Anyone who decides to create an ecommerce with the aim of increasing their business by selling products/services even online cannot fail to pay attention to a fundamental aspect: the product sheet.
The latter, in fact, presents and describes what it is intended to offer to potential buyers or loyal customers, therefore it must be structured in an exhaustive, understandable and above all effective way.
What is a product sheet
To find out how to create a product sheet capable of obtaining valid results, it is important to take a step back and understand what it really consists of:
The product sheet of an ecommerce is a page made up of textual and multimedia contents relating to a specific product/service of the online store. Its goal is to inform and educate the user about the characteristics of the same, convincing him and pushing him to purchase.
Having said this, it is clear how fundamental it is to create intuitive, simple, complete and performing product sheets. And if the ways to do it are really numerous, here are 6 useful tips that you absolutely must keep in mind:
1. Insert multimedia elements
The eye always wants its part: that’s why, even in the case of an ecommerce product sheet, the first thing a user notices is certainly the graphic design. In fact, the brain is primarily captured by multimedia content, i.e. photos and videos and, only later, by text.
Consequently, each online store must have a professional photo shoot, which includes high resolution images (greater than 300 pixels); only in this way, in fact, is it possible to “touch” a product by the user, even if in a completely virtual way.
But that’s not all: the contextualization of the individual products must also be foreseen (e.g. if it is clothing, the advice is to photograph them worn) and the possibility of enlarging / reducing the image.
Enlarging and reducing the image
Being able to analyze a product in every single detail is now essential, also because the user has so many options at his disposal that going to search for “nits” becomes inevitable for him.
There are 2 different ways to enable enlarging/reducing images:
- provide a specific section dedicated to product details;
- predict the depth zoom action.
Furthermore, it is useful to show the article in all its variations of colour, shape and size; by doing so, the user can evaluate buying another version of the same product by being able to see it before proceeding to checkout.
Some sites (especially those that sell cars), then, allow the user to customize their product, or to make it exactly as they wish through the implementation of a configurator.
2. Write full and detailed text content
Secondly, then, it is very important to focus on textual contents which must be able to provide all possible information to the user in a clear, direct and precise way.
In principle, here is what should never be missing in a well-made product sheet:
- product name, essential when dealing with electronic items (smartphones, PCs) that are identified with a specific initials or number;
- price, also giving the user the possibility to select the number of items he wishes to purchase;
- construction material;
- delivery time;
- shipping cost;
- possible presence of the guarantee;
- return and refund conditions.
These listed are the details that should never be overlooked, but the descriptions must also be captivating, convincing and engaging. In particular:
- inform the user about all the characteristics of the product by attracting his attention;
- involve the user by highlighting the advantages deriving from the purchase;
- contribute to SEO positioning by exploiting the keywords related to the reference sector.
A small obstacle in drafting texts can arise when an ecommerce catalog presents products that are very similar to each other which, consequently, can make it difficult to create original and creative descriptions.
The secret lies in the organization of the structure: each text can be divided into paragraphs, each to be dedicated to specific characteristics of the single product, explaining how it can be used as well as what its functions consist of.
There is no shortage of ideas and it is enough to put yourself in the user’s shoes to try to understand what the questions that could arise regarding an article and the possible answers that any classic shop assistant could give to be available and exhaustive.
3. Implement reviews
Another fundamental aspect concerns the reviews, which absolutely must not be missing in correlation to a product sheet, considering that they are objective opinions (usually) provided by other users who have purchased the same product.
To really understand its importance, you can consult the data collected by hostingtribunal.com:
- 72% of consumers buy a product only after carefully reading the reviews;
- 15% of users don’t buy (because they don’t trust) on online stores with no reviews.
Showing a probable buyer that other people have already purchased ecommerce products and that they have had a positive experience can be useful for achieving 2 main objectives:
- feedback is obtained directly from the market: by becoming aware of the consumer’s opinion on a particular product, the seller is able to understand if he is proceeding in the right direction or if he needs to improve something;
- a relationship of trust is established with the user: the latter, knowing that the opinion comes from a “normal” person like him, will be more motivated to believe it and proceed with the purchase.
The implementation of reviews can take place following different paths, including through the support of reliable and guaranteed external services.
4. Being able to share
How many times, when going shopping, do you decide to go with a friend or family member to get an external (and sincere) opinion? The same goes for online purchases, only in this case you can simply forward the product via Whatsapp or other instant messaging service to the chosen supporter.
This is why giving the user the opportunity to share the article is very important, even by simply being able to copy/paste the product link. After all, word of mouth is always the most effective way to increase sales!
5. Suggest similar products
It often happens that a user goes looking for a specific product for the most varied reasons: he knows the brand, he has already tried the service, someone has suggested it to him, he has seen the advertisement on TV. In these cases, it is up to those who manage the ecommerce to direct them towards the best choice for them both in terms of price and in terms of functionality and performance.
The most appropriate way to do this is to provide a specific section that contains “related products” and/or “suggested products”, i.e. a series of complementary or alternative items that may fall within the interests, tastes and needs of the user of shift.
A technique of this type, among other things, not only improves the user experience of the buyer, but allows you to put into practice up-selling and cross-selling strategies:
- up-selling: sales technique that aims to entice the user to buy more products (or the same product in greater quantities), or a service/article with better characteristics;
- cross-selling: sales technique that offers the customer services/products that are complementary to what they have already purchased.
In the long run, the advantages will become ever greater, as will the earnings and satisfaction on the part of those who have already purchased and will recommend the ecommerce through the review system.
6. Provide a call to action requesting information
Finally, here is one last very important feature: the possibility of being able to request information, always and in any case. In fact, we must keep in mind that not all users who explore an ecommerce are immediately willing to buy and, in some cases, need to receive some extra information to be completely convinced.
To prevent the user from abandoning the product sheet prey to his doubts, it is necessary to integrate a call to action requesting information: by clicking on it, the user will be redirected to the contact page, where he can choose the method that suits him best (again, the advice is to give a wide choice between email, telephone, messaging).
To speed up, a FAQ section can be provided which contains the main questions asked by users with the relative answers, allowing the still undecided potential buyer to proceed in total autonomy.
3 mistakes not to be made when creating an ecommerce product sheet
So far, the characteristics and peculiarities that should never be missing in a valid ecommerce product sheet have been listed; at the same time, however, it is good not to underestimate even some small mistakes that, even naively, many tend to make. Here are the top 3:
1. Copy/paste the texts
A very common mistake made by many ecommerce managers is in drafting product descriptions, the result of a simple copy/paste of texts sent by suppliers. Nothing could be more wrong, for two specific reasons:
- the user is confused, who cannot understand the advantage of buying from another ecommerce and not directly from that of the supplier;
- SEO is negatively affected, given that the search engine labels the texts as “copied”, penalizes the site and relegates it to the last positions of the search results.
To avoid all this, it is essential to pay close attention to the texts inserted in the ecommerce, trying to make them as original as possible.
2. Underestimating SEO
Connected to what has been said so far, optimization for search engines cannot be underestimated, let alone ignored: the product sheets, in fact, are not only viewed by users, but also and above all by Google, which determines their positioning in the results of various researches.
Wanting to refer to some numbers, the searches that are carried out daily on Google amount to 3.5 billion, of which:
- 90% start from desktop and happen on Google;
- 35% search for a product starting from Google.
Against this, snubbing SEO always proves to be counterproductive. In fact, it is not enough to create a graphically “beautiful” and user friendly ecommerce if it is practically invisible to search engines. Consequentially:
- the product must match a keyword with high search volume and low level of competition;
- the keyword must be contained in the URL;
- effective tags must be inserted in the meta title and meta description;
- the images must be optimized and complete with keywords also in the title, caption and alt tag.
Obviously these are just a few ideas, which must then be increased with studied, targeted and effective SEO strategies.
3. Omit shipping charges
One of the most annoying experiences that a user can have within an ecommerce is having to wait for the checkout to find out how much the shipping costs are. Indeed, to be precise, the omission of this information in the previous steps is often a reason for cart abandonment (about 61% of cases), given that anyone wants to know immediately how much they will have to pay in the end.
The advice, therefore, is to enter the shipping costs from the beginning, perhaps by providing a fixed range also containing a possible minimum amount to obtain free shipping.