How to create rich product information, in five simple steps

Boden's delicious summer layouts

I’ve been trawling Etsy, the handmade craft website, in search of nice stuff for a friend’s new baby, and I noticed a real variation between the mini-boutiques. Some I’d be happy to buy from straight away, no question.  Others are sending lots of worrying little signals that the product or the service simply aren’t going to be up to much.

There are a million and one reasons why a physical product may not sell well online.  A lot of these (like current trends and your competition) are well outside your control.

The one that is firmly in your control is the way that you showcase your products online.
Unless you’re simply providing something at the lowest price, your product information has to
actively sell your product to the person browsing your site. You’re not there in your lovely
boutique, using all your friendly powers of persuasion – it’s just pixels. So what do you do?

Here are five steps to providing information that reassures your customer and motivates her to buy.

1. Use photographs that capture the physical appeal of your product

This is basic, but still not everyone does it.  You need high quality images, probably taken from several angles (for example, the front, the back, the top).  It’s great to be able to click through to view the image in greater detail, so that the viewer can spot details like the fabric weave or the stitching.

If you’re selling clothing or accessories, it’s very helpful to see the product being worn.  The UK fashion site ASOS uses small catwalk videos to demonstrate how their clothes look.   They use models but if you look closely, you’ll see that they also tell you the model’s size and height so that you can calculate how it might look on you.  Don’t use grumpy sad models unless you’re selling high fashion. Grumpy sad babies are just heartbreaking.

Asos tells you exactly how tall and thin the model is

2. Provide all the practical information. Nicely.

Customers need colour, dimensions, specification, care instructions…if you can provide good detail here, you’re removing another layer of customer anxiety about buying.  Check out ASOS again, for their elegant display of somewhat boring information.

3. Signal product availability, if that’s an issue

You can use this to communicate limited editions (only 3 left!), or signal low stock and your replenishment cycle, if there is one.  White Stuff (UK women’s clothes) gives a stock indicator for every item, which stops customers from putting something in their basket and then finding out right at the end that they can’t actually buy it.

White Stuff's stock level information

4. Show clear price and shipping details

If you can’t send it overseas, I need to know as early as possible so that I can move on.  If you’re sending something delicate that requires lots of packaging and therefore high postage costs, I need to know. Lay it out clearly.

5. Add a dash of social proof

The social proof isn’t so much numbers, as some evidence that other buyers liked the product and would recommend it. Testimonials are reassuring. Press coverage is great, as are endorsements by the right kind of well-known user.

Good reviews, in an open review system, can be very powerful.  White Stuff and Boden provide detailed customer reviews, which presumably also provide the parent companies with a stream of powerful customer research.  Keep in mind your brand position when thinking about the right kind of associations: you can do creative stuff here.

Take action: Have a look at your site and see if there are improvements that you can make to the product information, that will reduce uncertainty in your buyer’s mind. Selling a service, not a product? I’ll cover that in an upcoming post, but much of the same advice applies.

Want advice? Leave a comment below with a link to your online product and I will give you some feedback on what’s working and how it could improve.

This is a real change in blogging style for me, so I would love your feedback.

If you have a site which you know is underperforming, take a look at my Web Clinic service, where I can help you work out why and where your site is losing customers.