Finally, you have your product and it’s great (congrats)! You also have your shipping and fulfillment sorted. Now all you need to do is tell your customers all about your… well… it’s like um…did we mention it’s great?
It can be hard to figure out the best way to present your product information, even when you’ve devoted serious time and research into sourcing or creating the product yourself. It’s why so many people use agencies and marketers to help them craft their messages, because, sometimes you’re just too close to your own stuff, you can’t see the forest for the trees.
So, if you’re feeling a bit stuck when it comes creating the perfect product page for your perfect product, you might like some guidelines to help you:
Navigation – the key your customers need to find the product that’s perfect for them
Make sure your products are easy to find from your home page. These days a well branded website will have lots of extraneous information, ‘About Us’, ‘Our Story’, ‘Contact’, Philosophy, etc. but don’t let your actual product pages get lost or over shadowed.
If you’re product is marketed under a specific line name make sure it can also be found by someone unfamiliar with your brand. Returning customers might know that your organic jasmine soap is part of the ‘Purely Purple’ collection, but new customers are just going to look for the heading soap or maybe organic products. If they don’t find it, they’ll move onto someone else’s site.
The page itself
A great page for your product should explain your customer what the product is, and why they want it or better still why they can’t live without it. So use emotive terms. To break it down, your page should include:
The Description
This section isn’t just about describing the product, it’s about telling the story of the customer and the product. How might they feel when they use it? Where or when will they use it? Who with?
Don’t be cheesy or overly verbose, but if you can put a little bit of your business’ personality (where appropriate) into the description, you’re not just selling the product, you’re building your brand.
An accurate, clear, visually appealing picture
From your main product page your customers will likely only be looking at these pictures in rows, trying to decide what they want. The average person spends fewer than 15 seconds actually looking at your website. If they haven’t decided to click by then, they won’t. A clear, attractive picture is the fastest way to secure their attention and buy you a few extra seconds to make your sale.
To make this easier, try making the background of your product picture non-descript (white or black) so the product stands out. Or make the background relevant for the product’s use. Make sure there’s nothing that could make the customer question what the product is or be a distraction. The beach is a beautiful setting; it’s still weird to use it as the backdrop for your glassware product picture – unless you’re suggesting it specifically for picnics at the beach.
The importance of a picture might seem obvious to any retailer selling a luxury or lifestyle product, but it is equally as important to purveyors of practical everyday goods. Many people have very visual memories, if they see what your product looks like, they’ll know if it’s what they’re looking for. It’s the “I don’t remember what it’s called but the bottle was red” sort of mentality.
The specs (specifications)
Specifications are the technical aspects of your product. What’s it made from, where was it produced. If it’s an actual tech product – how is it powered, how long its warranty period, etc.
How you present this information can make a huge difference to how your customer perceives your product (and how safe they feel buying it). Selling a wool jumper? Call out where the wool is from. 100% Australian wool sounds great, so does “Californian Denim”, and “Brazilian Mahogany”. You get the idea.
In addition to clarification, your specs section will give you two bonus benefits.
First, by adding these specs, you’re adding relevant, searchable words to your site, potentially attracting new customers through SEO.
Secondly, you’re saving yourself a lot of busy-work in the long run.
You know when you were in school and your teacher would tell you to ask questions because everyone else probably had the same question, they’re all just too shy? Congratulations, your ‘contact us’ portal has solved that, no one is too shy to ask over the internet so now you have countless messages asking the same question. If you notice this phenomenon it might be time to answer that question in the specifications section of your description (or if it’s about shipping, returns, packaging, gifting, or any one of a hundred other things – put those in your FAQs or T&Cs).
Ideally your specs should be presented in a more list like format than your description so that customers who are already sold on your product can check the specifications and check-out.
And avoid…
One final piece of advice: avoid deception at all costs. It’s one thing to say vegan leather (instead of PU), but don’t claim what it’s not.
Leaving important information off the specs in the hopes that the customer won’t notice might get you a sale, but it won’t get you a repeat customer or worse, you’ll embarrass them in front of their friends and then you’ve got haters (most likely on social, shared with the world) and the extra bother of returns.
Now that you’re all set to build your product page, let us help you get those products to your customers. If you have upwards of 50 orders or more a month to ship to your customers, we’d be delighted to talk to you. You can always give us a call on +61 2 9828 0111 (Sydney), +61 3 9240 6300 (Melbourne) or +64 9 263 8855 (Auckland) or drop us a note via the form below. Alternatively, you can find a full list of available services here.