Do you want an e-commerce landing page that draws site visitors in and converts them into paying customers? Over time, your landing page might get too cluttered or fail to keep up with your current goals as an online retailer. Perhaps you started your business on a budget and couldn’t afford to roll out some of the features you know similar brands offer. It’s never too late to add new elements to your store website.
By 2040, experts estimate 95% of purchases will be online exclusively. There is still room for growth in the e-commerce sector. Set your site up so you’re ready for technological changes and gear up for the increased traffic before the numbers peak. Here are 11 things your landing page needs today and some examples of pages doing it right.
11 Website Features Your eCommerce Landing Page
Use Smart Web Design Practices
Before you add anything to your landing pages, use smart design practices. For example, does your logo link back to the home page? If not, visitors might grow confused over your navigation structure. Ensure your design is aesthetically pleasing, your navigation intuitive, and you limit the number of elements on your page so visitors easily find your call-to-action button.
Add a Mega Menu
If you sell various products, a mega menu lets you showcase all the items you offer without cluttering your navigation bar. Choose five to seven main categories and create subcategories and sub-subcategories under them. With a mega menu, you can use icons to entice people to click on featured areas or draw attention to specials and clearance items.
As the largest online retailer, Amazon is exemplary for learning to attract users and increase revenue. Note how they have some specific main categories, such as Household and Books, but then they have subcategories, such as Bed and Bath, Kitchen, etc. They even break things down further within those subcategories. Amazon’s revenue is around $207 billion per year.
Find Better Visuals
When users land on your page, they form their first impression of how your page looks. If your visual elements aren’t up to par, you risk losing people who might think your site looks unprofessional or uncertain about what they’re ordering. Invest in the best product photos you can afford. If possible, hire a professional commercial photographer to take them. If your budget doesn’t allow for that, study what other stores offer and try to recreate the angles. Take online photography courses to learn lighting and composition.
Use Videos
Around 85% of people in the United States watch video content online. Video is a popular way of digesting information without thinking too hard about the concepts. Consumers view videos to gather information and learn about new products and entertainment. Adding video to your landing page informs users about your products or services.
One Point Partitions uses a video to show what their partitions are capable of and how easy they are to assemble. Visitor landing on the home page realizes this is something they or their contractor can easily implement into the plans for a new building or renovations of a current building. The clip solves customers’ pain points by explaining the ease of installation.
Invest in Better Content
Most e-commerce businesses start as solo operations, with the owner doing all the work. However, as your business grows, you’ll need to hire some of the work to others to get the best quality possible — content is an area worth investing in. Content brings traffic to your site and keeps your target audience engaged once they land there. The cost of starting and maintaining an e-commerce store varies widely. You can hire a full-time content writer or find freelancers to complete your work.
Include Reviews or Testimonials
People need to trust you before they’ll do business with you. One way of adding authenticity to your landing page is posting testimonials from happy customers or adding review features to your online store. Reviews show users how other consumers feel about your products and customer service. People tend to rely on peer reviews when deciding whether or not to make a purchase.
Albee Baby offers reviews on each product so new parents can see what others think of each item. They use a five-star rating system, with five being the highest and one being the lowest. Users see an overall rating based on all the reviews and can then dig into the details of what each person had to say about the product.
Add Multiple Calls to Action
You may have heard the advice to keep the focus on one thing on a landing page, but e-commerce pages are a bit different. While you might push a single product or category, you also want to repeatedly draw in leads you can market to. So, your site might offer a link to “buy now” and a link to “sign up for discounts.” Think about the possible actions of those who land on your page and the top two or three things you want visitors to do before leaving.
Create a Usable Search Feature
Have you ever visited an online retailer searching for something specific and couldn’t sort through all the clutter? Aggravated users tend to leave a website and go to a competitor. Avoid this scenario by adding a robust search feature. Make sure you tag products in the popular search terms for that product. You may need to research the most common searches for a specific product type. What are users likely to type in during their hunt for the item?
DressUp offers a search feature that returns a wide range of results and provides filtering options. For example, when hunting for summer dresses, the site returns 721 products and 22 pieces of news and information. It also offers the ability to filter results by types of clothing, such as sale dresses, graduation dresses, or by size, color, or even heel height.
Install a Zoom Feature
Adding a zoom feature to look at a product up close may improve conversions. You could even offer a 360-degree photo so the site visitor can turn the picture around at different angles and see small details they might otherwise miss. It makes the shopping experience as close to a real-life trip as possible.
Beef up Your Descriptions
An online shopper doesn’t have the advantage of seeing the item in person or asking a salesperson questions. They only have your item description and images to go on. If you’ve added reviews, they may gather additional information from the thoughts of others who’ve tried the product. Spend extra time describing the item in detail to eliminate any confusion. Consider some common questions customers ask about the item and answer those in the description.
Optimize for Mobile
More and more people shop online while waiting at a doctor’s office or commuting to and from work on a train or bus. You’re missing out on traffic and potential sales if you haven’t optimized your smartphone landing page. Spend time ensuring your entire site adapts to smaller screen sizes.
Test Your Landing Pages – 11 Website Features Your eCommerce Landing Page Is Longing For
One of the best things to improve your website’s pages is conducting A/B testing. Creating the most beautiful page imaginable isn’t helpful if users don’t respond. Make small adjustments and test each to see how your target audience reacts. With a bit of attention to the small features, you’ll find you have higher conversions and more loyal customers.
Lexie is a graphic designer and UX strategist. She enjoys taking her Goldendoodle on walks and checking out flea markets. Visit her design blog, Design Roast, and follow her on Twitter @lexieludesigner.
