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