Optimizing your ecommerce landing page
Landing pages, as well as homepages, of an ecommerce store can make or break the sale, online relationship, and first impression for the customer. Just like anything online, landing pages have trends and are constantly changing and evolving, but I think there are a few principles that do not change.
The landing page design trends change often but the main principles behind the design stays the same. Many websites get carried away with the design, aninations, graphics, etc. but tend to miss out on the actual message they are trying to convey.
Here are the principles, each one will explain the next:
Have a Conversation
I see a lot of online stores presenting their website as a catalogue. A catalogue of their products, recent releases, blog posts, etc. Many times this creates a disconnect between the customer and the store. The store needs to be designed like you are having a conversation with the customer.
Scrolling down signals “No”
If your customer hits the footer, then you’ve failed. The footer is where the conversions go to die. It generally means that you have failed to present to your customer what they need. Nobody wants to be digging around the footer for something that they need. It is equivalent of going to the grocery store and having to ask the customer service desk where something was.
Banner Image
Keep in mind that scrolling lower is a “no” from the customer. We can use this logic to organize our homepage. The initial banner image will be the first call to action (also known as the CTA) to the customer. This is where we will try to guess what the customer wants from our brand. For example if you have a clothing store, this is a good place to navigate your customer to the Men’s or Women’s page of your store. Aside from a CTA, you can also share something about your brand.
The All Birds website does a good job at this. In fact, they don’t even want you to scroll down if you are there to buy something. If you scroll down, you are telling them that you want to learn more about the brand before buying. If you go to their website, you will see what I mean. The whole page is filled with how their shoes are made.
They also have the MEN and WOMEN links in the navigation. Since we are used to reading top to bottom and left to right, this will be one of the first things that you will read on the screen.
The next example is the Reebok store. They. are using a different strategy and I don’t think they are doing as good of a job compared to All Birds. The CTA is too general and there is too much going on in the header. When there is too much going on, our brain just decides to skip it all. As you can see, All Birds header is much cleaner and simpler. Most of the things Reebok decided to put in the header could easily be placed in the footer. The footer is perfect for things like “Exchange & Returns”, “Order Tracker”, “Help”, etc. There is absolutely no need to put them in the header. The first thing your customer sees should be optimized for conversion. Your customers won’t need to find the Returns page if they never become your customer in the first place.
Ask Questions
Again, with scrolling down meaning “No”, we will explore how to create the rest of your website layout. If the customer has scrolled past the homepage banner, they basically said that they are not ready to buy something. This is where the selling and storytelling begins. Story > CTA > Story > CTA.
Typical conversations you should be having with your customers:
“Hey! Thank you for visiting our store, are you looking for Men’s or Women’s products?” (Banner Image)
“Our shoes are sustainably sourced from the best materials!” (Story section)
“Would like to check out the new shoes?” (CTA)
“In the last 2 years we have donated over X amount to the local charities” (Story)
“These are the customer favorites”
The biggest mistake that I see brands do is to only sell. Big brands are the biggest violators here. Reebok is a good example. Their whole website looks like one big advertisement. There doesn’t seem to be a good connection to their customer base.
Have fun! Engage with your customers, don’t be afraid to throw in some jokes! Check out Pit Viper Sunglasses for an example of a brand that likes to have fun.
