When I work with clients who are new to e-commerce, they often ask me about product descriptions. What should they say? How long should they be? What format is best? It’s no wonder they are worried — the quality of a product description can make or break a sale, especially if it doesn’t include the information a shopper needs to make a purchase decision. Providing key product details is critical if you want the shopper to click “Add to Cart.”
Recently during our 3 Keys to Next-Level Conversion webinar, I recommended doing an audit of your checkout process to determine if the heavy lifting was done by your store or your customers. Seeing as tax season is wrapping up, the word “audit” may strike fear into your heart — but a checkout audit is much easier and more pleasant.
Tell me honestly — is your e-commerce website optional? Or does it really mean some serious business for you? I ask because if your site is really something you value, then you absolutely need to understand the power of A/B testing. Read the rest of this entry »
For our shiny new infographic, we looked at a range of e-commerce studies to pinpoint exactly what consumers value when shopping online.
We cover the top 10 factors influencing a purchasing decision, the most important store features, the impact of social media on shopping and more. By focusing on the right areas of your business and your store, you can make it more consumer-friendly, meaning you’ll sell more. Which is what Bigcommerce is all about. Read the rest of this entry »
This second installment tackles how to increase your conversion rate by focusing on your site’s look, feel and overall user experience.
Before you invest any money in paid search campaigns, display advertising or social media ads, it’s imperative that you get your homepage and site structure down cold. You can drive all the traffic in the world, but if you don’t optimize your site design for conversion, you won’t get a return on that investment.
Turning shoppers into buyers starts with a quick glance at your homepage.
Put on your “customer hat” (mine is a customer fez) and take a look at your homepage. Now ask yourself two questions:
If you answer no to either or both questions, it’s time to work on your site. There are a number of areas you can improve to impact conversion, but let’s start with the most basic: design.
When someone visits your online store, it should be painfully obvious what you sell. The best way to do this it to keep your store design clean and professional, with lots of large, high-quality images. A busy, cluttered design distracts shoppers from what you want them to do: view — and ultimately buy — your wonderful products.
Here are two examples of stores selling the same products in very different ways.
It’s a pretty stark difference. Example A is almost all text. You really have to look around for clues that they sell bicycles. That doesn’t get you excited about buying from them. Meanwhile, Example B has bikes all over the place. Plus they use the word “bicycle” in their logo, tagline and various other places around the site. There’s no way someone will think they sell organic dog cologne or sleeveless tuxedos (both ideas are copyrighted by me — no stealing!)
Note the use of a rotating image container on Example B (we call this a “carousel” in the biz). This is a great way to show off your products. At Bigcommerce, we have a carousel builder that lets you easily add images and text to show off your goods. If you sadly don’t use our platform, you can find some bolt-on carousel solutions or have a developer add one to your site. Another great way to use a carousel is to display promotions — more on that a bit later.
In a consumer study by Oneupweb, 70.8% of shoppers said that having products displayed on the homepage is an influential factor in purchasing. When choosing images to feature, remember that it’s a proven best practice to display your most popular products. It may seem a little counterintuitive at first: after all, if they’re so popular, why not promote a product that doesn’t get as much love? It’s because you want to show off products that are proven crowd-pleasers so they help increase a shopper’s interest in your store. Hopefully you already know your bestsellers; if not, you can use tools like SumAll or Google Analytics to figure it out.
Another important difference between the two sites is that Example B has a much cleaner, professional design. Not only is it product-focused, but it looks like they spent some time and money in building it. That really helps credibility. That same Oneupweb study found that 76.5% of those asked rated a site looking credible and trustworthy as an important influence in purchasing, and 66.7% said that a site needs to be visually appealing.
A final reason why Example B wins in our Conversion Optimization Thunderdome (two pages enter, one page leaves): it features simple, easy-to-use navigation. There are just a few major categories on the top nav row, and each expands on mouse-over to show all the related sub-categories. Contrast that to Example A, which throws every subcategory on a left-hand nav column. It not only looks messy, but it turns browsing into hunting. You’re not trying to overwhelm shoppers with the width and breadth of your catalog; you’re trying to make it easy for them to peruse your site and find products they like.
One final point so I don’t seem like I’m throwing the fine folks at Example A under the bus: the image I’m using is from an older design. They’ve since reworked their site to make it more product-focused and navigable. Good for them!
Another way to help increase your credibility with shoppers is to display your phone number prominently on every page, preferably right in the site header. This lets people know you’re not a fly-by-night operation, and that they can buy from you with confidence. It also gives them the sense that if they have any issues with your products or your store, help is just a phone call away.
Here are a couple of Bigcommerce stores who know what’s up:
You may have noticed that some of my site examples have copy that calls out certain policies or features, like free shipping or a return policy. That’s a great way of addressing possible objections someone might have about buying from you before they even think to raise them.
Here’s another example to refresh your memory:
See how they mention free shipping, their easy return policy and their low-price guarantee at the top of the site for all to see? Those are all potential pain points that they’ve addressed so visitors can shop without worrying about them.
Shipping is the most important to address, because it’s the top reason shoppers abandon a shopping cart. A Forrester study showed that 44% of carts are abandoned because of high shipping costs. And of course price is always an issue, and return policies are a big deal for online stores.
If you offer free shipping, have a great return policy, offer a price guarantee or do anything else that can help shoppers decide to buy from you, make sure to display them loud and proud on your homepage. And try to make them as detailed as possible given the small space. It’s much better to say “Free shipping on $99+ orders” than just “Free shipping*.” Be as clear as possible about your consumer-friendly policies so that the expectations are properly set from the start. Nobody wants to be surprised by shipping costs at the last minute because their order didn’t meet your minimum.
And speaking of unexpected surprises, another thing nobody likes is feeling deceived by prices or shipping costs. It’s important to be as clear as possible in your pricing.
You already know that 44% of carts are abandoned because of high shipping costs, but the same study showed that 25% were abandoned because the product cost more than expected and 22% because shipping costs were listed too late in the process. So a full 91% of carts are abandoned for price- or shipping-related reasons.
If that wasn’t enough to convince you, in the Oneupweb consumer study I mentioned earlier, a crazy-high (but completely understandable) 95.5% of respondents cited clearly stated pricing and shipping information as an influential factor in making a purchase decision. Don’t be a victim!
Make sure a product’s price is clearly stated, whether on your homepage or on the product page itself. If at all possible, try to calculate taxes and shipping on add to cart so that your shoppers know the final price before they ever get to checkout.
Remember how I told you earlier that 76.5% of shoppers surveyed said that a site looking credible and trustworthy was an important factor in their decision to buy? One easy way to improve your credibility is by borrowing some from trusted organizations.
By associating your store with groups and brands shoppers trust, some of that trust rubs off on you. Studies by McAfee and VeriSign show that online sales can increase by up to 36% when a retail site displays familiar trustmarks.
So get validated by groups that represent security and good business practices such as VeriSign, TRUSTe and the Better Business Bureau, then display their logos prominently in your site’s header or footer. It’s also a good idea to add logos of the major credit cards and other payment methods you accept, as well as those of major brands you sell.
Some more examples from our fantastic clients:
If you read the first entry in this series, you already know that featuring product reviews can improve sales by up to 18%. And my favorite study ever by Oneupweb showed that customer reviews and testimonials are considered an important purchasing factor by 40.9% of respondents. But why save all that goodness for your product pages?
You can pull a few of your most effusive reviews and add them right to your homepage in the form of testimonial quotes. Bonus points if you can get a photo to go along with the quote and customer name — seeing that real people have purchased and liked your products or services will increase your credibility with shoppers.
Here’s a familiar example:
As you can see, this incredibly sexy website uses testimonials on the homepage, all with great quotes, customer names and images.
One way to set your store apart from the literally bajillions (okay, that’s literally not a number) of people selling online is to tell your unique story. The easiest way to do that is with an About Us page that you link to in your site nav. With Bigcommerce it’s especially easy, because we build in an About Us page. But even if your platform of choice doesn’t, it’s worth the effort.
Here are a couple of Bigcommerce clients who understand the awesome might of the About Us page:
If you click through on each image, you’ll see that both owners tell a personal story about how and why they started their stores. That builds a connection with shoppers and gives them a good reason to buy from these stores over others.
Think about what makes your e-commerce story unique, endearing, funny or memorable. Then tell your shoppers on an About Us page.
Another way to entice shoppers to buy from you — especially new customers — is to display a promotional offer on your homepage. Everybody loves a deal, and when you offer a percentage off certain items or discounted/free shipping, a new customer is more likely to give you a try. After they experience your amazing service and delightful products, they’ll come back for more at full price.
If you have a homepage carousel like we talked about earlier, it’s easy to create simple graphics that display your special offer. If the offer is a percentage off items in a certain category, make sure you link to that category right form the promo image so shoppers know exactly what they can get the discount on. If the offer requires a promo code, display that in the graphic largely and in chargely.
Here are a couple of promos that I like:
Why? Both link to a category page that includes all on-sale items. The first promo really catches the eye with a high-contrast background color and large type, while the second places a focus on the offer, includes an end date to add a sense of urgency, features a product shot and loves America.
Another type of promotional graphic that’s become increasingly popular lately is the promo strip. The nice thing about that option is that it sits right under your main nav bar, meaning it’s visible on every page of your site.
No matter how you decide to display your offer, picking the offer itself is critical. How do you choose? Testing! Start with something you know you can afford — like 20% off one of your higher-margin products — then test multiple variations until you find something that hits the sweet spot. When looking at your analytics, focus on sales from new visitors, as that’s who you’re really targeting with offers.
Even after you find a deal that converts, don’t just set it and forget it. You need to regularly refresh your promo creative and continue to test new deals.
Here’s my video response to Sarah Lacy’s PandoDaily article ”Andreessen predicts the death of traditional retail. Yes: Absolute death”.
First, let’s talk about your product pages. They’re the most important part of your store, not just because they inform customers about your products and entice them to buy from you, but because good product pages help with your search engine rankings and actually bring in more customers in the first place. Improving your product pages is one of the easiest things you can do to improve your sales, and all it takes is a bit of time.
You want your product name to be descriptive so customers know exactly what you’re selling, and also to increase your search engine rank — the more specific your description, the fewer websites you’ll be competing with when someone searches for that product.
For example, you could use a generic product name like “Creatine Powder,” but that has more than 2 million hits on Google. You want to use a specific name like “Musashi Arouse Pre Workout Creatine Phosphate Blend,” which only has 247,000 hits. Just by using a specific product name, you’ve cut out more than 1.7 million competing pages.
An added benefit is that visitors who search for specific keywords (like those you’ve included in your now excellent product name) are much more likely to buy than those who search for generic terms. Now that you’ve got a great product name, make sure you’re putting it in your product page URL, heading and breadcrumb. If you’re on Bigcommerce, we do this for you automatically (because we love you). 
Learning to write a killer product description is key to increasing your sales. Again, you’re providing customers with the information they need to make a buying decision, but you’re also getting your products in front of more customers. Because Google loves unique product descriptions with lots of quality content, investing a little time in really fleshing out your descriptions will dramatically increase your e-commerce SEO and get your products in front of a lot more potential buyers. Here’s a good example: 
See all that great content? That’s what you’re going for. Don’t just throw out the basics of a product and call it a day. Really think like a consumer — identify the things that would help you buy the product, then pack your descriptions with that useful information. For key features, use a bulleted list to call attention to the biggest selling points. Like this: 
Just look at all those beautiful details! That’s the kind of content that jumps you up to the top of search engine results. Plus, if you’re a consumer, it offers you a complete picture of the product, giving you everything you need to make an informed purchase. Pepper your features with details that show how the product stands out against similar offerings. For clothes: is it vintage or hard to find? For art: is the artist well known? For home décor: is it a certain style like mid-century modern? These kind of details can help a shopper decide to buy from your store instead of somewhere else. Your work will pay off big, as you can see here: 
By writing detailed product pages, our example company has four of the top five search results. That’s a fantastic return on investment that any business would be happy to have.
Because online shopping is such a visual experience, it’s important to provide your customers with big, beautiful images that really show off your products. A study of online consumers found that ⅓ of their time shopping is spent looking at images, and 67% of consumers interviewed rated image quality as “very important” when deciding to purchase. 
In the example above, not only does the page feature professionally shot, good-looking photos, but there are a ton of them. The pictures really show off the design and all the features of the bike. It’s also important to use big images so shoppers can zoom. Here’s how our favorite bike site handles it: 
What a delightfully HUGE PHOTO! If you have access to large photos like that, definitely use them. It allows your customer to feel almost like they’re shopping in person. It’s best to have professional photos whenever possible, but if you have to take your own photos, a few general tips are to make sure you have good lighting, use simple backgrounds to make the product stand out, and keep your angles and aspect ratios consistent across all your photos.
You can find more detailed advice on camera gear, shooting tips and even instructions to build a lightbox for professional results here:
Product reviews build trust, and that trust increases conversion. It’s been shown that more than 80% of consumers consult reviews when making a purchase, and adding them to your site can help lift sales by as much as 18%. 
If you’re a Bigcommerce client (and in my opinion, you really should be), you have the advantage of having product reviews built right in, so you don’t have to deal with extra costs or add-ons. Good for you!
Videos are another fantastic way to show off your products and make your shoppers feel like they’re getting an in-person demo. Even better, videos will drive more people to your pages thanks to better search results, then help convert them once they’re there.
How do we know? We have facts!
So adding videos to your product pages can help you in every aspect of the online sales cycle. They also engage your users more, meaning they’ll spend more time on your site (increased page stickiness).
Great. So videos are a major benefit to your store, but how do you get your hands on them? If you have product demos from the product manufacturer, that’s better than nothing. But the best solution is to make them yourself. Not only do you get to fully control the content of your video, but it’s better for your search results if you’re putting out unique content rather than just adding something everyone else has.
Our awesome client YETI Coolers did an excellent job with their product video:
I love this video because it highlights the main selling points of their coolers, really showcasing how strong and durable they are, plus shows all the cool features that set them apart.
If you’re not a professional videographer (few are), it may seem a little intimidating to shoot your own product videos. But thanks to the glut of cheap cameras and easy-to-use editing software on the market, it’s actually pretty easy. Here are a few tips to get you started:
When it comes to actually shooting and editing, Vimeo has a fantastic Video 101 series that will help you with everything from camera selection to shot composition to putting together the final product.
You can see that transforming your product pages into selling machines isn’t difficult, it just takes a small investment of your time. And that investment will definitely be well rewarded. So don’t wait another minute — start optimizing your product pages today.
In future installments of this series, we’ll tackle how to write titles and tags for great SEO results, how to increase the credibility of your site, how to properly market your site, and more. Have any other topics you’d like us to take on? Just let us know!
Guess what – we’ve been working on a new content website for the last few months and today is launch day!
The new site is called ChiliFries.com and it was created to help you become an expert at Internet marketing, search engine optimization (SEO) and e-commerce!
Our new website is updated regularly with fresh content and will teach you:
… and lots of other tips, tricks, strategies and ideas which you can use to either start a new e-commerce business or grow your existing e-commerce business faster than you thought possible.
P.S. Really important – make sure you like ChiliFries on Facebook and follow ChiliFries on Twitter so you don’t miss a post!
P.P.S. Become part of the ChiliFries community by leaving comments on a few posts you like. It’s fast, easy and is a great way to meet like-minded business owners.
If you’re just getting started with e-commerce, then dropshopping can help you source and sell thousands of products – without ever having to store or buy your own inventory. In this video Naruby from Ordoro (a great multi-channel dropshipping solution that, of course, integrates with BigCommerce) does a great job explaining the basics of dropshipping.
She explains the 3 simple steps involved in setting up your own online store with full dropshipping capabilities using BigCommerce and Ordoro. Definitely worth watching if you’re more interested in making (lots of) sales than buying, storing and shipping your own products.
Overview: New advanced webinar series
Title: How to Use Facebook, eBay, SEO and Free Tools to Skyrocket Your Traffic
When? 1pm CDT on Thursday, June 9th (See this in your time zone)
Register: Click here to register (limited spots available)
We already run regular webinars that teach the basics of e-commerce and BigCommerce, but today I’m happy to announce that we’re adding a third series to our already popular webinars.
Lead by certified BigCommerce design partner and e-commerce experts Madwire Media, How to Use Facebook, eBay, SEO and Free Tools to Skyrocket Your Traffic is our latest webinar series and the first webinar kicks off at 1pm CDT on Thursday, June 9th (see this in your time zone).
So, what will you learn during this free webinar? Here’s a taste:
Click here to register (limited spots available)