Everything Matters
Top chefs know that a dash of finishing salt and a sprig of fresh herbs elevate a dish to the next level. Miles Davis said that great jazz was made in the space between the notes.
No amount of tweaking and optimizing will save a company that is not focused on the customer to deliver great products with great service. Fortunately, we have the knowhow, tools, and technologies to deliver those. Unfortunately, all your competitors do too. That means that you need every advantage you can get.
That’s why we created this info sheet. TaskHusky has helped thousands of Shopify eCommerce stores make economical updates and changes that have a real impact. We’ve taken that experience and compiled them here. So, let’s get right to it. Here are 7 tweaks to rock your Shopify product pages and get more sales.
#1 — Objection-Busting Trust Badges for Risk Reversal
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Trust Badges are a great way to communicate the core idea of important messages FAST.
It’s an ingrained part of the human brain to boil ideas down into simple concepts. The details always matter, but the truth is that those details only matter some of the time. Most of the time they just get in the way. Let me give you an example.
On your Shopify eCommerce website you probably have a policy for returns and exchanges. If you’re like most Shopify merchants, your policy is actually a rather complex set of rules and regulations. This includes things like:
- How many days a customer has to return a product to return a purchase.
- How many days a customer has where they can exchange.
- If shipping costs and return shipping costs are included in the return or exchange.
- What specific items are not eligible for a return or exchange.
- What reasons qualify for a return or exchange (quality, size, damage, changed mind, etc).
- How they actual get the return or exchange (preapproval, print out label, etc.).
- How and when refunds will be issued (mailed check, credit to charge card, store credit, etc.).
- How long the return or exchange will likely take.
There are even more than this. But you get the idea.
All of these details are important ONLY IF AND WHEN a customer was a return or exchange. What is important at the point of sale is that the customer CAN get a return or exchange and that you — as the merchant — will make it as painless as possible (at least, that is what you SHOULD be doing).
There are two problems with this. The first is that a lot of stores spell out all of those rules and regs on a page full of text that will only be read by your attorney and website content writer (and you have to pay them to do it). But your customers ARE worried about these things — especially if this is their first time shopping on your site.
So here is the conundrum … you have a potential customer on your site who wants some important information that they are anxious about and you have this info but it is hidden in 500-odd words of legalese that can only be seen by clicking on a link in the footer and leaving the page where you WANT them to stay — your product page with the Add To Cart button.
The solution is to communicate the core idea of important things like this using simple icons and a handful of words. Those messages include things like:
- 100% Quality Satisfaction Guaranteed
- FREE Shipping Always
- No Hassle Returns & Exchanges
- Guaranteed SAFE Checkout
- Made in the USA
Here are some real-world examples.
BestBuy
BestBuy is one of the most successful eCommerce sites on the web. Even though their product pages are crowded with information, they still deploy small trust badges to communicate important information that reduces perceived risk.
Amika
Amika does a great job communicating aspects of their product that are important to their particular target audience. This builds confidence in their brand in a meaningful way.
Add Trust Badges To My Site - Request a Quote
#2 — Display Short Videos in Product Images
Video is one of THE most successful ways to communicate messages and persuade. A video revolution started more than a decade ago because you customers can absorb and accept more convincing information in a 90-second video than they can in 500 words of written text. Shopify let’s merchants post videos on product pages. These can be placed in the gallery with your other product photos or in the descriptions area. Short videos can be extremely powerful. The important thing to remember is that you do not need super-high quality “produced” videos to be successful.
Heck, we’d all like to have a personal videographer and video editor on call to make each of our videos into slick, professional masterpieces. But that is expensive. It is also not really necessary. You can’t have shaky images or horrible audio, but it can be videos that you shoot with your cell phone and a single external microphone.
Here are some basic rules:
- Keep Product Videos Short — we say less than 2 minutes, but 90 seconds is better.
- Focus on Using Your Product — skip the complicated intros and don’t talk about yourself. Show real people (even you) talking about the actual product and why it’s great. Show it being used in a real-life situation.
- It Does Not Have to Be Perfect — Most people get self-conscious on camera. Get over it. It has to be real and natural. People can smell a fake and they do not trust over-produced marketing spin. Keep it real.
Here are some real-world examples.
SwiftWick
SwiftWick deploys short, easy to consume videos of their sport socks in action.
DeathWish Coffee
DeathWish Coffee is a successful Shopify store that uses short videos on their product pages to cement the brand.
Add Video Capability To My Store - Request a Quote
#3 — Put “Enough” Info Above the Fold
When a customer arrives on your product page you do not know how much they need or want to know. They could be a returning customer who wants to buy the product again. They could be a person who has done a lot of research and you have already psychologically won the sale in their head if you get out of the way. It could be a complete newbie who does not know what they want yet and this is your chance to help them decide.
What we are saying here is that when they arrive at a product page it should be easy to get all the core info they need without scrolling if possible. The section of a webpage that initially displays without scrolling is called “above the fold.” That term comes from the old days of newspapers which came on newsstands folded in half. The top half of page 1 was the most valuable part of the newspaper because that is the part of the paper people passing by instantly see. Newspaper editors got really good at spicing up this area to capture attention and get folks to pick up a copy.
The above-the-fold section of your product pages is the same.
Adjust your product page template so that you have a solid, tight section displayed above-the-fold and that it has everything your customer might need to make a quick buying decision. That means it should have the following:
- The primary product image.
- A smart title and short, optimized description of the product.
- Social proof elements.
- A call-to-action (Add to Cart button, etc.).
- Important trust badges / risk reversal about returns, exchanges, and quality.
Below this section you can have tons of additional content. So, if a person wants to drill down and get more info it’s easy to do. But the fast shopper will be able to click and go without distractions.
Here are some real-world examples.
Esteé Lauder
Esteé Lauder does a GREAT job on their product pages. Seriously … we use them as examples all the time to show what can be done. Here we point out the quality of the content “above-the-fold” that gives customers a complete experience in a small amount of space. If you look carefully you will see all of the elements we talk about here packed neatly and efficiently into one view.
BeatsByDre
BeatsByDre has always packaged their products well with slick, modern style. In this display of abject minimalism from the BeatsByDre website all enough elements to convince their target customer — from the “celebrity proof” of singer Billie Eilish to features transformed into icons.
Optimize My Product Box - Request a Quote
#4 — Add Payment Options
It was reported recently that PayPal is the most trusted payment portal on the internet. It’s surprising how many eCommerce websites haven’t bothered setting it up.
We actually see this a lot. Merchants want their site to be as easy as possible. We get it! The more systems the more complex things are. And then you have several deposits per day from multiple different sources on different delays and charging different fees. That makes it hard to reconcile the books and make sure that you got paid the right amount.
But here’s the thing. Everyone has their favorite way to pay. Sometimes it’s to get credit card points. Sometimes it’s because it’s easiest for them. And sometimes it’s because they are worried about you, the merchant. Think about it. As the retailer, you are a little worried about getting paid and chargebacks and things like that. But your customers are worried about you too — especially if it’s their first purchase on your site.
We say, have ALL the major payment gateways available on your site. At a minimum we think that you need to accept the following:
- All major credit cards.
- ShopPay
- PayPal
- ApplePay
- AmazonPay
Because services like PayPal are trusted by customers, some of that rust rubs off on you as the merchant. They believe that PayPal would not do business with you if you were not a good business. The side benefit of services like PayPal is that not only are they trusted, but their payment gateway integrations have one-click purchasing that fills in all of the customers shipping and billing info for them. Both of those things increase conversions.
The point is, when a customer wants to give you money it is in your best interests to make it as trusted and easy FOR THEM as possible.
Here is a real-world example.
Lunchkins
Lunchkins is a leading Shopify site that leads with the “Big 3” payment gateways, but customers can easily click through to enter their credit card info.
Add Additional Payment Icons to My Product Page - Request a Quote
#5 — Link Product Images to Variants
Every product page has a default image that appears first. And we all know that you can (and should) have multiple images available. But what if the default image is in black and the customer wants to order it in blue?
In Shopify you can link specific images to the variants. That means that if the customer selects blue from the color swatches the blue version of the product displays in the image area. Not only is this a professional touch, but it delights customers during the shopping experience and builds confidence. You can have this built into your product page template.
Here are real-world examples.
Nordstrom
Nordstrom is one of the old-school bricks & mortar stores that has transitioned successfully to omnichannel. Most of their products are available in multiple variants, and Nordstrom lets them see them all.
Bonobos
Bonobos does a great job of this too. Multiple images are linked to each variant option.
Link My Product Variants & Images - Request a Quote
#6 — Social Proof for the Win
Social Proof is not necessarily about social media. But social media can be a form of social proof. Let us explain.
People WANT to trust everyone. But it does not take too much life experience to figure out that you can’t. Your customers are interested in what you have to sell — if they weren’t they probably wouldn’t be looking at your product page. But they know that you are trying to sell them something. They do not know if they can trust you or not. But if they can see other customers using your product and read good reviews, then they are more likely to trust what other “normal” people have to say about it.
Sometimes when you are a new store or when you have a low volume it can be hard to get reviews and testimonials about all of the products you sell. But when you can, it becomes a powerful persuasion tool that is worth the trouble.
And you can also install an app in Shopify that will load tagged posts from social media onto the product pages so that your new prospect customers can see and read about the good experience your previous customers have had with your products.
Here is a real-world example.
KylieCosmetics
KylieCosmetics is one of the most popular Shopify websites in the world and they have built a die-hard fan-base. They invite customers to review every product they buy and they deploy them to the website.
Add Social Proof To My Site - Request a Quote
#7 — Add Image Zoom
When I am shopping online, I use the image zoom all the time, especially when using my phone. There is nothing better than getting a close-up look at what you want to buy. Shopify supports image zoom so long as your images are a minimum of 800px x 800px. We have a full set of Shopify eCommerce best practice recommendations for images across your website, but our specific recommendation for product images is:
“JPEG, 6” square at 150dpi (900x900 pixels) compressed.”
This current specification ensures that your photos look good across all modern devices and reasonably sized desktop monitors, is zoomable, AND will not slow your site down (important!).
Here is a real-world example.
Walmart
Walmart needs no introduction. They are the top retailer in the world and are attempting to challenge Amazon head-on in eCommerce. All of the product images that they show online are zoomable, no matter how small and inexpensive.
Add Image Zoom To My Site - Request a Quote
Bonus Tip - Countdown Timer
Suppose consumers are browsing through your store, and an item that wasn't on their original shopping list catches their eye. Of course, we can't know for sure what they'll do next, but chances are, a good chunk of these potential buyers won't make a purchase.
We don't blame them. Maybe the price is a bit too high for their budget. Or they put it off in the hopes of a sale. Or a special occasion.
An animated countdown timer might be the deciding factor for those who need a little more convincing. Customers are more inclined to make a purchase when there is a limited-time offer, limited quantity available, or another type of special promotion available, even if they don't have an immediate need for the item.
A countdown timer is a powerful tool for increasing the sense of urgency and scarcity in the minds of customers and encouraging them to act quickly.
Some of the ways in which you can use a countdown timer are:
- increase interest in your forthcoming promotions
- promote new items
- optimize ordering when deals are about to finish
- drive spontaneous sales
Here are some great examples of how stores utilize a countdown timer:
Jack&Sons
Jack&Sons is a company that prides itself on producing long-lasting leather goods. Although their goods are reasonably priced for their quality, every now and then, the company drops exclusive offers with the help of a countdown timer.
Fab Finds
Fab Finds is a great Shopify store for home and lifestyle items. They use a customized countdown banner in their brand colors that fits the aesthetics of the store perfectly.
Happy Selling
We have helped literally thousands of Shopify merchants tweak their themes and adjust the code to get more sales. There are TONS of tips and tricks out there and you should experiment with them all if you can. But the 7 product page tweaks we’ve described here are some of the most effective we’ve seen.
If you have questions or need help deploying these tweaks on your Shopify website, request a quote.