A product detail page (PDP) is the small hinge that moves a big door. By understanding how the target audience navigates product detail pages, brands will be able to gain insights into their customers' data-driven decision-making and refine their online sales strategies.
If a brand is selling products through major retailers (e.g., Amazon, Walmart, Target, BestBuy, etc.), understanding how consumers interact with product detail pages on these sites is crucial to driving conversions.
What are some common mistakes and what can brands change to improve outcomes? Let's take a look.
1. Designing for Ourselves Instead of the Target Audience
Don't fall into the classic mistake of thinking with "your own brain". What makes perfect sense to a brand manager will not always make sense to shoppers. To find out how to optimize product pages, brands need to do some research on who their target customer is and what their needs are to design a product page that resonates with them.
Lack of conversions may be due to:
- Not enough product information or information is difficult to find. Are there product specs, features, dimensions, and warranty info? Leaving out any of this critical information can result in lost sales.
- Wrong media types. Images only or should there be videos, too? Track data on which media type is best at driving conversions, what’s the optimal number of images for facilitating purchase or research, which ones are looked at, why they capture shoppers’ attention, and which ones are most effective in helping shoppers make purchasing decisions
2. Failing To Understand (and Cater to) Shopper Intent
Intent refers to why shoppers are coming to the product page in the first place. Understanding shopper insights and intent is critical for product page success as it allows brands to design a page that answers customer questions and guides them toward conversion.
There are three main types of shopper intent:
- Informational: The shopper is interested in a product category but doesn't know which product to buy
- Navigational: The shopper knows what they want and is looking for a specific product or brand
- Transactional: The shopper is ready to buy and just needs some final reassurance before completing their purchase
If you don't understand why shoppers peruse product pages, it's impossible to design a page that attracts them, meets their needs, and guides them toward conversion.
3. Making It All About the Product, and Not the Shopper
To avoid product-centric design, brands should put themselves in their consumers' shoes and ask themselves questions like:
- What questions do shoppers have?
- What information do they need?
- How do we make it easy for them to find what they're looking for?
4. Not Using High-Quality Visuals
When selecting visuals for product pages, brands should consider:
- Image size and resolution
- Product angle
- Lighting
Using high-quality visuals is one of the easiest ways to improve product page design. Shoppers will appreciate it and it will help increase conversions.
5. Ignoring User Experience
Creating a positive UX should be a top priority for brands because it can have a major impact on conversions. Product pages are just one part of the overall user experience, but they are a critical part. If product pages are too difficult to navigate or the information is not structured well, shoppers will quickly leave and may never come back.
To create a positive UX, brands need to focus on:
- Ease of navigation
- Leveraging reviews and social proof
- Content hierarchy
- Visual design
Creating a positive UX should be a top priority for product page design. Identifying overarching issues that might be hampering your sales will help create a product detail page that will convert and delight shoppers.
Measuring the Effectiveness of Your Product Detail Pages
The Luth Research team has extensive experience helping major consumer brands conduct PDP research to leverage shopper insights and understand consumer behaviors.
In our free guide, we take a deep dive into how to optimize product detail pages and how to conduct best-in-class PDP research. Getting the right shopper insights and turning them into actions is the first step toward more conversions!
Download our free guide and start the actionable insights!
