Jun 15, 2021
In the State of Commerce 2021 report, Catalyst and Kantar emphasized that “product detail pages (PDPs) are one of the most critical elements of a brand’s eCommerce presence and yield significant influence over shopper purchase decisions.”
According to their study, 45% of online shoppers visited a PDP at the time of purchase. Among those ranked any touchpoint as #1, 41% said PDPs had the biggest influence on their purchase.
Unfortunately, not all brands understand the importance of PDPs. “Millions of dollars are spent on the brand’s website, but only a small fraction on the PDP, but it should be the opposite,” Rob Gonzalez, Salsify chief marketing officer and co-founder, said.
If you fall into this group and don’t know how to optimize your PDPs for conversions, then you’re in for a treat.
In this article, you’ll find 10 best practices and a checklist to create high-converting PDPs, which can help skyrocket your sales in a way you may not imagine. Frontier Blades did that, and their conversation rate increased 21% year-over-year—to 1.40% from 1.16%.
That’s amazing, right?
Alright, let’s dive in.
How to Build Product Detail Pages That Convert
Product Detail Page Design Checklist
Product description gives customers information about your product, what it is, and how it solves their problems. That’s why it has a huge impact on customers’ buying decisions. A product detail page is powerful when done right. However, too often retailers miss out on crucial details needed to convince and convert customers.
According to Periscope and McKinsey’s Retail reimagined: The new era for customer experience report, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, product description becomes much more important than ever. Since people can’t go to physical stores to see products, they rely heavily on product images and complete product details on retail websites to decide what to buy.
“The need for informative product descriptions and clear product images at a time when consumers couldn’t see, feel or test products in a store ranked as one of the top three factors for a great online browsing experience in all the countries we surveyed, increasing in importance by 12 to 23% from pre- to post-shutdown,” the report says.
Tips for writing compelling product description:
Case in point:
Enhanced content (or rich media) refers to high-quality images, videos, chart comparisons, 360 spins, visual graphics, or interactive content—it goes beyond regular product images. Enhanced content is widely used in many industries like CPG, consumer electronics, hardware, home appliances, furniture, and clothing.
Showing enhanced content on PDPs is a great way to make your products stand out, provide a better shopping experience, and improve conversions. For example, Amazon A+ content increased sales by 10%. Rich content also helps Walmart convert up to 12-36% more frequently.
Here is a good example of using enhanced content on PDPs from Lowes.
Tips for creating the best product pages with enhanced content:
A call to action (CTA) button indicates a message designed to prompt immediate action.
On PDPs, a typical CTA button is “Add to Cart” or “Add to Bag.” But since Shopify introduced the dynamic checkout button, some online stores show another CTA like “Buy It Now” or “Buy Now” or “Checkout Now.”
Adding a dynamic checkout button to your PDPs is a smart tactic because it allows shoppers to skip the cart and quickly buy the product they’re viewing. The caveat is you can’t upsell, and shoppers may find it hard to buy more than one item per order.
Tips for creating a call to action button that works:
Case in point:
According to RILA and Accenture’s Delivering For The New Consumer report, 63% of consumers are interested in personalized recommendations.
The reason is understandable: we all have time constraints — we don’t have enough time to spend hours just finding a product. What’s more, with many choices out there, it’s not easy to find the exact item we’re looking for. Because of that, we may end up buying an item with a high level of cognitive dissonance or not purchasing at all.
That’s why providing personalized product recommendations will help you get more customers and drive more sales. According to Barilliance, “personalized product recommendations induce more conversions, as customers who click on the product recommendations have a 5.5 times higher conversion rate than those who do not. Overall, the personalized product recommendations account for 12% of total revenues.”
For example, using Insider’s AI-powered product recommendation solution, Maty drove a 6.69% uplift in Average Order Value (AOV) and a 9.69% uplift in incremental revenue. Avon achieved the same results with our smart recommendations — their AOV increased by 11% and click-through rate by 13%.
Tips for personalizing product recommendations on PDPs:
Customers will compare products or prices when shopping. So you should allow them to do that well on your online store, especially on PDPs. That way, your customers can know if the product they’re viewing is the best choice or they should switch to another option.
With Insider’s Web Versus solution, you can provide shoppers an easy way to find and compare products from their past browsing behavior.
Here is a good example from FashionValet:
Another way to show product comparison is showing a table as Leesa does below:
Tips for creating product comparison on PDPs:
Social proof indicates ratings and reviews, testimonials, press logos, number of recent purchases, case studies, etc. Social proof works because we’re influenced by others’ opinions. If our friends or someone we admire trusts something, we’re more likely to trust it as well.
According to PowerReviews’ research, using social proof is great for increasing customers’ trust and driving sales:
Yves Rocher, a leading French plant-based cosmetics and beauty brand, is an excellent example of using reviews to boost sales. Using Insider’s social proof solution, the brand increased conversion rates by 4.49%.
Here is another example from Eight Vape:
Tips for using social proof to have the best product page designs:
A frequently asked questions (FAQ) section isn’t just there to address common questions about a given product, but it’s also effective to remove doubts, build trust, and delight customers.
And guess what? When your customers have the answers they need, the high chance is that they’ll make a purchase.
To create FAQs, think about common questions your customers may have when shopping online or buying the product type you’re selling. For example, return policies, shipping options, taxes, and order issues are common problems.
Case in point:
Tips for showing FAQ on PDPs:
Concerns about security and payment are one of the top reasons for high abandoned carts. Brands often use trust badges to solve this problem.
Trust badges are a type of social proof typically shown during the checkout process. However, more and more retailers are placing them on their PDPs as well to instill shoppers’ trust.
According to Bill Joseph, founder of Frontier Blades, “trust badges can propel indecisive customers to lean towards making a purchase because it gives them a sense of contentment with any payment security concerns.”
Here is a good example from Avocado Green Mattress:
Tips for showing trust badges on PDPs:
Last chance, low in stock, X left, almost gone, today-only offer, or limited-time sales — if you’re an avid online shopper, you may have seen these words many times.
Case in point:
That’s scarcity and urgency marketing.
In a case study, CXL added urgency to a PDP and got a 17.1% revenue lift. A split test also showed that when a countdown timer was placed on a PDP, it converted nearly 9% better than when no countdown timer is displayed.
So, why do urgency and scarcity work?
It’s because, as human beings, we procrastinate and tend to delay our decisions to buy. According to a study done by Centre De Recherche DMSP, consumers that were seen as high procrastinators had a 73% chance to not buy immediately. Consumers that were determined to be low procrastinators still had a 26% chance.
But when we know we’re about to lose something, we’ll take action to get it as quickly as possible. We don’t want to miss out on a good opportunity.
Tips for apply urgency and scarcity marketing to create PDPs:
Another great way to increase conversion rates and average order value (AOV) is product bundling.
A product bundle is a curated collection of complementary products that can be purchased together.
Here is an excellent example from VaporDNA:
According to Shopify, product bundles brought great results for many brands:
Tips for making product bundling work for your business:
Use the checklist below to create the best product page designs for your online store. Check off everything you’re currently working on, and then you’ll see how good or bad your PDPs are.
Exclusive Bonus: Bring your PDPs to a higher level of success! Click here to get 7 more useful design tips and see your sales skyrocket.
Approximately 69% of shoppers will abandon product detail pages that lack information. No doubt, these pages can make or break your business.
With this guide, you’ve learned 10 best practices to create killer PDPs. Try all of them and do multiple A/B tests until you find ones that help achieve your desired results.
Don’t forget to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter for more advice about conversion optimization and customer experience.
Written by
Divya Murugesan
A product marketer by craft and business storyteller at heart, Divya has 8+ years of experience in positioning and crafting powerful technology product stories. At Insider, she's extending her passion by marketing and launching Insider products out in the world. Divya also actively influences women's representation in the tech space through various tech and socio-economic initiatives outside of work.