Fine-Tuning Your Ecommerce Micro Conversions for Big Wins: Product Pages, Part 3 of 5

Haley Spindler | Apr 27, 2021

Reading Time: 5 minutes

This is the third article in a five-part ecommerce optimization series on using micro conversions to increase that one glorious metric all business owners and optimizers obsess over—conversion rate. 

If you’re interested in learning all about the micro conversions associated with each step of the funnel and how each micro conversion helps increase the overall conversion rate of the store, read on (and also stay tuned for the next two articles in this series!).

Note: You can see part 1 on micro conversions and the homepage here and part 2 on micro conversions and the category page here.

If you’re not familiar with micro conversions, don’t worry! Here’s a quick overview:

• A conversion often refers to the final transaction on the checkout page—payment. (This is the “conversion” referenced in the “conversion rate” metric.) 
• A micro conversion refers to any single step a customer takes anywhere in the funnel. For example, on a product page, the micro conversion is to add a product to a cart (this action is called an add to cart or ATC). On the cart page, the micro conversion is to proceed to checkout, and so on.

So what are some super-simple things you can do to help improve those micro conversions and ultimately improve your overall conversion rate?

In this article, I’ll address some best practices that Build Grow Scale (BGS) uses to improve the performance of product pages.

Product Page

The main goal of the product page is to get the customer to add products to the cart. To accomplish that goal, make sure to:

• Be clear in your message.
• Articulate your unique value proposition (UVP). A UVP is your hook. It’s the reason why your customers would buy from you and not the competition.
• Have your “Add to Cart” (ATC) button above the fold. Note: “Above the fold” refers to the upper portion of a webpage, where content is visible when a user first interacts with that page. No scrolling is required to see the element—in this case, the ATC button.
• Have exceptional copy and imagery.

There are other things you can do to increase ATCs, but focusing on these four factors helps ensure that your product pages will see a boost in ATCs.

Best Practices

Now that you know about the micro conversion (ATC) on the product page, we can look at what best practices you can implement to increase micro conversions.

Note: Keep in mind that best practices aren’t foolproof and only work about 65% of the time, even when implemented correctly. Any change made to your site should be tested, regardless of what you think is best!

1. Readability

Your copy should be exceptional and, at the same time, incredibly easy to read. A user should never have to read a wall of text. 

The general take is that users are distracted and just want the highlight reel. They don’t want to work at reading a large explanatory description. These recommendations can help:

• Don’t use fancy words that an average middle schooler wouldn’t understand.
• Make copy more readable by using short paragraphs.
• Break up the text with bulleted lists. 

Also keep your choice of colors and fonts in mind:

• Don’t choose colors that are too light. Unless it’s a quick headline, text should be black on a white background. 
• Don’t choose fancy fonts that just end up creating a readability nightmare. A good serif font tends to do better in readability tests.

Keep in mind that copy should be engaging. People who read are typically people who buy, so if you can get them to read, you can get them to buy! 

Using humor is typically an easy way to engage your customers. Even if you don’t think humor fits your brand, give it a shot. You’d be surprised what people respond well to, and in most cases, we’ve seen the addition of humor improve readability tremendously!

The easiest way to accomplish foolproof copy is to make it prototypical, meaning that it’s what people are used to seeing. So it could be beneficial to spend some time looking at what your best-performing or well-known competitors are doing. I’m not advocating that you copy your competitors but, rather, that you use what they’re doing as inspiration for your own store. 

Note: If you’re interested in learning more about how to correctly complete competitor analysis, check out my article here.

How can you be sure that you’ve created successful copy? Readability testing! What’s a readability test? It’s just like a user test but it focuses solely on copy. 

Note: You can learn more about user testing here.

Note: You’ll likely notice that about 80% of your traffic is mobile, so be sure to give a little extra TLC to the mobile experience on your store! Keep in mind: Users will have to use their thumbs to scroll if your copy is too long, and that can be cumbersome for a mobile user!

2. Imagery

As was the case with the copy, imagery needs to be exceptional. If you’re in drop-shipping or print on demand, you may be limited to the imagery provided to you. However, it’s worth it to take the time to create original content that is, again, exceptional—meaning that the product photography is of a high quality.

Keep in mind that users value quality over quantity. It does no good to have many photos if the quality is subpar. In most cases, having just a few high-quality photos outperforms having many low-quality ones.

Definitely do look for the sweet spot in terms of photo quantity, because having just one high-quality shot of the product likely won’t suffice either. You may only need one shot of a product (for example, a necklace), but you may see an improvement in micro conversions if you include a lifestyle shot as well.

At the same time, It’s important not to bombard users with a page full of photos. You want just enough of them for users to see everything they need to see. 

An easy way to gauge whether or not you’ve found the sweet spot is with user testing. If your user-testing audience has any questions that can be answered by providing a photo, add it!

For example, a user might buy your necklace if they can look at the clasp to see if it’s appropriate for someone with arthritis. A photo may help to answer that question. (It can be beneficial to answer it elsewhere too, if it’s a common concern.)

Do some competitor research and see what the top performers are doing. That’s usually a good place to start, but make sure to keep innovating and testing!

Conclusion

When it comes to optimizing ecommerce stores, there really isn’t much emphasis placed on micro conversions. Most people focus on that one main metric—conversion rate. Although it’s a great metric—and I’m certainly not saying to ignore it—it’s only one metric that is meant to measure checkout-page performance.

What would happen if, instead, we focused our attention on earlier stages in the funnel with the goal of moving more customers deeper into the funnel? Always remember that the main goal of a product page is to funnel customers to the cart page (ATC), so make sure to use the concepts outlined in this article to accomplish that goal. 

Start to pay attention to your micro conversions and let me know if any of these best practices help your product page!

And stay tuned for the fourth article in this series, which covers the next step in the funnel—the cart page.