Today we talk about how to carry out Shopify product page optimization to get better sales. We also speak about common Shopify product page mistakes and how to avoid them!
While working with our clients, these are the e-commerce product page optimizations that helped us avoid these 9 common mistakes and helped us generate over £50m in e-commerce sales for our 250+ happy clients.
How we started doing Shopify product page optimization and helped generate an average 4x ROAS for our clients
When we started Oxedent in 2017, we immediately discovered one thing – most e-commerce businesses were not optimizing their product pages.
We decided we had to help these businesses address these mistakes and help them design high-converting pages.
Thing about it: your product page is probably the most important page on your website. The entire journey of a visitor on your website is based on them purchasing from this one page. So it has to be optimized to drive up conversions and enhance user experience!
And platforms like Shopify provide an insane range of options to help customize your product page. You can go through this list of 10 of the best Shopify themes, out of the 1000s Shopify offers and pick one that best suits your branding purposes.
But most businesses failed to understand that( and still continue to do so).
As we started working with more and more businesses, we realized we had to work on correcting these mistakes while driving traffic to their stores.
While working with so many businesses across many different verticals, we developed an exhaustive set of errors businesses make while setting up their Shopify product page.
And in this blog post, we teach you about how you can avoid those mistakes and optimize your Shopify product page to build a high-converting product page.
Without further ado, let’s dive right in:
Table of content:
- Have a clear and concise CTA on your Shopify product page
- Use awesome product images
- Keep relevant information ONLY on your Shopify product page
- Breakdown the product details to justify your pricing
- Never use pop-ups and other gimmicks on your Shopify product page
- Make sure your comparison charts make sense to the buyer
- Customer reviews and ratings on your Shopify product page is A MUST
- Make sure your product copy appeals to human emotions
- Make sure you disclose additional charges(if any) and your return policies
1. Have a clear and concise CTA on your Shopify product page
Want people to buy your product? Add one CTA button that says BUY NOW!
Want people to add the product to cart? Add one CTA button that says ADD TO CART!
High-converting product pages have one clear CTA so the user knows what to do!
It’s that simple.
In our experiments, we found that having users get confused if there are multiple CTAs or the language on your CTA is confusing.
Here’s some other things we learnt:
– Place your CTA button in the middle of the page
– Use a bold, block colour(eg. Red, black) for your CTA button
– If possible, give the user the option to add the product as “favourite”.
We implemented these lessons for Muscle Squad UK( along with the rest of the learning, ofcourse).
Take a look at their landing page:
AND BOOM!
Their product page visit to “add to cart” ratio increased by 32%.
2. Use awesome product images
Have you heard the quote “first impressions are everything?”
That’s how it works in e-commerce product page design as well.
Not investing in high quality product images is one of the most common mistakes people make while setting up their Shopify product pages.
Think about it – your buyer can’t touch, taste or feel the product!
How would they get an idea of how the product would look in their possession? People love the idea of owning a product more than the product itself, which is why it is mandatory for you to invest in creating high-quality photographs for your product page.
According to a study by Salsify, 66% of e-commerce shoppers prefer seeing at least 3 product images before they buy a product. And our experiments support the study as well!
Here are some other hacks we learnt pertaining to product images and their placements:
– Make sure your images are well-lit.
– Lifestyle images work best for products, as this gives the buyer a visualization of how the product will look in their possession.
– Highlight unique features of your product in the images and allow the users to zoom in and out. Having a 360 degree product image or video performs even better.
Notice how we have integrated all of these hacks while optimizing the product page for Boy London, one of our clients. Their conversion rate shot up by 53% once we took over:
3.Keep relevant information ONLY on your Shopify product page
Ever heard the saying that a cluttered desk shows a cluttered mind?
It works the same way for e-commerce optimization too – a cluttered web page shows a cluttered seller.
One of the key aspects while optimizing product pages for Shopify is to ensure each and every word on the page describes the product in detail to the user – nothing more, nothing less.
We have regularly seen our clients clutter their product pages with designs and unnecessary details that not only increase the loading time of these pages but also confuse the buyer.
So what relevant details should you be adding to your product page?
-A relevant product title
-Price.
-Unique features and components.
-Product material description.
-Care and maintenance instructions.
-Information about the brand.
-Size / dimensions / capacity.
What details should you look to avoid?
-Auto-play gifs and videos.
-Overly descriptive product details.
Description: Product page of House of Charu, one of our clients
Here are some other tips for you, courtesy of our experience with our e-commerce clients:
– Always compress product images to help pages load faster.
– Use bullet points or listings while speaking about your product’s features.
– Use UX features like drop-down boxes or overlay tools for users who want to read more about your product.
4. Breakdown the product details to justify your pricing
While ensuring your product page has relevant information is mandatory, it is also important you go the extra step to justify your product pricing – especially if it is a premium-priced product.
Take a look at the product page for one of our clients, Naked & Thriving. Their botanical skincare products are priced higher than the industry standards, which is why we spent a lot of time ensuring the buyer is aware of the higher quality of the products on offer.
Notice the following:
– We have clearly mentioned “What It’s For” to provide absolute clarity to the buyer as to what benefits they can expect from the product.
– We have written a detailed description of the product, simplifying how it is made, its medical benefits and how it is packaged.
– We have further explained how the buyer can best use the product to address their needs.
This complete information breakdown has helped Naked & Thriving’s product page turn into high-converting pages, resulting in a 117% increase in sales.
5. Never use pop-ups and other gimmicks on your Shopify product page
Thinking of introducing pop-ups and extravagant designs to increase conversion rate on your product page?
AVOID IT!
It’s a common Shopify product page mistake we have seen many of our clients make.
Pop-ups are a relic of the past – this is the age of personalization and upselling.
As per a study by Goinflow , personalized e-commerce product pages saw a massive 74% increase in add-to-cart CTA.
And that is what we strongly recommend too!
Take a look at the product page of Bebemoda, which sells high-quality nursery furniture for your baby.
Adding a “Free Delivery” bar on top entices the user to take action more than a generic pop-up. Bebemoda’s ROAS shot up by 85% after we finished optimising their product pages to run our ad campaigns.
We integrated a similar customization for Alita Pleat, a premier boutique for women’s fashion and accessories.
Offering personalized discounts, coupons and services helps build trust with the user and enhances their experience on your website. Alita Pleat’s sales increased by 95% once we introduced optimizations based on user profile.
In fact, we have introduced personal customization for any client or e-commerce business owner on our website too – to help measure how well your Ads are performing and how we can help yield better results.
6. Make sure your comparison charts make sense to the buyer
Do you know what users like more than buying?
COMPARING!
Across all the e-commerce clients we have had, we have consistently seen websites that include comparison charts or matrixes on their product pages sell a lot more.
This is because they provide a one-stop shop where a customer can access all the information they need across products from different brands/categories, in one- go.
Having a comparison chart also helps you sell better, as then you can show the user a potential upgrade worth more, and position it as having more benefits to the user.
This especially comes in handy if you are an aggregator platform looking to design a product page that converts very well.
A key part of e-commerce product page optimization, we have also seen clients make several mistakes while setting up comparison charts. Here are some of our tips to help you avoid the same:
– Ensure product comparison charts have pre-filled parameters based on expert recommendations.
– Always place your most popular/most liked product in the centre as that immediately grabs user attention. Lining your products up by price need not necessarily be a necessity!
– Use bulleted lists in the charts, with similar features ranked at the top and unique differentiators( added features/colours) lower down the list.
– Make sure all selling points are included, which include warranties, ratings and so on!
7. Customer reviews and ratings on your Shopify product page is A MUST
Have you heard the phrase that nothing is as good as word-of-mouth marketing?
When people recommend your products to other people based on how good or unique your product is, that is when your sales start to scale and you achieve the ultimate e-commerce product optimization.
When you add social proof and testimonials to your product page, this is exactly what you achieve – people telling people how good your product is!
Reviews are great for SEO as well, and as per Big Commerce, 84% buyers trust online reviews as much as they trust personal recommendations!
Take a look at this product page from our client Kamispeed, who offer suspension components for your car to help enhance its performance:
We added a rating chart, in-depth customer feedback and even set up an automated system that checks customer feedback to verify and add the “verified” tag under relevant feedback.
Kamispeed saw a 60% increase in sales and 36% increase in conversion rate.
Speaking from experience, here are some hacks to keep in mind while adding social proof on your product page:
– Make sure you add a ratings chart as well as an option to add a detailed review. Many buyers make purchase decisions based on average ratings alone.
– Make it easy for customers to add reviews, and if needed incentivize them to add reviews like by providing them discounts or free shipping!
– Letting buyers drop reviews without leaving the website itself is key, so you can keep a “Add Review” submission form/button at the bottom of your product pages like this:
– Shopify provides plugins to engage customers and ensure they drop reviews, do check it out and integrate it on your website today.
8.Make sure your product copy appeals to human emotions
You know what makes a good product page?
THE COPY!
The copy is everything – it is essentially a pitch to the potential buyer on why your product is the best option they have on the internet. As such, it has to appeal to human emotions, and preferably be aspirational.
Let me explain it to you:
Notice how we worked out the product copy for our client Ivy Ekong, who makes affordable luxury pieces carefully designed to meet every woman’s style needs. The copy engages the user’s interest directly – especially speaking about their style quotient like a friend or a family member would.
And that people, is how Ivy Ekong’s sales boosted by 75% once we took over!
Keep the following in mind while writing your product copy in order to turn it into a high-converting Shopify product page:
– Mix facts and features well
– Read your copy from the perspective of a potential buyer
– Avoid using long sentences and difficult-to-understand words in your copy
9.Make sure you disclose additional charges(if any) and your return policies
Clarity is one of the most important features for e-commerce product page optimization. It is, without a doubt, one of the most important factors Google considers in ranking your product page.
That is why, it is important to be clear and transparent about your hidden charges.
A common mistake most e-commerce websites make is not revealing their shipping and other charges(taxes etc.) alongside product listings.
In our experience, we have seen adding these charges later on as the buyer checks out leads to many buyers cancelling their purchases. This is supported by a study from Baymard, which says 64% of users look for shipping charges on the product page.
Notice the following from the checkout page of SWF Scotland, one of our clients:
– Delivery by weight: delivery method clarified
– Delivery charges shown: calculated on weight of product
– Delivery charges reduction suggested: a smart “nudge” placed for the user to buy more products, increase weight of products and gain a discount on shipping charges.
Implementing these changes and disclosing shipping charges on the product page helped us reduce SWF’s checkout abandonment by 23%.
So that’s it – an exhaustive list of Shopify product page mistakes to avoid, and a comprehensive set of actionable changes you can make to optimize your e-commerce product page to make them high-converting pages and sell more.
If you are an e-commerce business owner/marketing manager and reading this blog, you might want to take our QUIZ ( takes 5 mins. to complete) to assess how you are doing with your Google Ads campaigns.
What did you think of our ideas? Do you have any other hacks you use and mistakes to avoid?
Do share the same here, in the comments!