5 Tips for Better Converting Shopify Product Pages

It doesn't matter how great your products are. If your Shopify product pages don't do an outstanding job selling your products. Customers will simply go somewhere else, and that's a fact.  To be successful, you must optimize your Shopify product pages to not just show but to sell.

This means delivering both what customers want and expect from their experience. From the images customers see, to the words they read – everything must have a purpose.  Here are 5 tips to follow for better converting Shopify product pages.

Make The Visuals Count

The greatest downside of shopping online is the inability to clearly see or comprehend a product before it is purchased. Choose large, high-quality images that visitors can interact with (zoom, see color options, etc.) for maximum effect. This is particularly important if you're selling higher-end fashion and accessory items.  Also, add as many different images as you can to show the product from every angle and try to include an “action shot,” in other words, showing the product being used.

You can work with a professional photographer if need be to get the best possible quality pictures, or if you're experienced with Photoshop or another editing tool, you can do it yourself. Again, remember to take as many photos as needed to show the item from various angles so shoppers can see every detail of your product.  The more information they have, the easier their decision will be to purchase the product.

Value Proposition 101

The product's name, description, imagery, etc. all need to showcase exactly what value your product is bringing to the table. Descriptions should be easy to read, carefully written, and speak directly to your target audience.  Don't get caught up in tech-speak, the manufacturer's description, or try to stuff as many keywords as possible hoping to be found in more searches. Rather, consider things from the customer's perspective and write your descriptions to answer the shopper's questions. Nobody cares what your product is or does, only how it will help them, make them feel, and/or improve their life.

Imagine you're talking to your customer about the product face to face. What would they want to know? More importantly, what would you tell them? Remember, you aren't selling just a product, you're selling a solution.  Be very descriptive in your product descriptions to give your visitors a taste of ownership.  Describe your product in a way that helps your prospect “see” themselves using or owning your product and benefiting from it or helping them to solve a problem.

Would you rather buy a “Solid Wood Office Desk Chair” or an “Imported Honduran Mahogany Executive's Office Desk Chair”?

Let your Customers Speak for Themselves

There is no better marketing tool than a happy customer. Word of mouth has long been the easiest and fastest way people form an opinion about your product. Include customer reviews on your Shopify product pages to easily show potential shoppers what others think.

Reviews should be conspicuously featured on a product page and easy for shoppers to read.

The availability of customer-generated reviews and content (such as pictures of themselves with your product) increases trust in your product as well as conversions, especially if you're consistently receiving 4 or 5-star remarks.

To find out just how star ratings influence customers’ future behavior, ecommerce ratings and reviews service Yotpo² analyzed one million reviews for 8.6 million purchases made on 6,623 products across multiple verticals and stores and discovered precisely what you would expect: higher star ratings lead to more orders (duh!).  Check out the graph below to see their results:

Just look at how sharply orders fall off around the 3-4 star range!  Perhaps what you did not notice in that graphic is how dramatic the drop is when the star rating is exactly 5! This means it is by far better to have a rating in the high 4's (e.g. 4.7 or 4.8) then to have exactly 5, and this makes total sense when you think about it. 

A product with exactly 5 stars probably has very few reviews. On the other hand, it is nearly impossible for a product with hundreds of reviews to maintain a perfect 5 rating. 

This logic stands up to reason for me personally as when I'm comparing two products to buy (such as on Amazon), I would much rather buy the product with 847 reviews and and average rating of 4.6 than one with 12 reviews and a perfect 5 rating.

Why Should I Trust YOU?

Although online shopping has gained tremendously in popularity over the past decade with consumers becoming increasingly comfortable with this form of shopping, there still exists some level of skepticism, mistrust, and concern when buying online, particularly form a site they've never visited before.

So why should your prospective customers trust you enough to hand over their cash? Give them every reason to. In addition to showing reviews and other social proof elements, follow these 3 simple additional tips for establishing trust with your prospects:

A.) Display multiple “trust badges” that showcase your commitment to the security of their information and satisfaction with their experience and your products.

B.) Clearly highlight (in bold) your contact information so potential customers know how they'll be able to get in touch with you should they need to. An email address, such as support@yoursite.com, is good, a “contact us” form is better, and a toll-free number works best.

C.) Make your refund period and return policy as clear as possible, such as showing a “30-day money back guarantee” badge or even just the text on the page either in the description or near the “add to cart” button.

Of course, the higher the price of the item, the more difficult it will be for you to fully overcome all of your potential customer's purchase resistance and actually get the sale, which makes all of these points that much more important.

If at all possible, consider focusing your cold-traffic efforts on low-end priced products to just make the initial sale because it is far easier and cheaper to get another sale from an existing customer than to acquire a new customer.

Set Expectations

Want to know the No. 1 reason for abandoned carts)? According to the Baymard Institute¹, the biggest reason shoppers abandon their shopping carts without completing their purchase is “extra costs are too high.”

What this means is that what the shopper sees when they reach your cart/checkout page differs from what they see and expect to pay on your product pages.

So…what does that tell you? Fix it!

Clearly state on your product pages what your users can expect to pay once they reach checkout. How much will shipping be? Will visitors from a particular state also being state sales tax? Make it clear, set expectations, and watch your conversions go up and abandoned carts go down.

Bonus Tip: Funnel It

So you've implemented all of these tips and your Shopify product pages still aren't converting well enough? It's time to add a sales funnel! Unfortunately, Shopify is missing several critical components that are preventing you from having a high-powered e-commerce store. Thankfully, there is now a Shopify sales funnel app that integrates directly with your Shopify store to add these missing elements.

You can use Funnel Buildr to create custom product landing pages, custom checkout pages, with one-click post-purchase upsells and downsells, and you can split-test your product pages to determine what elements are most effective. Plus, the drag and drop technology makes building and editing pages simpler than ever before.
Adding custom sales funnels is one of the simplest ways and easiest ways to increase your store's conversions. Do this, and you can build a dramatically more profitable Shopify store!

Ready to start adding high-converting sales funnels to your Shopify store? Click Here.

¹ https://baymard.com/lists/cart-abandonment-rate
² http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/727-ZQE-044/images/YOT_1512_BnchmrkRpt.pdf