How To Optimize An Ecommerce Product Detail Page

Ecommerce, the final frontier! The Internet is growing at an annual rate of over 20%. There are over 1 billion users on the Internet and that number is expected to double in less than 10 years and eCommerce sales are expected to double in less than 7 years.

Today marks the 25th anniversay of the first .com registration. The anniversary coincides with research by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) that found that the internet economy drives more than $1.5 trillion (£990bn) in global annual economic activity. Do you sell your products online? Do you want a piece of that trillion dollar pie?

The key to successful eCommerce starts with the product detail page, optimization, picture file size and presentation and usability. With the rise of social media and Web 2.0 came the social bookmarking, fan pages, add this and the most important of all – user reviews. Below, I have outlined my process for optimizing eCommerce product detail pages. It is simple, yet a time proven tactic that brings solid success everytime I’ve used it.

• Product Title – Have the product name / service first, then your brand name, Air Jordans | Nike
• Product Name – Always use hi tags for the product name
• Product Description – Whenever you can, always try to standardize the description with at least the product / service name and category name. The more detailed information you can provide, instructions, how to’s, the higher the conversion rate from viewers to buyers.
• Product Image – Always name the image with the full product name. Never resize the image using html code, resize it with your editing software and repost. Always include image size in the html and make good use of alt tags. Use a picture size that serves the product well, 250px by 250px is a good size if only using one. Best practice is the more pictures the better, but utilize smaller sized images on the product page.
• Product Image Detail – Always make the product image clickable opening a larger image.
  Amazon and ebay suggest no smaller than 1000px for the detail image.
• Store your images on a cookieless subdomain or content delivery network for faster loading and parallel downloads.
• Bread Crumb Nav – Include a Bread Crumb Nav on all product pages showing ever level to the product.
• Social Bookmarking – Always include social bookmarking and promoting buttons or an add this bar to enable users to promote and bookmark your products.
• RSS Feed – give users the opportunity to subscribe to your product rss feed.
• Site Navigation – Ensure site navigation is clear, concise and consistent.
• FAQ or Help pages – Ensure the process to get assistance or access the FAQ is simple and obvious on every page.
• Policies and Returns – Ensure all policies and return procedures are clear, concise and fair.
• Price / Value – Carefully consider your pricing v.s. the competition. If you cannot compete on the price, ensure that you offer superior service, detail pages and easily accessible shipping options.
• User Product Reviews – Positive reviews are probably the single biggest call to action for any product. Todays’ shopper is 5 times more likely to purchase a product that displays user reviews than products that do not display reviews.

Advantage Ecommerce Solutions is a full service Design, SEO, Marketing and Ecommerce Consulting company. Would you like to expand your market, increase sales and grow your ROI? Contact Advantage Ecommerce Solutions for a free site analysis and review to help take you to your next level of success.

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