Did you know you can significantly improve the conversion of your website and increase sales just by revamping the content and features on the product page itself?

In 2020 it is projected that overall retail sales will drop by 10.5% while online sales will grow by 18%*. You might be thinking this is a great time to invest in driving more traffic to your eCommerce website — which is true — but there is little sense in investing in digital advertising to increase visitors to your website if the website is not currently set up to efficiently convert a sale.

If you rushed to launch your website or purchased a templated site, chances are you are leaving out critical content and features consumers need to feel confident when making a purchase. Time online is finite; brands must find ways to lure in their audience and efficiently direct consumers to key features. The secret lies in providing entertainment, education, social, and sensory validation.  Savvy web design teams know how to do all of this on the product page alone.

Entertainment

1. Style + Substance

When users are shopping for beauty products, they expect to have a beautiful and entertaining experience — starting with appearance. The unique brand colors, shapes, symbols, and words surrounding your brand identity should permeate throughout the site and differentiate your brand from typical eCommerce experiences.

Users are craving education, relation, and connection to a community of like-minded peers. Your page should explain how your brand came about and the founder’s background story, as well as the ingredients or formulations your products do or do not include. This is the essence of your Brand Value Proposition and will help build a loyal community of returning customers.

2. Virtual Tips + Tricks

Another way to engage your user is by making your product page interactive. Customers love routines and are drawn to lifestyle visuals and content that explain the process. A How-To feature or a video tutorial encourages customers to have the confidence to try something new.

Education

3. Results

Consumers want products that perform; reassurance of benefits and results are critical. Draw the consumer in with clinically proven scientific data and compelling numbers — hard facts that get the customer to trust the product. This feature could go hand-in-hand with a Q&A or FAQ feature providing a narrative, answering questions, and informing the user. When it comes to education, keep it brief but impactful. This is also great for Search Engine Optimization.

4. Free-Froms

What’s not in your products is becoming increasingly as important as what is in your products. A product page should include what the brand is free from, as well as which ingredients specific products are free from (i.e. vegan, organic, cruelty-free etc.). This is an incredibly hot topic that brands are emphasizing on their pages to stand out in the market. Small yet mighty, these symbols wordlessly speak volumes to consumers with shared values.

Social

5. User Generated Content + Reviews

Humans are social beings. We enjoy interacting with each other, talking, and learning. When it comes to beauty marketing, we encourage brands to provide features, such as reviews, that users can relate to online. Users are actively reading what their beauty community is saying about specific products. User-generated content is more trusted than advertising; in fact, 55% of women say online reviews heavily influence what they buy. Review modules can be highly relevant and customizable, including the ability to upload imagery or apply filters for sorting reviews by distinct hair or skin conditions.

6. Brand Story

Records show that 87% of people will choose a product because a company advocates for an issue they care about. 67% of users believe buyers bought from a brand for the first time because of its position on a controversial issue. From environmental commitments to social causes or simply supporting local issues that matter, most consumers want to know that you also care. Some brands have cause marketing efforts such as buy one, give one. Not only is this a quality that consumers want to participate in, it is good for the soul. This is a great addition to a brand story, similar to humanizing your brand by sharing your founder. People believe in people!

Sensory

7. Ingredient Features

Beauty products are incredibly sensory driven. Since users cannot smell or feel your products online, you must tease out the story of the product using images and words to convey those experiences. We encourage brands to showcase the ingredients you know excite users or are hot on the market (i.e.,Vitamin C). This not only captures consumers searching for those ingredients via organic search, but also showcases the scent and key benefits.

Imagery of ingredients, product swatches, and the application process is another way to show off the experience. Besides reading about the items, customers appreciate a sense of the shade, texture, and scent.

As sales online continue to rise, many brands are evaluating their website and digital marketing eco-system, wondering where to allocate time, energy, and funding to boost sales. Although every brand is unique, it is consistently found that improving the features and content on the product page itself leads to an immediate lift in sales conversions with the traffic you already have. The tools listed above are some of the foundational features we see brands missing on their product pages again and again. Thoughtful changes to product pages provide a basis for improving sales conversion and loyal consumer relationships. 

Although we have the capabilities to handle all the beauty branding and beauty marketing your company may need, updating a simple eCommerce product page is a great first step to quickly make a positive impact on your business. Whether we apply story-telling and user-friendly changes to all of your product pages — or just your top selling SKUs, your brand will see results in just a few short weeks.

For more information, call us at 718-545-0075, email us at info@mslk.com, or tell us more information about your brand needs here.

*Source: eMarketer