support for sustainable suppliers, your eco-friendly packaging, your commitment to the environment with sustainable shipping practices, etc. This will help you level with your customer and show you have similar interests. People buy from people they like and respect. If they’re a more demanding audience, then think about having 360 degree product viewing options and how-to videos for setup or operating your products. Be sure to display tech specs and more in-depth product information. This is what a savvy customer will be expecting from your product pages.
2. Use unique product descriptions. This happens more than it should -- companies grab the cookie-cutter product descriptions that their manufacturers create and use that as the same product description on their site. Google has a very helpful post regarding this topic, and it gives fair warning. If you’re not careful and don’t follow the rules of duplicate content, your product content could be counted as a duplicate. This can have a negative effect on your SEO rankings, and can even have your site removed from search results.
3. Include product reviews. Sometimes it’s best to let the numbers do the talking. A study found that adding reviews to eCommerce product pages can increase conversions by 62%. To get you started, Power Reviews and Bazaarvoice are two great companies leading the charge in this area.
Having an awesome user friendly internal search engine is often overlooked, or put on hold due to other priorities. But considering that visitors who use an on-page search tool are 40% more likely to convert, maybe it shouldn’t be! Here are a few essential tips for building a user-friendly site search that increases conversion.
1. Auto complete. A study by Baymard shows that 82% of top grossing eCommerce sites offer auto complete with their search function. Include search history, make the design intuitive for the user, keep the list short and sweet to avoid scrolling, and include visual cues to show differences in potential search terms.
2. “You may also like”. You’ve seen it on Amazon and other successful eCommerce stores. This is the proverbial candy at the checkout. Boost your average dollars per transaction by suggesting additional products similar or related to what your customer is searching for. There’s a chance that they’re interested in products they haven’t seen or heard of yet, and it’s a both service to your customer and a benefit to you to suggest them. As Amazon reports that up to 35% of their revenue comes from cross-selling. That proverbial candy is hard to ignore.
3. “No products found”. Avoid this if you can. If your audience has taken the time to search your site; try to match their search with similar products or display your best sellers. And don’t forget to take synonyms and misspellings into account. If your product is currently out of stock, try to provide an in-stock date, offer a reserve list, or even just a reminder email option for when the product is back in stock.
BTW: I love London Drugs' SUPER BIG SEARCH BAR:
There’s a lot that goes into creating perfect product pages and site search. And it’s always evolving. Share in the comments and let me know some of your favourite tips for optimizing product pages and site search.
Image courtesy of thanxmedia.com