5 Strategies Proven to Keep Users on Your Product Pages

I’m sure you’ve suspected this all along:

The longer you keep a visitor on a product page, the greater the chance they’ll actually buy it.

Why?

For one, because a longer stay means more chances for a visitor to get all the information you’d like them to know about the product.

But how do you ensure that a visitor keeps reading the page? Here are 5 strategies proven to work.

1. Improve Your Content’s Readability

Did you know:

94% of your visitors make up their mind about buying from you based on the page’s design.

Just a quick glance at it is enough for them to make a decision if they want to keep reading it or not.

An it goes without saying, a clean layout therefore would make them to stay and consume the content.

But a rough or cluttered page featuring unreadable blocks of text is only going to deter a visitor from pursuing your copy any further.

Here are a couple of suggestions to improve your product page copy layout:

Break the content with subheadings.

Subheadings play a number of roles in your content:

They keep the user engaged. They also help introduce new sections of the copy.

And they make the copy much easier to scan and identify the information that interest a reader the most.

Breaking the copy with subheadings will make it look more inviting, easy to skim and absorb the main message.

Use shorter paragraphs

Long paragraphs make the content look intimidating. Therefore, break the copy into short paragraphs to make it more inviting to read.

2-4 sentences per paragraph is enough to communicate all the information you want.

Use bulleted lists

Readers spot them right away. Lists stand out from any block of text. They’re also easy to scan, making even complex information more digestible.

Bold and italicize key words

Indicate the most important words and phrases to help a reader find the information she seeks.

2. Write Engaging Product Descriptions

To truly engage a visitor, your product description should:

• Communicate all the information you believe a buyer should know,
• Convince a buyer that the product is for her, and
• Establish trust in your store.

But to get a visitor to even read the copy, it needs to engage and connect with them.

Just take a look at this description from MethodHome:

“no elbow grease required. we’re all for singing in the shower. maybe even serenading the shower itself…especially when it’s free of chemical residue and nasty toxins. and we love when it smells like a spa. mmm, spa. with our daily shower spray, you’ll never have to scrub, wipe or rinse your shower again. just spray a fine mist on all wet surfaces after each shower and we’ll take care of the rest. you just sing.”

Note how simple it is. At the same time, it captures the reader’s attention, captivates with images and a story. All while communicating everything they should know about the product.

A while ago I listed 6 key characteristic of a good product description here on Ecommerce Insiders. You can see the post here. But to reiterate:

1. A good product description needs to speak to the ideal buyer,
2. Highlight the benefit of using the product,
3. Use no BS language,
4. Include power words that sell,
5. Tell a story, and
6. Be easily scannable.

For the explanation of each points, check out this post.

3. Include Videos

I wrote about the benefit of videos in eCommerce here on Ecommerce Insiders already. I mentioned that:

• 52% of shoppers confess that watching product videos makes them more confident in making a purchase (Invodo),
• 40% of them will even visit a store after watching a video (Google), and
• Online publishers associationfound that 46% of shoppers are likely to seek more information about a product after seeing a video.

But did you also know that visitors who watch videos on average spend 2 more minutes on product pages? And that, according to the same source, they are 64% more likely to buy a product?

It therefore goes without saying, including videos on the product page keeps visitors for longer. And makes them more inclined to add a product to the cart.

4. Feature Reviews

Visitors love reading reviews. And there’s plenty of data to prove it. For instance:

According to this post by Econsultancy, 61% of customers read online reviews to make a buying decision. And 63% even prefer buying from a site that features reviews.

According to Search Engine Land, 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.

And there is a strong reason for that. Reviews provide visitors with an unbiased opinion about a product. They reveal how it has helped or worked for the others. If it helped solve their problems.

And, how well you’ve delivered on the expectations.

This goes for negative reviews too. Plenty of negative reviews could deter anyone from buying. But an odd negative one could actually help convince them to purchase.

Why, because, according to the aforementioned Econsultancy article:

“68% of consumers trust reviews more when they see both good and bad scores, while 30% suspect censorship or faked reviews when they don’t see anything negative at all” (source).

5. Add Live Chat

Did you know:

You can hold visitors on a page by talking to them too.

A live chat gives you an option to proactively offer help and support whenever a visitor might need it. You could set live chat to display prompts based on various triggers, like signs that a user might want to leave the page.

And did you know that:

44% of customers admit that being able to get live assistance on the product page is one of the most important features of a website (source).

Also, according to Emarketer, live chat is a preferred support option for simple queries like finding out about order status, promotions, shipping or anything related to cheaper products or services.

Keeping visitors longer on a product page might help increase conversions. Certainly it offers a chance to communicate more product benefits to them. Your key selling points. USP. Or provide a much better browsing experience. All which could also contribute to increasing conversions.