Product images are the most important component Having beautiful relevant quality images is more important than the product information, a long description and ratings & reviews.   According to MDG, here’s the breakdown of what customers said is important to them: Quality of a product image – 67% Product-specific information – 63% Long description – […]

On mobile, there are 4 main approaches No zoom feature, but users can pinch to zoom in the page, which also zooms in the product image. Allow to zoom within the product gallery area (and it does NOT zoom the rest of the page) Opening an overlay panel above the page with all the larger […]

Don’t hide it, make it stand out Use a contrasting color Use a larger font size If the product is discounted, show how much they save (amount and/or %), instead of only showing the regular and discounted price.   A Better Lemonade Stand’s advice on pricing (source) Use round prices for emotional impulsive purchases Use […]

Video works Video appears in 70% of the top 100 search results listings, and viewers are anywhere from 64-85% more likely to buy after watching a product video. (source) Here’s a good article by Shopify about video   Some giant stores don’t have product videos Knowing the power and impact of video, that is usually […]

Give them a preview That way, shoppers can quickly get the essence of what the product is about, and read more if they want to.   I like how IKEA has done it, with a Read More link that scrolls the page down to the extended Product Description section.     Lower on the product […]

Easy to digest Whether in the homepage, product page, or About page, the text needs to be easy to digest. Bold important sentences or parts of sentences so that someone only reading those bold parts will get the gist of it quickly. Avoid bolding single words. A single word doesn’t give enough meaning to people […]

Address their concerns For example, do they have doubts about their efficacy compared to other products? The more objections and concerns they have, the more you need to address those objections and educate them.   Start with the most important And don’t waste the first few sentences of your description, that’s what your shoppers read […]

That can be in a tab, section, or link Make it easy for your shoppers to find that information. It is crucial for your shoppers to make their purchasing decision.

Don’t force them to calculate Don’t force your users to calculate when their package will arrive. Typically, stores only mention a number of days or a range of days. Simply tell them on which date it will arrive (if you’re able to estimate it). If you cannot estimate it accurately, then give them a range of […]

List out the components This can be done in a few ways: Show the included components / accessories in a product image Have a separate section ‘Included in kit’, with a thumbnail for each. Put it in the description as well.   IKEA is missing thumbnails On IKEA, how are we supposed to know what […]

What not to do This is strangest quantity selector I’ve ever seen on desktop. A perfect example of what NOT to do:     Steppers On both desktop and mobile, instead of a dropdown or only a text field, I recommend having steppers to increase and decrease the quantity, with an editable quantity field.   […]

Aim to get 10+ reviews per product, which is enough for shoppers to make an informed decision. If a big percentage of your products have zero or only a few reviews, that can hurt your conversions.   How? Place the Write a Review button prominently in the Reviews section  Offer sweepstakes or discounts in exchange […]

This applies only if your product variants are on separate pages. The idea here is that product variants are the same product, just in a different color, for example. so the same product description and reviews should be shown across those variants. A more common design is to merge all variants on the same product […]

Load variants in the same page In all these examples that follow except for Crutchfield, selecting another variant does not load another page – it loads in the same page. So while this recommendation applies technically only to the way Crutchfield implemented variations (a page for each), the way the other sites interlinked variants simplifies […]

Confusion is the enemy of conversion Make it clear to the shopper which variant they’re currently looking at. This can easily be done by having a different title for each variant. In the Crutchfield example below, it’s clear that we’re looking at the 65′ version of that screen.

FAQ If your products are complex and generate lots of questions, having a FAQ section for each product can make sense. Otherwise, a general FAQ for the whole site is enough.   User Q&A According to Inflow’s research, user Q&As are growing in popularity and are becoming standard with many review platforms. This is especially […]

Give them a reason to Users might submit a review without having to ask for it, but it sure helps to ask! Even better, give them an incentive, such as the chance to win something.    Warning You’ll have to check what your local laws stipulate, but from what I understand they have to be […]

VWO’s study A case study done by VWO revealed that removing social share buttons increased conversions by 11.9%. But that’s one of those things that you should definitely test. It will depend on your audience.   Some nuance by members One of the members of my Ecom Convert group mentioned that they’re getting a lot […]

This also goes for the “Continue to Checkout” button in the Cart: make it sticky on mobile. On desktop, you can either do the same as on mobile, or you can have a large button (or two – one at the top and one at the bottom of the Cart page) with a contrasting color. […]

It’s the most important button Choose a color that is both contrasting and fits your brand Make sure the Add to Cart button attracts the most attention on the page, compared to other buttons or links   Be descriptive Test descriptive labels for the button. For example, if you promise to deliver the next day, […]

USP stands for Unique Selling Proposition.   Prime real estate As the Add to Cart button attracts a lot of attention (if it is contrasting and prominent), right under it is a great place to remind your shoppers of some key differentiators for your store.   USP examples Free shipping Same day delivery 60 day […]

A reason to bounce “Email Me” buttons or waitlists are ineffective for out-of-stock products, because users will just go shop somewhere else.   Let them buy anyway Allow instead users to purchase temporarily out-of-stock products, warn them, and increase the delivery time. Also prominently display product alternatives.   Discontinued products For discontinued or deprecated products, […]

The key is relevance This section encourages shoppers to explore other products. But if those suggestions have nothing to do with the product they’re currently viewing (or other products they recently viewed), then it will just be noise to them.

Users don’t see them According to Baymard, 27% of users overlook the hidden content in the inactive tabs. The example below from Crutchfield contains horizontal tabs.   Accordion An accordion (expandable tabs) or a long expanded page with sticky tabbed navigation on scroll both perform better than horizontal tabs. Here’s what an Accordion looks like: […]

Easier to consume Grouping information into logical sections makes it easier to digest.  

If your product has a lot of specs, then the most important ones should be highlighted in a summary section at the top. That will draw their attention to those specs. 

Add horizontal and vertical shading, icons, and lines.

Avoid having multiple specs per row, which is overwhelming to go through.

Summarize the ratings Users rely on it even more than the content of individual reviews to provide the overall picture of how other users experience a product. Without a ratings distribution summary at the top of the review section, shoppers are likely to let the first few reviews determine how positively or negatively they perceive […]

Say it again On the product page, your shipping and return information needs to be reiterated. If your unique selling points (see BP #70) under the Add to Cart button already mention your shipping and returns, then ignore this best practice. Otherwise, it should be mentioned somewhere close to the Add to Cart button. Having […]

If your shipping isn’t free If you offer free shipping on all purchases, then ignore this best practice.   Some data About 21% of US online shoppers abandon orders because they aren’t able to see the total order cost upfront before checking out. And about 64% of users look for shipping costs on the product […]

Having to scroll through image gallery thumbnails is a pain, especially on desktop. Users need to click the small scroll arrows.   The two options are: Show all thumbnails. This is a problem only if your product has more images than fits under the image gallery, so typically more than 10-15 thumbnails. Truncate and have […]

Help shoppers get a sense of the product’s size When shopping in a physical store, it’s easy to judge the scale of products. Online, it’s much harder. According to Baymard’s usability research, 42% of users try to estimate the product’s size from its product images. They also found that 56% of test subjects’ first action […]

On the product page Compatible products can be for example accessories and attachments.

On the product list Avoid all types of ads above or within the product list Avoid text ads below the product list Avoid overlay dialogs on page load   Other prime locations Avoid highly graphical ads in prime content locations on the homepage (especially when it comes to competitions and discounts)   These are fine […]

Users seek them out According to Baymard, 53% of users specifically seek out the negative reviews for one or more products they are interested in. 37% of users also positively factor in any site responses to negative reviews.   Respond If you’re avoiding negative reviews at all cost or hiding them, you’re missing out on […]

Separate title components A product title that contains everything in it is very hard to decipher. It’s convenient for you the store owner, but not for the shopper.   Separate the title from the rest (brand, type, specs).   (source)

Different images I’ve seen several of the stores I did a mini-teardown with that showed the same product image no matter the variant selected, and it creates a lot of friction for the user. It makes very hard for them to choose the right variant for them. Instead, have a different image for each color […]

Hard to read One of the members of my Ecom Convert group shared some interesting research about ALL CAPS text in a comment to a mini-teardown last week: Roughly 90% of people find all-capped text to be harder to read, in general.   These two articles were given as sources: https://premium.wpmudev.org/blog/styling-text-website-research/ https://blog.prototypr.io/all-caps-on-ui-good-or-bad-2570f14dc457     I […]

Mix & match Give your shoppers the option to mix & match. Mixed bundling: products in the bundle can be purchased individually also. Pure bundling: products are only available together and cannot be bought separately.   Nintendo offering mixed bundling Timothy Derdenger and Vineet Kumar from Harvard Business School  discovered that when Nintendo offered mixed […]

Add a measure If your shoppers wonder about the size of your products, adding a size comparison image is important. In this example, they sell plants, and put the plant side-by-side with an adult, to give you an idea of its size.   Add a person If the comparison is a person, you can mention […]

Wrong size 46% of shoppers return their products due to having the wrong size (source)   Fit finder Beyond a sizing chart, a fit quiz (fit finder) can be a great additional to make the experience of finding the right size smoother and less likely to result in a return.

Avoid dropdowns Avoid having users select a color from a dropdown with color labels (‘red’, ‘black’, etc.). Make them choose the color variant from a list of color swatches (circles or squares filled with color) or small thumbnails of the product in different colors. If some of your products have multi-color design variants and some […]

Default values By having default values selected, it avoids user errors.   Scroll to fields in error But if you do choose to leave some fields empty, such as a shoe size, then the best way to help the user quickly resolve their mistake (of not selecting a value) is to scroll to that field, […]

On mobile It should be possible to swipe through the images instead of having to click on each thumbnail. Considering that 53% of global online traffic comes from mobile devices (for the US, it is 57%), this is especially important to a good user experience.

How? Add a tag or text label if the product is low on stock (you can also specify how many you have left in stock) Add a countdown timer if the product is on sale for a limited time (but avoid fake countdowns just for the sake of urgency!) Add a countdown timer to qualify […]

On the product page There are several types of cross-sell sections that you can add: People who viewed this product also viewed People who bought this product also bought You might also like May we suggest Complete the look More items in the collection Other products from the same brand Other products from the same […]

In the product page Not being able to check in-store availability can be a major pain point. Whether they want to go to the store and try the product or whether they to pick up their order in store, showing the in-store availability is a must. 

What makes a good title? Avoid cramming your product title with keywords just for the sake of SEO. Make sure they’re readable and easily understandable by a human. Include a benefit or use for the product Include some detail about the current variant (see best practice #62 for more details on variant titles) Separate the […]

Yes/no question The standard way to do this is to ask the question “Was this review helpful?” and give them two choices: thumbs up / thumbs down. Alternatively, the choices can be yes / no.