Is the product page still the most important page on most ecommerce sites?
The product page is where you would expect most consumers to decide on a purchase, which may make it the most important page.
However, there are factors that reduce the primacy of the product page, as Paul Rouke suggests:
A1 – so many influencers for this – the increase in quick view & quick buy from category/lister pages, the cost of the product… #ecomchat
— Paul Rouke (@paulrouke) March 23, 2015
Quick view allows customers to view a quick product preview from search results or category pages without actually heading to the product page.
Paul points out that, the more detail a preview shows, the lesser the reliance on the main selling page, though it could be argued that these are mini-product pages.
There was some debate over whether the checkout is more important than product pages.
Of course, you can’t really have one without the other but Mike Warwick framed the debate effectively:
@freddiechatt could you function better with a poor product page but perfect checkout, or vice versa. that would help define #EcomChat
— Mike Warwick (@welshmike) March 23, 2015
There were a variety of responses:
A1) Hi all. I would’ve thought that product page and billing/ review pages would share (more or less) equal importance. #EcomChat
— Montse Cano (@MontseCano) March 23, 2015
@JamesGurd Visitors don’t see payment page without seeing product, while a product page can be entry point. More important IMO. #ecomchat
— Jason Dilworth (@JasonDilworth56) March 23, 2015
A great question from Schuh’s Stuart McMillan:
@mcmillanstu I think product/price more important that the actual page. Great design with crap product will struggle more #ecomchat
— James Gurd (@JamesGurd) March 23, 2015
Dan Barker summarised the key points from this question:
#EcomChat A1. factors meaning product pages are more important: 1. Product retargeting 2. Social sharing 3. Mobile email 4. Google Shopping
— dan barker (@danbarker) March 23, 2015
#EcomChat A1. factors meaning product pages are less important: 1. Mobile search. 2. Growth in quick-view. 3. Single product retailers.
— dan barker (@danbarker) March 23, 2015
What are the key elements for these pages, and why is each necessary? What optional elements are there?
Lots of responses to Q2. James Green, not unreasonably, thinks product images should have pride of place:
#EcomChat A2. Product images first and foremost. Price and delivery info, description and specs thereafter. And minimal distraction!
— James Green (@James3Green) March 23, 2015
a2)Great imagery, clear purchasing options / pricing, trust signals & a decent description. Test calls to action & their placement #ecomchat
— Kevin Purchase (@kevpurchase) March 23, 2015
Stuart from Schuh suggests that product descriptions are less important than you might think. I can see this being the case for shoes and clothing, but perhaps less for for other products?
@ecomchat lets be controversial: reviews are a must but description is optional. #ecomchat
— stuart mcmillan (@mcmillanstu) March 23, 2015
@mcmillanstu For many retailers i’ve worked with, sig less than 50% of product page views interact with reviews #ecomchat
— James Gurd (@JamesGurd) March 23, 2015
According to Paul Rouke, booking.com provides a great example of an effective selling page:
A2 – 1 from my archive: Is @bookingcom the most persuasive selling page in the world? https://t.co/TtLLVk6jRe #ecomchat
— Paul Rouke (@paulrouke) March 23, 2015
To improve pages, Pritesh Patel suggests sites should monitor customer queries around product pages.
@priteshpatel9 a good point. Sometimes works well to gather the most used info from FAQs & build into product pages. #ecomchat
— dan barker (@danbarker) March 23, 2015
Great suggestion here on presenting price information for sales, and showing products in context:
A2: Price plus any saving expressed as volume amount and % off. Image + context where relevant i.e. watch on wrist #ecomchat
— Hugh Gage (@hwjgage) March 23, 2015
Bellroy provides an excellent example of this, showing its wallets along with everything that will fit in to them:
Video is a great tool for demonstrating products, and can work well for more complex items, conveying features and uses. Like these videos from Cotswold Outdoor:
@mcmillanstu @danbarker – a big fan of Kiddicare’s videos. Almost everything we buy now we go to YouTube first to view the video. #ecomchat
— Pritesh Patel (@priteshpatel9) March 23, 2015
Should retailers put effort in to testing and improving these pages and, if so, what works in this area?
Perhaps some sites are trying to add too many features to product pages and need to keep only the most essential elements.
@ecomchat try stripping back as much as possible, de-clutter that page! #ecomchat
— stuart mcmillan (@mcmillanstu) March 23, 2015
Retailers should also be measuring and analysing the data to find areas for improvement.
Q3 before testing comes measurement & analysis; that shapes where you should test for greatest impact. Maybe prod page, maybe not #ecomchat
— Stephen (@firstconversion) March 23, 2015
Others suggest that the checkout process is the area where ecommerce sites are most likely to have the largest impact.
@domatkinson76 Absolutely agree. Start with checkout and work backwards for the largest impact #ecomchat
— David Rekuc (@DaveRekuc) March 23, 2015
There are plenty of elements worth testing on product pages though, as James Gurd explains:
A3) Tests i’ve seen work well for Clients are on CTA interaction e.g. static button, floating button, floating menu etc. #ecomchat
— James Gurd (@JamesGurd) March 23, 2015
EcomChat is a weekly ecommerce discussion on Twitter covering a new topic each week, run by @jamesgurd and @danbarker. For more info and news on the latest chats, please visit ecomchat.com.
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