Shift Happens

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Shift Happens

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How to improve the usability performance of the Product Information Page (PIP)

Your product information pages (PIP) are your key selling pages on your site and act as your online sales force, even if the visitors have only come to research the product/service that you sell.

The main of objectives of the content of the PIP pages are:

1. Effectively communicate the benefits provided by the product/service
2. How the product/service will address the visitors’ needs.
3. Key benefits of transacting with your site for the product/service – weather it is today or at a later date.

Before we can talk about how a Product Information Page can be improved to achieve the stated objectives, we must understand how people interact with online content. Based upon research done by multiple user experience experts, the online consumer interacts with the PIP page in the following manner:

The First 3 seconds: Chances are that visitors are coming to your PIP page either from on-site search results, category page, directly from global navigation or from being deep linked by some online marketing campaign. Depending upon the source, the visitors to the PIP page spend first 3 seconds trying to orient themselves to make sure that they are where they should be and have not come to an unexpected page. To help the visitor in their orientation, make sure that on top of the page you have:

1. A clear image of the product: make sure that this is same as what they might have seen before on search result page or category page, etc.
2. Product Name: make sure that this is same as what they might have seen before on search results page or category page etc.
3. Messaging/Product copy Handshake: make sure that the first snippet of product copy the visitor is exposed to be similar to any messaging that has been used in the referring page. For example – make sure that you use similar words on category page and PIP page

The next 8 seconds: Once the visitors decide that PIP page potentially has the product/service they are interested in, they then spend next 8 seconds deciding if the page has the kind of information that would help them in their purchase/research decision. To help the visitor though these 8 seconds, make sure that your PIP page has:

1. Scan friendly product features
2. Price of the product (if applicable)
3. Any specials/promotions that you might be running
4. Any hidden benefits such as 60 days money back etc.
5. Clearly marked Call to action
6. Clearly marked content categories that can help the visitor make the purchase decision.

The next few minutes: Once the visitor has decided that the PIP page has the kind of information that would be useful in their purchase/research decision, they will spend next few minutes – depending upon the nature of the product/service and their familiarity with the product/service – to understand if the product/service meets their specification AND that it provides them the desired benefits. This is what will make or break you click-through-rate on the Call to Action. To get a high click-through-rate on your CTA, you should provide:

1. Benefits focused content that educates the visitors on how the product/service will help address their needs
2. Provide all the content on the same page. You have many options of presenting the information on the same page – tabs, accordion, pop-up windows for flash and videos, etc. You should use them. Why? Every click you make your visitor go through means a loss of 3% to 5% of the traffic. Don’t make your visitors go to multiple pages to get the information they need to make the decision.
3. Clearly labeled content. Don’t make the visitor guess what each tab or accordion or additional page might contain. Use common speak when labeling your categories rather than some company specific lingo
4. If it is long consideration product, then provide downloadable additional collateral that the visitor can take always with them to share with others – such as white papers, data/specification sheet, case studies
5. Any other content that will help the visitor feel comfortable with the product – 3-D product view, product demo videos, etc.
6. Build Trust – Make sure that you provide information such as return policy, privacy policy, delivery information, etc. easily available on the PIP page.

Call to action: Once you have educated and convinced your visitor, what actions should they take? Here is the key to the question– don’t assume that the only action they want to take is to buy online right then and there. If the PIP page has done its job, then they should, but you cannot assume that. Hence you want to make sure that you provide a variety of call to action that the visitor might want to take (if applicable, and this is not a comprehensive list):

1. Add to cart
2. Free trial/sign up for any content
3. Call Now
4. Chat now
5. Email the product page to friend
6. Add to wish list / gift list
7. Print Product specifications

Of course, as usual, you must TEST, TEST and TEST to see what will work for your site and your visitors. To measure the success of your PIP page, I would recommend that you measure the following:

1. Click-through-rate on the call to actions
2. Average time spent on the page
3. Click-through-rate on product supporting links
4. Click-through-rate on other product links
5. Site abandonment rate on the PIP page

Why you need to make sure that your digital agency has a strong Usability group?

I am a big proponent of using digital agency. Why? They bring many benefits to the table –thought leadership in digital marketing; wealth of knowledge and past experiences from a wide variety of industry verticals; quick ramp up capabilities in resources; etc.

So, have I said anything up to now that many companies have not already thought about? No. So why right the post? The reason I am writing this post is because when companies are shopping for a digital agency, they make sure that there is compatibility in all areas expect one – Usability. And this is one of the key areas any company needs to think about. If an agency is able to create a good user experience, then all the work will be for not. So in the agency selection process, my recommendation is that you understand the following-

Does the agency have comprehensive usability strategy? This strategy should include not only designing the site or pages, BUT also actionable recommendations in the areas such as (Yes I believe that the following are part of online usability strategy):

1. Content strategy
2. Call to action strategy
3. Information Architecture strategy
4. Visitor feedback survey strategy
5. Nomenclature strategy
6. Post launch testing strategy

Is usability group used strategically by the company? The agency should be using its usability resources in the planning stages of campaign and their usability team should bring the following to the planning table:

1. Learning from previous campaigns of what has worked and what has not worked for a similar campaign for similar verticals
2. Industry research, benchmarks and best practices applicable to planned campaign.

Will the Agency have enough usability resources assigned to the account? You should find out from the digital agency if they have appropriate level of usability analysts in house. Again, quick and effective optimization of the site is key to online presence. If the agency has very limited usability resources, the question is, will your program get the appropriate level of attention at the right time from the usability resource?

Sample of usability work? Ask the Agency to provide sample of usability work similar to what you are thinking of running.

Four quick steps to improving the usability performance of the checkout process

1. Do Not Require Sign to place an Order: I am surprised how many sites, B2C and B2B, require visitors to sign in before they are able to make a purchase online. Why create roadblocks when you don’t have to. The visitor has taken the ultimate step you want them to take on your site; the best thing you can do is get out of their way and let them place an order.

If, for whatever reason, you have to have a login in your checkout process, then give the visitor an option to login as a guest. And at the same time provide a strong value proposition for creating an account with your site. Here is an example

2. No Surprise fees: Many customers are wary of shipping fees, especially when they are not shown in the shopping cart - what most customers may not realize is that shipping fees are dependent on the shipping address. So how do you balance the need to actually display shipping fees vs. avoiding the perception of hidden cost if you show shipping fees in the last step of the checkout process? By showing estimated shipping fees in the shopping cart and emphasizing the fact that it is estimated shipping cost that is subject to change. Here is an example

3. Build Trust: Web has given the consumers more venues to shop than ever before; but at the same time, it has also created a level of anxiety that consumers have not experienced before, even on well known brand sites. “What if I do not like the product?”, ‘What if the product is not what I want?”, “What if the product is defected?”, “Can I trust this company to exchange the product without any hidden costs?” etc are many of the questions that run thought the online consumers mind when they are looking to check out.

One of the best things that you can do in your checkout process is create trust in the mind of your customers at every step. Be upfront in addressing any concerns your customers might have and be ready to answer questions they might have at each step of the checkout process. Make sure that when addressing these questions, you use pop-up window to provide answers and not take them out of the checkout process.

4. Provide multiple payment options: Increasingly, online population is looking for different options when it comes to making payment for their purchase. Sadly, most of the e commerce sites are still stuck in the Credit card only mode. If a site offers only one payment option, then it might find it cart abandonment increase as more and more people adopt alternate payment options. Here is an example

Finally, you need to Test, Test and Test to improve the performance of your shopping cart!