Some believe they
should be short, some believe they should be comprehensive. As an online
merchant, your main goal regarding the product pages on your storefront
should be to find out what your ideal customer wants and how best to reach
them.
Review Customer
Scenarios
Before developing your
product pages, the first thing you should do is review the ways that your
customers purchase products. Do they perform heavy online research before
making a purchase? Do they go to an offline store to see the product, then
go online to get a better price? Conversely, maybe your product is exclusive
to your company (and therefore requires more detailed information). These
scenarios and others should be taken into account when developing your
product pages. So how do you develop a page that reaches various customer
groups?
Web Page Format is
Key
The format is one of
the most important aspects of the product web page. The format should be
consistent with both your product type and price point. After all, if
someone is spending $1000 on a specific product should the page format and
provided content be the same as a $2 product?
Compare the product
page formats of Amazon.com to Buy.com. They are completely different. You
will need to decide on how to structure (or present) the content, what
content should be placed on the page, where to place the buy button (add to
wish list etc…), how many images. and if you want to up-sell products on
this page. The reason Buy.com product pages look so different than
Amazon.com product pages is because Buy.com customers prefer it and have
reacted kindly to it in tests. I recommend doing the same for your site.
Create 3 – 10 product page variations and test them to see how your
customers react to each. Use different formats, use various versions of the
buy button, split up content offerings using popups, Javascript tabs, or a
long page design, etc. This is really the best way you can find out what the
optimal product page for you site truly is.
In the Details
The content should
provide those who are performing research with enough material to allow them
to make a purchase decision. Yet it should also not make the buyer question
if they are purchasing the wrong product or model. Keep in mind that some
people are easily convinced! Thus if you provide them with just enough
information to confirm that it is indeed the correct product, they will
purchase it. However, if you start sparking doubt in their mind then they
may just leave the site altogether or the purchase may drag on for weeks.
Related
Links
For more information,
see these articles on creating a product page that sells:
