How to Build an eCommerce Landing Page That Increases Conversions

So, you’ve got an eCommerce store and have a marketing plan in place. A combination of pay-per-click ads and organic search is pulling people towards your store. You can see the numbers of visitors rising but your sales aren’t improving.

The culprit is likely your site’s landing page. A poor landing page leads to visitors leaving the site. Consider it like a sales pitch: if you don’t meet the customer’s needs you aren’t going to make a sale.

What can you do to change the situation? How do you convert more visitors? When it comes to landing pages, the devil is often in the details.

Calls to Action

Let’s start simple. What do you want your visitor to do when he or she visits your landing page? Maybe you want to achieve a sale or the aim is to get the visitor to sign up to something, like a newsletter. Whatever the case may be, you need a strong call to action (CTA).

Make your CTA front and center on the landing page. A button often works as it shows the visitor what to click to continue the journey through your site. Draw the visitor’s eye to the CTA using visual elements and pay close attention to the text you use. Some visitors may respond well to demanding copy, such as “Shop Now”. Others may prefer something more subtle. Test different CTAs out and use analytics software to figure out how effective they are.

Go Visual

So, you’ve got an eCommerce store and have a marketing plan in place.

Trust is key in a product purchase. If your visitor can’t see the product you’re selling from the landing page, this trust disappears. The images you use don’t need to be flashy. Instead, focus on providing clear images that show your product as it is.

Place the product in a good light and customers will gravitate towards it. Showing the product in action can also have a strong effect. For example, if you sell glasses a picture of somebody wearing the product creates confidence in its quality.

Using Offers

There will always be a battle for webpage real estate between your offers and your CTA. Striking the right balance ensures the offer feeds into the CTA, rather than distracting from it.

Avoid intrusive offers that demand something from your visitors. Popups, in particular, distract from the visiting experience and lead to confusion. Instead, offer something that makes the visitor want to see more. Perhaps you can provide a 10 percent discount for a first purchase. Maybe you offer free shipping with certain purchases. Whatever the offer is, build it into the landing page so it funnels the visitor towards the CTA.

Stay Above the Fold

If your landing page visitor has to scroll to find important information you’ve already lost them. Place every important element of the page above the fold.

Your aim with this is to make navigation to the purchasing page simple. Every scroll slows the user down. Having to search for your CTA or offer does the same. Make things simple for the visitor and you will be rewarded with more conversions.

Keep the Page Simple

The idea of simplicity extends beyond keeping important info at the top of the page. You should also avoid offering information the consumer doesn’t need. Ask yourself if the customer really needs the navigation bar if your CTA handles that for them? Should you be talking about your company philosophy on a page designed to sell a product?

The answer is likely “no”. Trust that instinct and strip the page down to what it needs to be. Keep copy simple and ensure every element used serves a purpose. Don’t offer a lot of links to other areas of the site. Just make the purpose of the page as clear as possible to the visitor.

Use White Space

White space is not a waste for a landing page. You don’t need to fill it in just to make the page look more active than it is. In fact, filling the white space just distracts from the offer and CTA.

Consider white space as a design feature. With nothing else to look at, your visitor’s eye is drawn to the most important information on the page. Use this to your advantage and separate your images and CTA using white space.

Product Copy

Your landing page may feature products rather than an offer or form. If so, remember that visitors just want to give the product a quick once over. Bombarding them with in-depth information will lead to confusion.

Focus your copy on the product’s key features. What does it do? How does it help? What benefits does it offer over similar products? List them, pick the most important, and use that as the basis for your landing page copy. Apply the same philosophy to your page headline. If your headline doesn’t tell the visitor exactly what the product does, it is ineffective.

Feature Reviews

Over three-quarters of people check reviews before making an online purchase. Visitors will trust your previous customers over the business itself, so highlight your positive feedback. A simple star system that offers an average score for the product does the job, assuming the score is high enough.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that good reviews on other sites will help your landing page. You force visitors away from the page when they have to search for reviews. You also open up the possibility that they will find a store that offers a higher-rated product or service.

Consider All Screen Resolutions

The 1366×768 may be the most popular resolution now but 42 percent of people still use 1024×768. Some still use 800×600. How does your landing page display for people using lower resolutions? Does the CTA that is front and center on a 1366×768 screen require scrolling on an 800×600 screen? What about mobile devices?

These are all questions you need to answer. If your landing page doesn’t provide for everybody it misses out on a large segment of the audience. Test the page on different monitors to understand the differences between the display on your big, high-definition monitor and the less advanced models.

Going Social

Your visitor may not want the product on your landing page, however, they may know somebody who does. Building social buttons into the page makes it easier to share, helping the page pull in more visitors.

Don’t confuse your social buttons with your CTA. The aim is still to score a conversion with your landing page so keep the CTA as the prime focus. Just offer the social buttons as an option, preferably at the bottom of the page.

Final Thoughts

So, how do we sum all of this up? It’s pretty simple. Make clear the action you want the visitor to take and make it as easy as possible to take that action. Strip away the unneeded fluff and focus everything on your landing page towards your CTA.

If the page makes sense to the target audience it will improve your conversion rates. If you’re not sure, try new things out. Compare your results against what you achieved in the past and apply what you learn to your landing page design. Through analysis and correct implementation, you will build a stronger landing page for your target audience.