Did you know that the average global ecommerce conversion rate across different industries was 1.53% in February 2022? 

This practically means that only 1.53% of all your ecommerce store visitors will end up purchasing from you. 

One thing that can make a huge difference and boost your conversions is the design of your product pages because that’s where sales actually happen. So, if you don’t perfect the anatomy of a perfect product page, what you’ll get is a lot of tire-kicking and not that much profit.

Here are some product page design best practices that will prevent the leaky bucket effect and direct your potential buyers toward the shopping cart. 

Travis Jamison

Founder, INVESTING.io

“You’re in luck – the product you’re viewing is now $19.99 instead of $29.29!”

The above sentence will immediately spark enthusiasm in your potential customers because it sets a higher initial price and shows that it’s a great bargain.

This practice of establishing a price point that will serve as a reference that buyers can use when making a purchasing decision is called price anchoring.

So, presenting that the price is discounted will get customers all worked up and thinking that it’s an irresistible offer. Plus, the perceived value of your product will be increased.

Given that 95% of purchasing decisions are subconscious, such an obvious advantage as a discounted price will play an important role in the process.

Here are a couple of ways to implement this effective strategy:

01/ Competitor Price Comparison

Using your competitors’ prices as anchors is an excellent tactic for showing how your product or service stacks up against competitors in terms of pricing.

Evaluating different products simultaneously, side-by-side, is much more impactful than simply stating that your product is more affordable than your competitors’ solutions. Plus, it’s much easier for your customers to visualize the difference in price.

Supply makes a case for choosing their razors over their competitors’ on their Single Edge 2.0 page. They do so by crunching the numbers and producing a detailed plan of how much their customers can save over a year.

Source: Supply

Source: Firepit Surplus

02/ Strike-Through Method

Vendors frequently use the strike-through price anchoring tactic, which consists of advertising a product at a higher initial price, then crossing that price out and displaying a lower final price right next to it.

This method employs the so-called anchoring bias. Simply put, it plays on people’s tendency to place the most importance on the first piece of information they get.

So, the initial price, in a way, sets the bar, thus affecting your customers’ expectations and influencing the way they respond to how much you charge for your product. If the initial price is higher, they will automatically think about how much they will save by purchasing from you.

Fire Pit Surplus leverages this clever reframing on their Elementi Boulder page to nudge their customers into clicking the Add to Cart button.

03/ Goldilocks Pricing

Drawing the analogy from the Goldilock and the Three Bears fairy tale, this marketing concept rests on offering your customers a three-tiered pricing model – low, high, and just right.

Surround your most optimal, best-buy option with a low-tier price, for which they get a lite version of your product or service, and a high-tier price, which offers premium features. This simple trick will establish the two extremes serving as anchor prices and subtly direct your customers towards the ideal middle tier.

Although this multi-tiered pricing is mainly used for services, Apple also leverages it for some of its products. For example, this is how the company establishes the pricing middle ground for the MacBook Pro models.

Source: Apple

The fear of missing out – FOMO – is a very powerful motivator. And you can capitalize on it by creating a sense of scarcity and urgency.

Scarcity refers to the seemingly limited availability of a particular product that prompts customers to make a purchase before it’s sold out. The principle of scarcity is based on people’s psychological inclination to value rare or unique options and opportunities more. That’s why it’s one of Dr. Robert Cialdini’s six principles of influence that can drive conversions. Plus, seeing that a product is selling like hotcakes is proof that it’s a great buy, validated by countless others.

Similarly, urgency is a time-sensitive tactic that works by putting pressure on buyers and compelling them to purchase a product before it’s no longer available or the special offer expires.

Amazon, for example, combines urgency and scarcity by showing that a particular supplier is running low on stock and displaying how many items are left. This not only shows that the product is popular but also that there’s not much time to ponder ordering as the product might be gone in a snap.

Use every opportunity to grab the attention of potential customers once they land on your product page.

This means pulling out big guns, which in this case is video.

Why describe how your product works and what its benefits are when you can show all this using video?

Australian fashion marketplace The Iconic makes great use of video on their product pages, showing the garments in real life. Potential buyers can see the movement of the garment and fit of the garment, all accessible within the product imagery.

Surveys say that 66% of people prefer watching videos to reading product descriptions.

Plus, product pages that feature video experience 37% more add-to-cart conversions than those without it.

Our brains process visual information better, making video more memorable and entertaining than reading. A recent study has shown that text-based emails trigger fatigue and negative emotions, while video messages make recipients happy.

Another very effective way of implementing video on your product page is by integrating it into the product image gallery. That way, customers won’t have trouble finding it.

Here’s how JBL eliminates the need for scrolling up and down in search of the video on their Flip 6 page:

Source: The Iconic

Source: JBL

Cross-Sell Intelligently

Source: Nordstrom

Cross-selling is a tactic that can increase the average order value (AOV) of a product or the lifetime value (LV) of a customer.

You’ve already familiar with the generic “how about some fries with that burger” tactic, but in ecommerce, the process is a bit more complex. You can’t simply offer a customer who decided to put a product in the shopping cart another random item you stock and expect them to say, “OK, I’ll take that too.”

This tactic won’t work unless you create a legit connection between what the shopper is about to purchase and another product you also want them to buy.

In a nutshell, you need to personalize their entire purchasing experience.

That’s where relevant product recommendations and the “customers who viewed/bought this product also viewed” approach comes in handy. This super useful data-driven feature is what accounts for 35% of what customers purchase on Amazon.

Nordstrom takes the whole cross-sell concept to a whole new level by offering entire looks that go with a particular item based on different styles and parameters, such as perfect golfer, business casual, or playful workday. For example, on their Versa Dot Stretch Polo page they list several products that would go well with the shirt.

Combine UGC with Social Proof

More than 80% of consumers do extensive online research before buying anything.

In 2021, almost 70% of shoppers read between one and six customer reviews on average before making a purchasing decision.

These stats show the power of social proof, and you want someone to vouch for the quality of your product and customer service. But not just someone – you need an actual customer to genuinely endorse you.

Let’s not forget that as many as 82% of people report experiencing buyer’s remorse after the purchase. This unpleasant feeling of regret and questioning the item they bought can lead to product returns.

One way out of this is drumming up excitement and FOMO in your potential customers by showing them how happy those who bought a particular product from you are.

You can add an extra layer of credibility by combining user-generated content with social proof. Such a mix of tactics comes across as more genuine and trustworthy since people are more likely to trust their peers than brands.

To leverage user-generated social proof, add customer reviews to your product pages. It will help convince shoppers who are on the fence that the particular item they’re looking at is a great buy.

Marks & Spencer features customer reviews and ratings on its product pages, so that store visitors can read what others think about an item and how it fits them. This can be particularly useful since online shopping doesn’t allow consumers to feel or try on the item they want to purchase, and the opinions of those who have that product can be valuable.

Mannequin Mall brings authenticity to user reviews by allowing customers to upload their own photos and show how their purchases look once they’ve been deployed. This, combined with a glowing review, is a terrific way to generate both trust and FOMO.

Source: Marks & Spencer

Source: Mannequin Mall

Address Shipping Early On

If you play all your cards right, the customer will finally put an item in the shopping cart. But, a deal is still far from being done.

On average, 69.2% of people abandon the online shopping cart. The top reason for shopping cart abandonment during checkout is high extra costs – shipping costs, taxes, and fees.

Shipping costs can add up, and customers want to know how much they will have to pay to have their order delivered. So transparency is crucial.

But, since nobody likes unpleasant surprises, make sure to inform your customers about their total order costs on the product page. The surveys show that this is what 64% of users expect to see before they put a product in the shopping cart. American Eagle avoids springing shipping costs on their customers later in the process by displaying a convenient Shipping + Returns guidelines chart. This way, customers get an accurate shipping cost estimate and can decide whether they want to proceed or not.

Stores that ship to different regions or internationally can implement location-based shipping costs to cover all their expenses related to transport expenses. 

Amazon does a great job when it comes to this because it automatically calculates shipping costs based on the customers’ location and displays the total order cost. Here are the examples of the same product shipped to Australia and the UK: 

Source: American Eagle

Source: Amazon 

It’s worth noting that the importance of displaying shipping costs early on in the process is higher for lower-priced products. That’s because in those cases, the costs can take up a great portion of the total price. For high-end products, shipping costs don’t play a significant role in influencing a purchasing decision since they constitute a smaller percentage of the product price. 

Product page design can be a make-it-or-break-it factor when it comes to ecommerce store conversion rates. Having a well-designed product page that adheres to UX best practices will result in more purchases, which is why you should pay attention to every minuscule detail. By implementing these tips, you’ll be able to make the most of this valuable real estate.

Travis Jamison is an entrepreneur turned investor. After selling a couple of businesses, he shifted his focus toward investing. But he was disappointed by the lack of options for entrepreneurial-type investments – like buying websites & investing in small, bootstrapped businesses. So he started Investing.io to provide a home for other entrepreneurs turned investors.