Page Design and Converted Sales: Redesigning a Product Details Page to Suit Customer Needs
SimplePart has recently started to redesign one of the most important aspects of our websites’ shopping experience: the Product Details page.
Our page design has always been guided by providing customers with the simplest shopping experience and with this update, we’ve done just that.
Through the page’s design and functionality, our goal was to optimize the chances of a converted sale. We based our design choices on both behavior we’ve observed internally and data collected from external consumer behavior research. From our launch, we’ve already seen promising improvements in both average cart size and cart-to-order conversion. In keeping with that objective, let’s go over what new ideas we’ve incorporated into our Product Details page and why we’ve made these changes.
Shipping cost transparency
We’ve modified our page design to display estimated shipping costs.
According to a recent study by the Baymard Institute, 43 percent of e-commerce sites do not display any kind of shipping cost calculator, but sites that do display shipping costs before checkout greatly outperform those that don’t.
Additionally, we recently ran our own study on checkout behavior and found that of all the users who completed the first phase of checkout and then dropped, 29 percent of their orders had an initial shipping charge different from the final shipping charge. We also found that when there was no change in the shipping charge at the end of checkout, 74 percent of users completed their orders.
With this in mind, we chose to increase the amount of shipping information provided to our customers at this step in the buying process, rather than surprising them with the additional costs during checkout.
Value proposition
We’ve added more information to the pricing section to reinforce our competitive pricing.
Fifty-two percent of online shoppers report that price is the number one reason they prefer to shop at one retailer over another, according to a study conducted by UPS.
We decided the best way to capitalize on this data was to visually clarify to the customer when an item is discounted and to show them how much money they save by purchasing the item during a sale or promotion.
We accomplished this in a number of ways. First, we kept the bright green “Your Price” display seen on previous iterations of the Product Details page, which shows the current price of an item in green. Secondly, we added the strikethrough pricing of the item immediately below the sale price, as well as the dollar amount saved on the item based on the discount percentage.
Establishing the value of the item (by showing the strikethrough version of the original price), then reinforcing it by clarifying the percentage of the discount and the dollar amount saved with the current, discounted price will hopefully appeal to the customer’s desire to get the best price for the item as possible, and increase the likelihood of a conversion.
Reinforcing customer confidence
We’ve now made it easier for the customer to view the dealer’s rating and reviews.
According to the UPS study mentioned earlier, 71 percent of consumers cite reviews as an influential piece of information on a retailer’s website, more so than any other feature.
Knowing this, we wanted to explore the possible benefits of moving the dealer rating and customer reviews closer to the top of the page, next to the pricing information and the “add to cart” button.
By moving the stars up, we’re increasing the likelihood of a customer viewing how others have rated a dealer and what they’ve said about them. And if the customer sees enough positive feedback, hopefully it will increase their trust with the online dealer, and improve the chance that they will complete their purchase.
With these most recent updates, we hope to track improvements in conversion and traffic and isolate more ways to enhance the way parts are sold online. As SimplePart is always optimizing our sites to help our clients succeed, we’ll continue to update and add functionality to the Product Details page. Stay tuned for more updates soon.
