What is an Ecommerce Landing Page?

First impressions matter, especially when it comes to your business.

Landing pages are the first impression of your business audiences, and the start of the customer’s journey through your ecommerce site. This is what will either keep visitors on your site, or lead them to bounce. 

Next to that, ecommerce landing pages are important for generating leads, improving conversion rates, and boosting overall growth. 

Definition: An ecommerce landing page is a standalone web page, created specifically for marketing purposes and centered around a clear objective of getting customers to buy a product or service. 

Advantages of Ecommerce Landing Pages 

As the page where customers “land” when they click on a promotional link, such as an email campaign or Google advertisement, ecommerce landing pages can be a key factor in the buying process. 

Here’s how ecommerce landing pages can help your business. 

1. Generate Leads 

Directing traffic to targeted ecommerce landing pages can help your brand generate more leads, compared to using just your homepage. 

Ecommerce landing pages can be tailored and personalized to buyer personas. When a customer clicks on a link they will land on a page that matches their specific interests and needs, making it more likely that they stay on your site. 

The more landing pages you have, the more opportunities you have to reach different targeted audiences. 

2. More Conversions

Along with generating more leads, ecommerce landing pages can also lead to more conversions.

By having targeted content, you’re more likely to satisfy what your customers are looking for. If someone searches for new running shoes and are directed to a landing page featuring running shoes, there’s a good chance they’ll stay on your site — as opposed to a homepage where they would have to search and spend more time navigating for what they are looking for. 

Effective e-commerce pages shorten the customer's buying process. Next to that, ecommerce landing pages are a great way to tie in offers, such as discount codes or a free trial signup. 

3. Gain Insights

Each landing page offers new insights to what works and what does not. Compare what content keeps customers on your site, what call-to-actions get the most clicks, and what promotions result in conversions.

These insights can also be used in other marketing efforts, such as ad placements and promotional content. For example, if a landing page around a certain keyword has a high bounce rate, it may not be a PPC campaign worth pursuing. 

Best Practices of Ecommerce Landing Pages 

Given the advantages, the next step is creating and optimizing ecommerce landing pages for your website. Here are some of the best practices for implementing ecommerce landing pages.

1. Have a clear objective.

While a homepage provides options and variety to visitors, ecommerce landing pages should focus on one clear objective. Visitors should be able to know right away who the brand is, what is being offered, and why they should take the next step. 

The page’s content should match this clear objective. This includes:

• Having clear, concise headlines
• Including a compelling CTA (more below)
• Removing navigation 
• Featuring relevant, high-quality images
• Using bullet points to quickly convey valuable information

2. Include a strong call-to-action.

An ecommerce landing page is specifically designed to turn site visitors into customers. 

This means having a strong call-to-action (CTA). 

What do you want your visitors to do? Enter an email address? Signup for newsletter? Make a purchase? 

Along with having a clear objective, effective ecommerce landing pages have one clear CTA. This engages visitors right away and the customer journey will begin as soon as they land on the page, and consequently avoiding visitors from bouncing off your site. There shouldn’t be any confusion or distractions, visitors should be able to know right away what is being presented to them. 

The CTA should be prominently displayed, easily accessible, and targeted to specific visitors. 

Feature your CTA above the digital fold so visitors are instantly compelled to take action. Additionally, consider using multiple buttons for the single CTA. For instance, including one CTA button next to the headline and another further down the page next to social proof content. This makes the CTA accessible and convenient for visitors, regardless of where they have scrolled on the page. 

Use active and descriptive language in the copy, such as “Sign up for Free” or “Access Your Discount Now”. Include a sense of urgency or scarcity to encourage visitors to act immediately. You can also test what button copy works best for your visitors. For instance, using the word “Claim” could work better than the word “Get” in your CTA. 

3. Match with promotions and ad campaigns. 

Ecommerce landing pages should lead to higher conversions, not higher bounce rates. 

Ensure that landing pages align with the links they are connected with. If someone searches for a specific product, they’ll expect to land on a page directly related to their search. As you create landing pages, keep in mind what keywords and promotions they will be connected to and the audiences who will be clicking on them. 

This includes matching content, specifically the CTA, to the sales funnel. For example, a top of the funnel CTA could include a form for visitors to signup with their email to receive a special offer or a monthly newsletter. While a bottom of the funnel CTA might include a direct link for purchasing a product or free shipping code to get the visitor to buy right away. 

Additionally if you are using time sensitive content, such as a sale or holiday, be sure these pages are updated as needed. Promoting a deal that isn’t actually available will instantly ruin the customer experience and diminish your credibility.

4. Incorporate social proof content.

Social proof uses the actions and experiences of others to influence potential customers — and it’s great for ecommerce landing pages. Social proof content establishes credibility to new visitors, and can be the deciding factor for existing customers looking to make a purchase. 

This content can include:

• Reviews
• Testimonials
• Customer referrals
• Awards and recognitions
• Media mentions (i.e. As featured in)
• Influencer and celebrity endorsements
• Trust seals
• User-generated content

Social proof content can be used in headlines, sub-headlines, CTA copy, or as support content further down the page. For example, a headline could be “Our 5-Star Rated Product” with a CTA to buy the product. Another example would be using social proof in the CTA, such as a button saying “Join the Crowd” aside copy that shows how many customers have bought the product. 

5. Optimize for mobile devices.

More and more, mobile is being used for ecommerce transactions. Ecommerce landing pages should be designed to provide the same experience to every visitor, regardless of which device they are using.

With mobile, there’s a much smaller amount of space for promoting your objective and CTA. 

Consider how your copy will look in different layouts. Images should fit nicely on the device without needing to scroll or zoom out. Headlines need to be shortened so that they appear without breaks and do not take up too much space.

Test how content sizes will impact your page’s load time and speed. Too large of images will slow down loading times, and slow load times leads to visitors leaving. 

Look at how your CTA will appear. The CTA should still be one of the first things visitors see. It also should be simple and easy to complete on mobile devices. It’s likely that long form fields won’t be very successful on mobile. 

Factor in how long the conversion path will take. For instance, if a visitor has to complete several steps with multiple page redirects, it is likely that they will abandon their efforts. 

6. Continuously A/B test landing pages. 

Given all the various factors that are involved, there’s no perfect science to creating an ecommerce landing page. 

A headline that worked for one audience, and maybe not work for another. Having multiple CTA paths rather than one could lead to more conversions. Images that appeal to desktop users might not have the same impact on mobile. Even selecting certain button colors can generate more engagement. 

All these factors can be tested, and tested again. Focus on key metrics like bounce rates, visitor engagement, and conversions between different versions of ecommerce landing pages. Then, optimize accordingly. 

Conclusion

The aim of ecommerce landing pages is to create a page that is relevant for visitors, provides exactly what they are looking for, and prompts them to take action. 

As mentioned before, there are several various factors that go into ecommerce landing pages,  requiring constant testing and optimization to find what works best for keeping and converting visitors on your site. This means trying out different headlines, images, CTAs, layouts, fonts, colors, and much more. The practice of testing landing pages will be an ongoing task, but worth the effort.

By taking the time to develop focused, clear ecommerce landing pages centered around specific buyer personas you can achieve more targeted leads and boost conversion rates.