If you already have an e-commerce website, you know the importance of your product pages. The real magic of the purchase happens there, and eventually, no matter how much energy you put in promoting your home page or maybe well-built blog posts – your product page will either “close the deal” or not. In my opinion, a good product page can affect the conversions even more than the checkout funnel, so there is no doubt you should do something to optimize them.

In this post I’m going to share my proven, best practices about product page optimization, and give you some tips that will make your product pages amazing.

1. Design & Focus

The real purchase process starts from the product page, so you want your product to stand out by removing all distractions while your visitors begin the purchasing funnel.

That means, you want your product to appear above the fold with no other distractions such as special offers or best blog posts to read, so that the visitors will stay focused on the page.

The design should be appealing; the pictures of the product should attract and the page should include a variety of sizes and colors.

Take a look at this great example of a good page design in this product page by Etsy:

 

 

2. Use Amazing Product Photos

 

Since we’re discussing online store product pages, your visitors can’t feel the product in their hands, so you must showcase your product in the best possible way. Today, with social media, the world had transferred from communicating with words to communicating with pictures of “being in the moment”, so you want to use this state of mind in order to sell your product better!

 

Make sure you upload high-quality photos of your product from several angles and add an option to zoom-in on the photos.

 

If possible, even upload a 360 footage to maximize the experience. Here is a nice example of what MVMT Watches did, the photos are in really high quality and you can also have a nice 360 view of their product before buying it :

 

3. Create Great Micro-Copy

 

A product page should not contain a lot of text, as opposed to other kinds of pages you might have in your website, which makes every word counts.

You should use micro-copy strategies in this case – create an idea and a unique feeling for your website’s language and not just copy-paste your product’s (boring) features. Remember, you want to stand-out from your competitors. You want to make your users excited about your product. And if you have no way for the potential buyer to feel the product, use words to describe it and make your visitor excited about it.

 

Here’s a great example of what Mellisa shoes did with their product:

We can see the name of the product has a cool and hip feeling. The description is also unique and explains the inspiration and kind of a “short-history” for the creation and design of this shoe.

The page opens with the announcement of Free Shipping, which we know today, that this method helps the visitor to seal the deal easier and increase the conversion rate. Using a unique language and adding micro-copy is the little, small words we usually don’t think people really care about or actually read, but let me tell you – they make a huge difference! Especially in the E-commerce world. It could be the “free shipping”, or a small CTA button, all of these are places where we can put our effort and increase our conversion rate.

This is a good example of a “not-so-exciting” product description from an online shop called freepeople.com:

We can see the picture is high-quality and also interesting enough, but the description is quite anaemic and more-of-the-same as we are already use to see, there’s nothing that can actually create excitement for the visitor and encourage her to buy.

4. Use Customer Reviews & Product Rating for Your Benefit

 

Nowadays, it is all about communication and sharing ideas, fashion and products all over the world.

A woman from US can purchase the same item as a woman from Sweden or Australia and they all have interesting opinions which they would like to articulate.

So why not use this willing of globalization and idea sharing in order to increase your conversions and make your product relatable and accessible?

Here’s a great example of what Aussie Hair products did in their website:

This example is quite unique because you can choose the product by the rating, hair length and hair type. Which means that other women with similar kinds of hair can tip and recommend each other about using Aussie hair product. I think we can learn a lot from this example about how to create a nice, cool, interactive reviews on a product in a way that will increase engagement with the page and also will help to increase the conversion rate.

5. Solve Uncertainties in Advance

Try to answer as much questions your users might have, before they have the time to ponder on them.

Popular questions we often see are “Is this website safe?”, “How much does shipping cost?”, “Do they have my size?”, “How can I return the product if I don’t want it?”

Make sure you have all the information available on your product page so the user won’t have to look for help on a different page and leave the funnel. Here’s a nice example of how ASOS did it:

 

 

We can see they emphasize the free shipping worldwide, they have a button for the size guide, the price, and color. The website is also secured for purchasing which answer the “is it safe?” question. To warp it up – they give a lot of information in their product page for the visitors, which helps them purchase on the website.

6. Visible, Fun Add-to-Cart Button

Remember, the goal of your product page is first and foremost to sell!

The purchasing funnel begins with the product page but then continues to the “Add-to-cart”, registration and then reaches the final step of payment.

From that reason, if your add-to-cart button gets lost or is not that noticeable – you might miss a lot of sales you could have had. A good button is one that pops-out to the user’s eye; one which located above the fold, formated in a large, visible size and with a contrast color to the website’s color plate. Of course it depends on the colors of your website and most of the times I would not advise to use a red button (unless it’s the color of the other buttons in the website design). Today we know that there is a certain belief that orange and green buttons work best, however I would encourage you not to rely on assumptions and to always A/B test what works on your website and on your buyers.

Here’s a good example of Etsy’s Add-to-Cart button. You can’t miss it even if you try:

7. Related Products your User Might Actually LIKE

Cross-selling and up-selling is today’s hottest trend in the e-commerce field, and when you think about it, why not? Your user is already inside the purchasing funnel – why not use it to your own benefit?

Online marketing researches show that people like recommendations! I personally think they’re great. Their greatness is that they can reveal to your visitors other items they did not know existed in your shop. In addition, they will reveal the variety and richness that your shop has to offer.

So even if your visitor won’t buy another item at the same instant he/she will surely remember your shop the next time they shop online.

In addition, here’s an example of how Book Depository did it. You can see that the algorithm of the website give you more recommendation relying on past purchases and what other buyers which bought the same books as you did also liked. This feature is great because it gives your visitors an opportunity to discover more items they would probably like:

 

Summary and Key Takeaways

If you use all of these tips, you are guarantee to maximize your conversation rate. But also, don’t forget to track everything with Google Analytics in order to optimize and make your product page even better! Use A/B testing in order to better understand what your visitors like or dislike, and don’t forget to have a lot of fun while doing it! ☺

In this day and age of online retail, more and more people are heading to the internet to buy the things they need.

However, problems with online selling, such as shopping cart abandonment (which reached an all-time high at 72%), are real threats to your business. And since ecommerce is becoming so popular, everyone is working full-throttle to make their site the best. How can you beat out the competition and create an ecommerce site that will increase conversion rates?

In this article I’m going to talk about 12 different steps people take when purchasing on an ecommerce site, and show you exactly how to improve those areas of your site in order to increase your conversion rate.

The Home Page

Avoid Complicated Home Pages

If the page that people open up to is, for example, like this…

…then that is an immediate turn off.  There is way too much complication, too many colors, pictures, things of different sizes.  Even the menu is colorful!  Honestly, a page like this will just induce anxiety in your customers, and that’s obviously not what you want.

Instead, create a home page that is simple and uncluttered, avoiding too many bright and wacky colors.

Apple’s home page is a good example:

Simple, elegant, and with exactly what you need to know.  Don’t stuff your home page with offers and deals.  Just show your best, and allow people to browse for anything else.

Let People Know Who You Are

If I stumble upon the page of an online clothes store that I’ve never heard of, I might wonder what kind of styles they specialize in, or what their focus is.  Do they do more punk, emo type clothes?  Are they a site that sells prom dresses and ball gowns?  I don’t know unless they tell me.

Here is a bad example of this:

Who are they?  Why should I buy from them and not some other online store?  I have no idea.

That’s why it’s so good for your main page to feature why your business is unique.  For example, you could use a byline, a short sentence that could appear underneath the logo, for example, to explain in a few words what your business is, what it does, and why it’s different or better than its competitors.

Make Sales and Specials Stand Out

People love deals, and when they’re shopping online they want to make sure they get the best deal possible.

If you’re advertising different products on sale, such as a certain end of season line, or special deals on particular products, it’s an excellent idea to collect these into one page where people can go and view your deals.

One E-Tailing Group study discovered that almost half of all online buyers would only purchase products that were discounted, and a whopping 62% were specifically looking for a section of sales and specials.

JCPenny does a great job of this:

The Product Page

Good Pictures Can Make or Break Sales

This is  in this list.  People need to see exactly what they’re going to buy before they buy it, and this means that YOU need to provide them with everything they need to see in pictures.

Here is a good example from Tobi.com:

We can see the dress from all different angles: front, back, and side.  We can see the length of the dress, and the person wearing the dress shows us exactly how long it is.

Here’s a bad example:

With just the front of the bag showing, we have no idea how big it is inside, whether it has a zipper or a magnet, or how wide it is.

Your photos need to be varied, showing all sides, in and out and all around.  Let people see it as well as they would in a brick and mortar store.

 

Get Ahead of the Game with Product Videos

Video descriptions of your products are becoming the future of online marketing. Videos show people exactly what they want to see.  It doesn’t matter what your product is, show a video and let them see it in real life!

Home Depot does a great job of this with detailed product videos describing and showing their products in action:

Content Counts

Your product descriptions are not meant to be lists of what your product is and what it does.

Boring your customers into buying something isn’t a good marketing strategy. Instead, find the features of your product and turn those into benefits, showing people specific ways that your product will improve their life.

See how it’s done with this hand soap description:

So not only will this soap wash your hands, but will actually improve your holiday spirit!

See how they drew you in there?

What you write also has a bearing in your Call to Action buttons. For example, Dewalt was testing different call to action button text to see what words brought the best conversion rate. Upon changing one such button in a product page from ‘Shop Now’ to ‘Buy Now’, they got 17% more clicks!

Such simple changes can create big differences.

 

Respond to People’s Doubts and Fears

People worry about shipping costs, returns, and other questions that are related to your product. Let them have responses to those concerns. For example, add a tab in your description of the product that details shipping and return policies. For clothing, have a sizing chart so people know exactly how the piece will fit them.

Adding an FAQ with answers, or even a Live Chat system, will assuredly increase your conversion rates.  In fact, adding answers to FAQ questions on the product page increased conversion rates for Roller Skate Nation by 69%!

Check out this very well put together product page:

They provide extensive information on shipping on returns, and offer more advice for any other needs that the client has.  These are things that will definitely increase conversion!

The Cart and Checkout

Be the Best Price (And Flaunt it!)

If your product has a better price for quality than your competitors, don’t be afraid to make that known!  Many people compare-shop, and will abandon the cart that has the more expensive product.  Avoid abandonment by showing your customers exactly how much they are saving.

Allow Customers to See What’s in the Cart While they Browse

Do you ever add things to your cart and then continue shopping? Obviously.

Do you then forget what is in the cart, or how much total you’re spending? Most likely.

Keep the customer aware of what he’s doing by showing him what’s going on in his cart, such as how many items he has and the subtotal of what he’s spending, like this:

 

Send Follow-Up Emails to Shopping Cart Abandoners

Don’t let those abandoners get away! Have them enter their email as they put things in their online shopping cart. Then, if they abandon the cart, get that follow up email to them as quickly as possible! After that, make sure you can track the results.

KISS – Keep It Simple Stupid

Forced registration to a website, exaggerated forms to fill out, and not enough payment options are all reasons people abandon carts.

Make your checkout process as simple as possible for the customer, and don’t force them to go through hoops to finish their purchase.

For example, in this checkout scenario we see that the zip code is input first, and once the customer puts in their zip code, the other information is automatically filled in, thus making it much easier for the user!

Why Free Shipping Is a Must

If you charge for shipping, you are putting yourself into the losing half of the ecommerce industry. Yes, over half of online sellers offer free shipping to their customers.

Why?

Because in this study, 73% of online shoppers said that free shipping was critical to their online purchase, and another study discovered the fact that nearly every person who shops online will be encouraged to purchase more products if free shipping is offered.

This is not an option, this is a must if you really want to increase conversion rates.

JCPenny is a great example of one way to offer free shipping, and that is by setting a minimum spending amount to reach free shipping (in their case being $50).

An example of how well this works is the company 2BigFeet, whose conversions increased by 50% overnight when they started offering free shipping for orders over $100.

Free shipping will appeal to buyers and ultimately lead them to a satisfactory shopping experience, which is exactly what your business needs in order to find true success.

Summary

In total, these are relatively small changes that will make a big difference. Starting from when customers first visit your page, make them feel comfortable and invite them in by letting them know who you are and convincing them that you are unique in some way.  Make your products stand out by letting the customer see them in videos, pictures, and by creating fantastic copy that answers questions and refutes doubts.  Finally, make the checkout experience a great one by ensure the easiest finish to the buying process, and making sure they don’t abandon their cart.  Implementing these tips is a sure way to increase conversion and reach your full potential as a business.

 

Designing a checkout process for an ecommerce store is a huge challenge. Here’s some numbers you should know:

• In 2014, 1.12 billion people worldwide are expected to buy goods & services online –  tweet this
• By end of 2013, the average abandonment rate was 67.9% – tweet this
• Current ecommerce conversion rate statistics show that 40% of worldwide internet users have purchased goods or products online. – tweet this
• This amounts to more than 1 billion online buyers and is projected to continuously grow.

Although more and more people are purchasing online , most ecommerce checkout processes are extremely hard to navigate through and have very high abandonment rate. There are many websites today that can teach us about ecommerce conversion rate. For example, Amazon’s online sales dwarf the competition and continue bringing in the revenue:

To learn from the best, in this post we’ll take a look at what the companies are doing online today and also review some of conversioner’s latest case studies in ecommerce conversion optimization and best checkout processes.

 

Before checkout:

 

1. Where to Start Optimizing

Recent case studies continue to show us that in order to increase revenue and shopping cart revenue you do NOT need to start with optimizing the shopping cart. The most important impact you have on conversion is in the first 3 seconds a visitor lands on your site. The first 3 seconds of the user journey will determine if a user continues the funnel or not. In order to have the biggest impact in those 3 seconds you want to make sure you grab the user’s attention and convince them to purchase. This can be achieved by understanding your visitor’s emotional triggers, and by then using different images, colors and messaging to convey those triggers.

• Our brains process images 60,000 time quicker than text so you want to make sure the image you use has a strong emotional say to it.

• Colors project emotions – check out this emotional color guide to get some ideas

This ecommerce site increased their revenues by 115% by making changes on the category page, before even addressing the checkout page.

2. Call to action buttons

There’s a lot to say about call to action buttons, their color, position, size and more but most importantly on checkout process you want to make sure they are:

• Consistent – Never changing, same color, same position throughout the site and same size.

• Single – Make sure you have one call to action and not a few, too many ecommerce site have multiple call to actions giving users too many options and causing confusion.

• Natural – This is important for both before the checkout page and in the checkout page – A call to action button has to stand out and be the first natural place a visitor turns to.

Asos’s biggest call to action on their product pages is – Free shipping. Their “add to bag” call to action appears below the fold. (The blue line below marks the fols (where people need to start scrolling). This means that the first natural people look at on Asos’s product page is the “Free shipping” and not what Asos really wants us to do: “Add to bag”.

 

3. Currency

A great way to increase conversion and improve user journey is to show currency according to the visitor’s origin. Many sites do this today and allow a more personalized experience for the user.

4. Signup to checkout

This is probably the most discussed topic of ecommerce conversion. Should I require visitors to signup before checking out? NO. The majority of case studies show that shopping cart abandonment is highest when people reach a signup form in order to checkout. There’s no need to be greedy and there are other great ways of getting people to signup without requiring it:

• Offering a promo code with a discount for those who sign up – Once people are getting closer to checkout, you can offer a discount for those who signup.

• Having them sign up after the purchase

That being said if you will not relinquish the idea of getting people to sign up, ask for only one field – email. The rest can be received later and with email you will be able to quickly follow up later.

H&M requires registration before checking out. There are only 2 options, either you’re a returning user, or you need to register.  

Macy’s uses a popup once a user arrives on their site to sign people up, show international shipping and personalize currency – personalization in one stop. By offering 15% off, Macy’s gets additional people to sign up to their site and newsletter without ever asking them to sign up for checkout.

 

5. Trust Elements

Other than conveying trust, showing the amount of people who have already purchased an item increases its importance and popularity. We used the amount of people who have already used the product below to give a sense of a large and much used platform.

6. Testimonials

Testimonials are a great way to get people buying. Confirmation bias is another cognitive bias we experience while shopping. It means is we tend to search and interpret information in a way that confirms our beliefs and preconception. Basically we like seeing other people agree with us. Whistle is a great example of using emotional testimonials to support the purchase of their product.

An even better way:

Etsy shows testimonials in a quick way with easy navigation from the item details to testimonials and shipping details 

7. Countdown

Researches have shown that rather than only highlighting the “why” a person should buy a product, showing people they’re about to miss out on a special offer increases conversion dramatically. This to do with Loss Aversion –  a cognitive bias which demonstrates that the pain from losing is higher than the joy of winning.

 

The checkout:

 

8. Isolating the Checkout

Isolating the checkout is crucial for ecommerce conversion rate. Once a visitor arrives on the checkout page they should be only in the checkout page and all other attention grabbers should be removed. All exit links should be removed, making sure that visitors cannot be distracted, all remaining links should always appear in a pop up and not send the visitor to another page and experience.

 

9. You May Also Like…

Once the user has decided to purchase an item you can offer additional items to go with the chosen product. Seconds before the checkout itself, Office Depot shows the shopper a preview of their cart and offers additional products that may interest them.  

10. Shipping

Shipping has a huge impact on ecommerce conversion rate (Find some really cool numbers on free shipping below). Make sure that all pricing is visible at first glance, do NOT surprise your shoppers with shipping costs. Also, help users understand their own shipping costs. Etsy allows you to change your shipping destination (leading to change in cost) with a simple drop down menu that leaves no place for imagination:

11. Clutter Free

Clutter is a shopping cart’s worst enemy. Make it easy and simple on shoppers to see what they’re buying and how much it costs. Aliexpress asks people for their entire information at the top of the shopping cart completely hiding the purchase details below the form. The blue line marks where the fold ends and people need to start scrolling:

 

X-doria on the other hand introduces a clutter free shopping bag presenting all the relevant information.

12. Editable

Another thing that H&M and other brands do successfully is make it easy on the shopper to make changes within the checkout page. This means that within the shopping cart you can edit the amount of products you by, change the size or even remove some of the products, all in one place making sure shoppers are not being sent out of the shopping cart. If you’re selling fashion items it’s also a good idea to have the size chart in the checkout page.

 

13. Trust

One of the most important parts of a checkout process is making shoppers feel comfortable and safe. Introducing trust elements to your cart is key for higher ecommerce conversion rate. The most common way of doing this is adding logos of known and trusted companies or brand that will show users you can be trusted.

One of my favorite brands: Skreened does it fantastically. As you can see (from my actual updated cart), just below the “continue checkout” call to action there are many trust icons such as paypal, credit card companies and even a “secured by GEOtrust” logo.

 

14. Cookies

One other thing  love about Skreened is the fact they have very long lasting cookies on their site. As you can see in the screenshot above – I’m not logged in and I actually haven’t visited the site in over a month and yet they still have my shopping cart items saved with all my preferences. Awesome job.

 

15. Payment Methods

This one is a no brainer, don’t ask people to choose the type of credit card they’re going to use, just populate it yourself once the shopper begins to type. The idea is to save shoppers the time and hassle, there’s no need to make your users fill in an unnecessary field.

 

16. Mobile

If we’ve already started talking about payment and fields shoppers need to submit, on mobile everyone should be doing the same as uber and offer to screenshot your credit card. No need to fill in any numbers, as simple as that – you take a picture of your credit card and it’s in. As easy as that!    

17. Localization

Stop asking for people’s full address before the zip code. It is so easy to have people fill in the zip code first and the populate most of the address details.Again we’re talking about making it easy on the customer. Populating a shoppers address according to their zipcode is a must.

18. Error fields & validation

The one thing about errors and validation in shopping carts is that they have to be inline. Inline validation makes it very clear for users whether they’ve correctly filled in the field or not and will ensure they fill them out correctly. Yoast has a nice article on how to do this well.

Look Human has validation and errors show up above the form (the yellow line):

 

But when you show inline validation like MyOwnBike you basically ensure that the attention is immediately turned towards what needs to be fixed.

 

19. Product photos

Remind people what they’re purchasing and what’s in their shopping cart. Many companies miss this important step of ensuring shoppers that everything is clear, simple and according to their decisions.

Tatchies (although not a good example for clutter free) keeps the items being purchased on top with a small product photo to remind people of their choices.

 

An even better example: OakStreet. Clutter free and better hierarchy – showing the product image inline with other information and not above.

20. Progress bar

Tell people where they are in the funnel. We’re restless creatures and we want to know how long this process is going to take us. A great example by MyOwnBike on how to preview a checkout process can be seen in the example below, note how each step highlights the number above on gold and indicates the amount of steps left for purchase.

21. Real-time Support

Real-time support is key to higher ecommerce conversion rate. According to a research by boldchat, Chatters who engage via proactive invitation are 9.8x more likely to convert than visitors who don’t chat. More importantly, according to a recent Forrester research “44 % of online consumers say that having questions answered by a live agent while in the middle of an online purchase is one of the most important features a website can offer.” Missesdressy offers a quick call for support or a 24-hour chat service to answer all your questions:

22. Save for later

The option for saving later has proven in countless times to increase conversion rates – mainly on mobile. 80% of mobile users say they feel uncomfortable paying on their mobile device. By introducing the save for later button, shoppers are able to then come back to their shopping cart and purchase the item on a desktop computer.

23. Order summary

Similar to showing product images on the final checkout page you also want to ensure shoppers throughout checkout and remind them which products they’ve already added to their bag and are currently in the midst of buying. Note that although we haven’t reached checkout yet, we can still see the product while signing up.

 

24. Shopping Cart Hierarchy

The term “above the fold” refers to the section of the screen visitors see without needing to scroll. Needless to say, you want all important information above the fold so people do not need to search for the “add to cart” button or search for their chosen items.  When arriving on Victoria Secret’s checkout page, the first thing you see is a recommendations for other items you may like and only then are you able to see what you’re actually purchasing. This can cause confusion and distract customers from completing their purchase. Make sure the hierarchy of your shopping cart makes sense: first show the call to action, then present the items with their info and only then additional items they may be interested in.

 

25. Catch them before they leave

Exit popups are becoming more and more popular. I’m not referring to the system exit popups that appear as a warning if a visitor tries to leave the site but to well designed and thought exit popups that offer your shoppers a reason to complete their purchase.  Use exit popups the right way, don’t harass users, don’t threaten them and offer genuine value. Many sites use exit popups to collect emails:

 

Others use it to offer one last sale before visitors leave:

 

26. Catch them after they leave

As of the fourth quarter of 2013, the average abandonment rate was 67.9% in the US. The majority of shoppers leave their shopping cart and do not complete their purchase. There are many reasons for shopping cart abandonment and there are two main ways to get them back:

• Email Marketing: if you capture your shoppers email at the right time you can send them email marketing messages to bring them back to the funnel. The types of email I’ve received vary from discounts, free shipping, sales on my items and sometimes just a reminder that my shopping cart still exists.

• Remarketing: “Stalk” your customer and offer them a personalized offer. Retargeting allows you to plant a cookie on your user and show them a personalized offer throughout the web. Easyjet did it me last year while I was looking for flights.

27. The power of free shipping

When I was 22 (so really not long ago…) I worked at a call center that sold $400 service over the phone. Once I’d make the sale I’d offer customers to purchase a book for only $25. People would always say no at first, but once I threw in the shipping it was a done deal. People like free shipping, it just works.

So far in 2014, 63% of amazon customers have joined amazon because of free shipping:

Really.

 

After checkout:

 

Now that you’ve made the sale it’s time to hit the iron while it’s hot. Many people neglect the power of retention (you can increase your profits by 95% with user retention) and after sale. There are two main points you should work on:

28. Thank you pages

Now’s the time to sign them up. Get more out of the users once they’ve purchased by asking them to write a testimonial, by getting them to share their purchase on social media for different incentives, add them to your mailing list and much more. There are endless possibilities instead of just saying: Thanks your invoice is in the mail.

29. Email marketing

Thank you Moo.com for being so enthusiastic and doing it right. Start sending newsletters to your clients, sign them up to your mailing list and personalize offers for them.

30. Don’t forget

You know what to do. Test, test, test. Don’t go blindly into stuff, check stuff out, change things around and follow your metrics. Things make look nice on your site, but that doesn’t mean they work. Don’t make changes for the sake of changes, and don’t do everything at the same time.

 

We’ll be posting a new ecommerce use case next week that has just been amazing to test. We’ll show you heatmaps and some of the changes we’ve made and give you some insights on using both emotional and behavioral targeting.

Fact: In 2013, 50% of potential customers online abandoned the checkout page without completing their purchase. (tweet this) (more facts)

The bottom line:

In less than 1 month, a top fashion ecommerce site increased its revenues by 86% and their average revenue per visit by 117%.

What:

Conversioner teamed up with one of the top fashion e-commerce sites to increase their online sales and help with landing page optimization services. Launched in 2008, the online shop provides high fashion and designer brands to worldwide women and teenagers. During the first part of tests, we focused on one of the prom designers and are now widening our tests to the rest of the site.

How:

Starting out we begun with our emotional research, studying and running an in-depth analysis of the psycho-emotional triggers of the audience. Narrowing it down to two emotional triggers, we defined the audience, located the leaks in the original funnel, analyzed the current traffic results and start creating the funnel.

Original Page

Variation 1

Variation 2

2 new designer’s pages were built following the strategy:

• Messaging: The design and entire messaging was focused on being a queen for one night. The importance of selling the dream that comes with the dress and the social acceptance and prestige only these dresses could achieve. Happiness is not determined by where we are but to which reality we’re comparing it to. By using specific messaging for these young and adult shoppers we were able to create a better and most promising reality for them and take a step further towards their dream.

• Design: A new conversion focused designers page was designed and built starting with concept, copy and wireframe. The final deliverable was conversion-focused designer pages to increase sales and brand affinity. Different products, colors and images were placed in specific areas to get eye attention and increase CTR. Every pixel on the page was designed to fit with the strategy and the emotional triggers.

• Color psychology: calm, hopeful and positive colors such as pink and white were the theme of the landing page. (The emotional power of colors on your conversion)

• Images: Our brains process images 60,000 times faster then any other object (text for example) which is why the majority of the text was reduced and located below the fold (& optimized for SEO). Stronger images, different backgrounds, colors and products were added to the design to express happiness, prestige and dreams coming true. (using images to increase revenue)

• User interface: Small technical changes were made to allow easy navigation. For example, the segmentation box was now located on the left hand-side allowing it to scroll with the shopper as they go. In addition links leading out of the shopping area were reduced in size and moved to a more strategic location, allowing for easier browsing.

• Call to action: The call to action was now more visible and inviting. While designing the new page, we needed to put emphasis on taking action and clicking on a certain product. (3 quick tips to improve your call to action buttons)

 

2 Lessons:

One of the most interesting things about this test is that for the first 3-4 days our pages were under-preforming revenue wise. From day 5, the pages started outperforming the original page with double the transactions and kept this way for 2 weeks.

1. Patience: One of the biggest challenges we have with our partners is getting them to wait, sit back and let things settle. When uploading a test it is extremely important to give the test time, not to rush into things and not to make any hasty moves.

2. Quality: Presenting a better UI and messaging ensured the users who didn’t convert in the first 3-4 days returned to our site. This is the same pattern we see in all of our tests; a conversion optimization strategy that includes emotional targeting delivers much higher quality clients and results.
   

The Results

Variation 2 was the winner with the following results:

• 115% increase in revenue
• 86% increase in amount of transactions
• 87% increase in conversion to payment

Question:

What was your latest test you did and what did you learn from it?