28 Simple Yet Effective Product Page Design Tips
Updated February 2024
Designing Conversion-Focused Product Pages
Whether you run an online store and are looking to optimize it or are a business owner interested in enhancing your knowledge of product page design, you’ve come to the right place. This article will provide a comprehensive list of tips to create visually appealing, user-friendly, and conversion-focused product pages.
By implementing these strategies, you can maximize the impact of your online offerings and boost your business’s success. So, let’s dive into the world of product page design and unlock the potential to captivate your audience and drive more sales.
Building Effective Product Pages is Not Easy
You have an e-commerce website—good for you. But now, you must work harder to convince potential consumers to buy from you. Your product pages need great content, breathtaking product images, and a smooth and intuitive checkout process. Therefore, they are crucial. The following design tips will help you create better product pages and increase online sales.
Product page design is more than adding a product image and description. That alone will not attract much notice or interest. Demanding mobile consumers will want to know a lot more about exactly why they should buy your product before they do so. Your product page design also needs to stand out from your online competitors. However, a few essential product page design strategies will help you meet the expectations of your target consumers and your business objectives.
The following product page design tips will help you build better product pages. These tips outline what content needs to be on your product pages. They explain how to make your product images work as a better sales tool. And finally, our product page design tips will tell you how to simplify your checkout process.
Product Page Design Tips – The Basics
Make Your Product Pages Mobile-First
Yup! We get it. Mobile is essential. Have you ever taken the time to search for your product pages on your iPhone? You might be unpleasantly surprised by the shopping experience. Well, mobile isn’t going aware.
According to Salsify, in 2023, 77% of shoppers used a mobile device to search for products. Most of these searches occur on mobile devices since retail shoppers frequently research competitor products and pricing in-store. People are searching for products on their phones. They click on your ads or organic listings on their way to work or while watching TV at night. This isn’t that surprising, right? You likely do this more than you even realize.
Need we say more? Mobile is big. We all know this. Stop living in denial and get your mobile act together already!
Put Your Shoppers at Ease
Your product page must address any potential concerns or hesitations your potential buyer might have. Will these pants fit? How long is the battery life? Can I return this product? Are sizes accurate? Do you ship to other countries? They need answers to these questions before they make a purchase decision.
Uncertainty is what will make people shop elsewhere. For example, if you sell clothing or fashion, consumers will want to know if the item will fit. Adding a sizing chart or guide is another one of our product page design tips.
Brainstorm ways to put your shopper at ease by providing clear information, visual guides, and instructions if a product needs assembly. “I need a Large, but do Larges run big? I don’t want a muscle T, but I don’t want it too baggy. Ahh, I don’t know, I’ll just go somewhere else.” We’ve all had this internal dialogue when shopping online.
Create Loyal Customers
Conversions only go so far in e-commerce. Many products are affordable, so to gain ROI from your marketing efforts, there need to be many regular transactions. All e-commerce marketers should think of ways to keep their customers coming back.
“How can I get someone to buy more stuff? You need to answer that question, which comes down to your business’s creativity and strength.” I recommend building a relationship with every customer through new, engaging, and fun experiences. Treat your consumers the way you like and expect to be treated yourself.
Product Page Design Tips – The Sales Copy
Craft Creative Copy
The powerful on-page copy seems obvious, but you might be surprised by the massive number of product pages with snooze-worthy copy. Simply including your e-commerce keywords on the page is not enough.
Perhaps the company is more concerned with imagery than creative copy. Gripping visual content like images and videos are crucial product page elements. But if the text content is crap, this can be a considerable detriment to building excitement about a product.
How are you convincing someone to buy the item? If your copy is crap, then your page is crap. Not providing insight into why they should be excited and believe in you is a huge mistake.
Avoid the over-complicated language and jargon, and make your copy fun and relatable. E-commerce is an industry where it’s easy to be creative and not take yourself too seriously. Take advantage of that fact!
Provide All Necessary Context
Find creative ways to provide as much information as possible to inform the shopper without properly overwhelming them with badly written product information. You need to include all instructional information needs. Suppose you do not tell your potential consumers everything they need to know to make a purchase decision. In that case, they will go on to your competitors.
For example, if you’re selling a do-it-yourself (DIY) product, there need to be some assembly instructions. Consider using an engaging time-lapse video. One of the most crucial product page design strategies is to overcome a person’s objections as they reach that page.
Answer Questions
Before making a purchase, shoppers want to know what they’re buying. You probably won’t be able to anticipate every possible question that could arise. However, you will want to ensure customers have enough information to buy confidently.
If you’re selling a piece of clothing, for example, tell shoppers what fabric it is and how they can expect the item to fit. If you’re selling a piece of furniture, share the item’s dimensions, the materials used, and if it requires assembly once they receive it.
Showcase Your Ratings and Reviews
Ratings and reviews significantly affect conversions. You should enable potential customers to access reviews, including them directly after the product description.
It’s also a good practice to add aggregated information, such as the overall rating and average reviews with five stars, four stars, three stars, etc.
Make Reviews Easy to Scan
If your customers tend not to write in scannable prose, structure your review form so that it asks for short answers you can display as bullets. These questions should reflect the most important issues that prospective buyers encounter. You may also wish to rank reviews by “helpfulness,” placing the most persuasive and useful at the top.
Some e-commerce sites include a roundup of reviews outlining what customers liked and disliked about products to provide customers with a comprehensive, easy-to-read overview.
Leverage Social Sharing
Every product page should leverage the power of social media. Yes, your website should be promoting your brand’s social channels. Still, social buttons should allow the shopper to share the product on platforms like Instagram and Facebook on product pages.
For example, let’s say you’re shopping for a new pair of boots but realize the pair you want isn’t in your price range. An easy fix is to tweet the product to a loved one with a subtle hint: “@mom, add this to the birthday list, J.”
Even if your shopper doesn’t complete the transaction, there’s a chance they’ll promote it to their followers and perhaps convince others to buy from you.
Make Use of User-Generated Content
User-generated content, such as Instagram photos and rich-media reviews (including customer videos and images), is highly credible and social proof. If you can, consider including them on your product pages. They will help build engagement and bolster the positive effects of good reviews.
Including user-generated content from social media allows customers to see real-life product images. User-generated content adds an extra dimension to the shopping experience by showing consumers how your customers use your products.
Product Page Design Tips – Product Info
Make Key Product Info Stand Out
Here is another essential product page design tip. When structuring your product pages, show the “big five” elements prominently and in the same place. They are:
- Product Name
- Product Description
- Price
- Availability
- The “Add to Cart” button
Before a customer clicks on the main “Add to Cart” or “Buy Now” CTA, they need to know these critical pieces of information. Place them next to the main button on the page. This eliminates the need for many customers, particularly those who are ready to buy, to scroll down the page to find essential details.
Provide Detailed Product Specifications
Customers shopping in specific verticals will need precise information about products. For example, buyers of construction materials will likely need access to in-depth specs.
Even product pages of everyday retail products can usually appeal to a broader customer base by describing various features. Make your clothing items appealing to environmentally conscious buyers by including details about sustainable production methods.
Provide Customization Options if Applicable
There’s nothing more frustrating than product customization buttons that don’t work. If you’re selling items in several different styles, sizes, or custom features, ensure the options all work correctly.
It is also a good idea to include these options next to the CTA. The choice of which specific product to purchase is made immediately before adding it to the cart.
Product Page Design Tips – Product Images
Let Viewers See Product Details
Large images with lots of detail are among your most valuable assets as an online retailer. It’s important to remember that online customers will have a more comprehensive array of doubts than customers shopping in a brick-and-mortar store, where they can inspect items closely.
Your job is to replicate the high-street experience as closely as possible. Ensure that all images are big enough to see specific details. You don’t need to go overboard with images the size of a billboard. But all features and nuances should be visible.
You should use professional product photography and, ideally, optimize pages to show the most enticing photographs most prominently. Split-testing to find the best flagship image (the one visitors will see when they first land on a page) will provide you with concrete data to base your decision.
Let Viewers Enlarge Your Product Photos
The zoom function on photos can be a little challenging to get right. It’s crucial to ensure that images enlarge to an appropriate size (and don’t fill the whole screen). Users can easily bring other parts of the image into focus and quickly minimize the image to interact with other page elements.
Zoom features on images are essential because they replicate a person’s interactivity when shopping in a brick-and-mortar store. As part of your product page design process, test the zoom photo function and ensure that it fits the overall page experience.
Match Your Product Images to Your Page Design
Ensure that images are large enough and that the zoom feature works. It is also essential to enable viewers to see specific details, just as they would inspect a product in person, especially for products with many features.
High-quality pictures also communicate professionalism. If you display second-rate images, customers are more likely to question your brand’s and site’s integrity. Customers are also more likely to equate good photos with good products.
You’ve probably had the experience of landing on a website only to see pixelated, low-quality images. I’ll bet you didn’t stick around for long. Reviewing product images before publishing them is integral to e-commerce best practices.
Focus on Important Product Details
Certain products will have stand-out features that constitute major USPs. Whenever appropriate, these features should be accompanied by dedicated high-resolution, zoomable photographs.
It’s also essential to include photos highlighting the most notable features of products, like the soles of shoes, keyboards on laptops, and significant design features on clothing.
Also, make sure that product descriptions match images. If you reference specific features and USPs in descriptions, ensure there are corresponding images for customers to check. It is also worth organizing pictures of the most important features so customers see them first.
Make Your Product Galleries Easy to Navigate
Showing multiple pictures, even from similar angles, recreates the experience of handling a product. Customers usually want to see a product from numerous perspectives and build a complete understanding of it before purchase. This need is especially strong with certain products, like clothes and accessories, which require a lot of handling.
Keep in mind that online attention spans are notoriously limited. These images should be easy to scroll through, especially on mobile. If you make it difficult for users to view different photos quickly, you’re just increasing the likelihood they’ll leave the site.
Here’s a quick tip: ensure users can use both thumbs to scroll through mobile devices’ images. Don’t try to guess their favorite hand!
Use Lifestyle Images
Lifestyle images are a great way to tell your product’s story and help your customers imagine how they might use it in their everyday lives.
Another of our product page design tips is incorporating locations, props, and people to give your audience more context about what you are selling. For instance, if you sell swimwear, consider visiting the nearest pool (or beach) to take some photos. Or, if you’re a coffee roaster, you could round up a few friends and photograph them enjoying a cup of your newest blend—with the bag of beans prominently featured.
Include Model Information
Including information about the size of a piece of clothing and the model wearing it can prompt visitors with similar buy measurements. It will also put a product into perspective for the customer. Even customers who don’t have the same measurements will have a definite reference point for picking a size.
Remember, your customers are trying to quickly make an informed judgment about a piece of clothing without the luxury of trying it on. They’re unlikely to spend much time searching a product page for all the required information. Providing as many details as possible in one place increases the likelihood that customers will feel confident enough to buy.
Product Page Design Tips – Your CTAs
Craft Effective CTAs
An “imperative sentence” is one that “commands” a visitor to take action. “Add to cart” and “Click here to buy now” are examples. Don’t worry about upsetting or offending visitors. When used in the right way, imperatives don’t sound like commands.
It’s also worth testing variants of crucial phrases that include further prompts like offers and discounts. Terms like “Buy Now to Get 50% Off” or “Buy Before 5 PM for Free Delivery” are far more interesting than a generic “Buy Now.”
Place CTAs Above the Fold
Don’t make it hard for visitors to hit purchase! Including the buy button above the fold is one of our product page design tips that will significantly impact your product page conversions.
CTA placement is especially critical on mobile devices, where already-strained attention spans are shorter than usual! Most visitors will scroll down the page to find further information, but there is no harm in making it as easy as possible for those who don’t want to.
Instill a Sense of Urgency
Urgency is one of the most effective ways to boost product page conversions. Ensure you utilize at least some of the following techniques:
- Show how many people have recently bought a product (if it’s popular) or products from the same category.
- Show the number of people viewing an item.
- Guarantee the same or next-day delivery for an order made within a specific time.
- Include alerts about limited stock, for example, “Only one left. Buy now!”
- If specific product sizes have sold out, make that clear.
Product Page Design Tips – The Checkout Process
Keep Your Checkout Process Simple
Two elements need to be present to ensure that customers find it easy to navigate to the cart:
- A clear message that a customer has added a product to the cart. This confirmation will eliminate doubts about whether the product is in their shopping basket. Customers will often leave a site frustrated when the outcome of clicking the “Add to Cart” button isn’t clear.
- A clear button to go to the cart should appear in two places. Ideally, a CTA to go to the cart should appear immediately after a customer has selected a product. Add one in the sidebar so customers can click through to their cart anywhere on your site.
Accept Mobile Payments
Mobile payment allows customers to complete transactions in-store or from your e-commerce website through smartphones, smart watches, or tablets. It allows the customer to purchase products and services conveniently through encryption technology. Encryption technology will enable sellers to accept these payments connected through a third-party app linking the customer’s bank account, credit card, or debit card.
Offer Substitutes and Reminders
Discontinued products are items or item lines that you no longer stock. Many retailers assume that if a customer lands on a product page when an item is out of stock, they lose it completely. But this isn’t always the case. You can effectively take advantage of what would otherwise be “lost” traffic by including an email opt-in form and suggestions for similar products.
Don’t Hide Shipping Information
The lack of shipping information on product pages is one reason customers don’t add items to their carts. There is a common tendency among site visitors to expect exorbitant rates if they are not visible alongside the item price.
If you offer free or discounted shipping, display it visibly next to the primary CTA. Free shipping is a significant incentive for customers. If free or same-day shipping is time-limited—for example, if a purchase needs to be made before 5 PM to qualify—display this information.
Provide a Shipping Calculator if Required
Eliminating doubt is crucial to optimizing product pages for higher conversion rates. Providing clear information about the shipping price enables customers to decide whether an item fits within their budget.
Sometimes, however, it’s impossible to provide exact shipping rates. One example is industries like construction, where the shipping cost varies depending on the size of the order, the country (or country area) of delivery, time-sensitive prices offered by shipping companies, and more.
If this is the case, eliminate doubt as much as possible by including an estimated price or a shipping calculator that will provide a customized quote. Tell customers that shipping rates vary within a set of parameters. It is very unusual for prices to exceed these boundaries.
Remind Your Consumers of Their Options
If a customer has made a mistake by not selecting the required product features, notify them with a visible reminder near the primary CTA. It’s incredibly frustrating for consumers who can’t check out and are not told why. One of the easiest ways to improve your overall customer experience is by displaying notifications when a customer makes a mistake.
Suppose you have included product options next to the primary CTA. In that case, it will be easy for customers to rectify the mistake and move on to checkout with minimal friction.
A Few Simple Product Page Design Tweaks Make a Big Difference!
Don’t be put off by the number of our product page design strategies and tips! It is important to remember that most of the product page design tips on this list are nothing more than small tweaks.
However, while implementing these product page design tips only involves altering a few code lines, the results can be significant. Small changes to product descriptions, photographs, and design will often boost add-to-cart conversions by several percentage points.
As always, testing is the key. It is the only real way to pinpoint changes that will work for your store and your audience. Fortunately, running split tests for the product page design strategies outlined here is relatively simple. Once you have the baseline data, you can forge ahead with new improvements, brainstorm, and tweak even further.
How to Build Better Product Pages Yourself
Now that you have a list of product page design tips, it is time to implement them on your e-commerce site. You should maintain your online store by adding product information and images and updating content. As part of that process, you can implement some of our product page design strategies, such as adding testimonials and updating or adding product information.
Social media integration should be part of an organic social media strategy. You may also want to consider what other social media options you wish to add. And some of my recommendations to increase e-commerce sales may require additional help from your web designer or developer. If you don’t have a web designer or developer, here is a Guide To Hiring a Web Designer.
Keep Working at It
Building better product pages must be a primary objective if you want your online store to support your business objectives. But this is not a one-time effort. You must keep working on it to meet the user expectations of increasingly demanding and sophisticated mobile consumers. If you want to increase e-commerce sales, we are here to help!
Summing Up
Building a successful online store goes beyond simply showcasing product specs and images. To truly convert shoppers into loyal consumers, it is crucial to implement effective product page design strategies.
Following these 28 simple yet powerful tips, you can create high-converting product pages that exceed your target audience’s expectations and align with your business objectives.
Don’t miss out on the opportunity to maximize your online store’s potential. Contact us now for more information, and start optimizing your product pages today.
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By Gregor Saita
Co-Founder / CXO
@gregorsaita