Before You Begin: What You Need to Know About Landing Page Best Practices

Welcome to Part 5 of our “Guide to Shopify Landing Pages” series! To read the previous article, click here.

Want to get more sales for your ecommerce store? Try implementing the Shopify landing page best practices in this article.

You’ll learn how to use customer reviews, FAQs, exit intent popups, live chat, and recommended products to increase your conversion rates and grow your sales.

Online shoppers today are smarter than ever — but they’re also busy, skeptical, and inundated with marketing messages day in and day out. It’s easy for us to get lost in all the noise.

But with a well-designed product page that takes advantage of these 5 best practices, you’ll be better equipped to grab your visitors’ attention, overcome their objections, and compel them to buy.

These days, online reviews are an essential component of any successful ecommerce store. If you want to sell more products, one of the best things you can do is gather and feature raving reviews from your customers.

There’s plenty of research to back this up. One study found that 82% of shoppers read reviews before making a purchase; another revealed that 73% of shoppers are more likely to trust a product with positive reviews. A third showed that a whopping 97% of shoppers consider reviews when making a buying decision.

So why are reviews so important?

Realize that shoppers today are skeptical. They’ve been burned by dishonest companies in the past, and they’ve learned their lesson: you can’t believe everything you read on the Internet.

And that’s why it’s so important to feature customer reviews.

Reviews are a form of social proof. They provide a way to show your visitors that other people have bought your product and loved it.

Reviews work because they’re written by real customers. Most visitors consider unbiased reviews to be more trustworthy than the copy on your product page because they know that you have an agenda (you want people to buy), whereas the customers writing reviews don’t.

One study by eMarketer revealed that people trust customer reviews more than product descriptions by a factor of 12.

Think of it this way:

Pretend you’re in a store, and you’re interested in buying a new gas grill for your back porch. So you make your way to the outdoor section of the store, where you see a great big sign promoting the company’s newest (and most expensive) gas grill.

The sign succeeds in communicating some of the product’s benefits. But in the back of your mind, you know that whoever wrote that sign has an agenda — they want you to buy this grill.

Would this sign be enough to convince you to buy the grill? Maybe… or maybe not.

But then a friend of yours walks by, and tells you that they bought this exact same model of gas grill, and they absolutely LOVE it. They couldn’t be happier with the purchase. And then they proceed to tell you exactly why this grill is so amazing.

Ok, how do you feel about the grill now? Odds are good that your friend’s opinion carried a lot of weight and almost certainly made you more likely to purchase.

That’s the power of customer reviews.

And that’s why savvy ecommerce sites like Purple Mattress go to great lengths to gather and display as many great reviews as possible:

Source: https://purple.com/mattresses/purple-mattress

Notice that Purple shows you the average rating (4.5 stars), the total number of reviews (13,734), and displays a handful of rave reviews.

The skincare brand Boom! by Cindy Joseph does the same thing on their product pages:

Source: https://www.boombycindyjoseph.com/products/boomstick-trio#yotpo-main-widget

Having over 33,000 reviews with a 4.7 average rating is a tremendously powerful credibility booster. Featuring these reviews undoubtedly does wonders for Boom!’s conversion rate.

Now, if you’re just getting started, you probably won’t have anywhere near that many reviews. And that’s OK! Even some well-established brands, like Boosted Board, have only a handful of reviews for certain products.

Take a look at how Boosted Board handles this for their product Boosted Plus, which at the time of this writing has only 10 reviews:

Source: https://boostedboards.com/vehicles/longboards/boosted-plus#reviews

See the difference?

Boosted Board features a handful of individual reviews, but they don’t share the total number of reviews. As a result, your attention is drawn to the headlines (“All around great product & company!”, “Worth it”, and “Greatest purchase of my life”).

No matter how you display them, product reviews are an essential component of your ecommerce store — making them our #1 Shopify landing page best practice to implement. If you don’t have a review widget on your store, then go add it. Right now.

Reviews are that important.

3 Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your Online Reviews

When adding reviews to your product page, here are some suggestions on how to use them for greatest impact:

1. Add them near the bottom of the page.

If you check out the landing pages of most successful ecommerce stores, you’ll find that they tend to display the reviews pretty far down on the page. Generally speaking, you need to explain what your product is — and what its primary benefits are — before you start showing reviews.

Even Amazon, which is famous for having well-optimized product pages with lots of reviews, puts their reviews at the bottom of the page — after all the product sales copy. Here’s an example from the product page for a Kindle e-reader:

Source: https://www.amazon.com/All-new-Kindle-Oasis-now-with-adjustable-warm-light/dp/B07F7TLZF4/ref=sr_1_5

Keep in mind, you can still show the star-rating and total number of reviews near the top of the page. Again, just like Amazon:

Source: https://www.amazon.com/Kindle-reader-Previous-Generation-Built/dp/B075M8FDWM/ref=sr_1_4

This only takes up a small amount of real estate on your product page…but it can have a BIG impact on your sales. Especially if you have a lot of 4- and 5-star reviews.

2. You can filter out some of your bad reviews…but DON’T remove them all.

Most review widgets will allow you to unpublish negative reviews. And if you find yourself getting 1-star reviews with no helpful comments, feel free to go ahead and remove them.

But you should NOT unpublish all of your negative reviews.

There are two main reasons for this. First of all: if you get rid of everything except your very best reviews, people can become suspicious.

Today’s shoppers are savvy, and most people are aware that not all reviews are genuine. So if your product has nothing but 5-star reviews, you’re liable to make people wonder if those reviews are legitimate.

Secondly, some negative reviews can actually be helpful to shoppers! For instance, here’s an Amazon product review for an electronic hair clipper:

Source: https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R3VP9JNM052S0K/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_viewpnt?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B07RZFSCQQ#R3VP9JNM052S0K

Now, this particular clipper isn’t meant to cut at all levels. It’s a beard trimmer, so it makes sense that it only cuts at certain lengths.

Do you see how, even though it’s only 2 stars, this review could actually be helpful? It’s helpful because it helps to clarify who the product is meant for (and who it isn’t). In other words, it discourages the wrong customer from buying the product.

So even if you prefer to delete nasty, negative reviews, keep any negative reviews that contain helpful information. They’ll clarify who your product is not for, and it will make all your 5-star reviews seem more believable.

3. Consider featuring your best reviews.

Many of your reviews will be ho-hum. Someone might give you 4 stars with the comment, “Nice product.” Or maybe you’ll get 5 stars without any comments at all.

But once in a while you’ll get a really good review — one that’s worth featuring in other areas of your product page.

A really good review will usually have at least one of these qualities (and preferably all of them):

• It’s especially heartfelt, sincere, or enthusiastic.
• It addresses and helps to overcome specific buyer objections.
• It’s written by someone who fits your customer demographic.

A review like this might be worth featuring higher up on your page. For example, here’s a featured review on the product page for Purple Mattress:

Source: https://purple.com/mattresses/purple-mattress

Boom! by Cindy Joseph does something similar:

Source: https://www.boombycindyjoseph.com/products/boomstick-trio

It reads like great sales copy — but it’s actually better than sales copy, because it’s coming from a customer.

(Go here to learn what a “featured testimonial” is, and how to implement one on your product page.)

Recommended reviews apps:

There are a lot of reviews widgets out there, but here are some of the best and most well-known widgets for ecommerce:

• Yotpo
• Stamped
• Loox

Yotpo is recognized as a leader in the space, but they’re also more expensive than the competition. Stamped.io offers most of the same features at a better price-point, making them a good option if you’re just getting started.

(Oh, and in case you’re wondering: Zipify Pages integrates with all these apps. Read about our Loox and Stamped integrations.)

ACTION ITEM: Add a reviews widget to your product page.

An FAQ (frequently asked questions) section is another important piece of a high-converting Shopify product landing page.

Generally speaking, the FAQ comes near the bottom of a product page. The purpose of this section is to help overcome lingering objections and clarify unanswered questions that might be keeping people from buying.

That’s an important point, so we’ll say it in a slightly different way:

The purpose of your FAQ section is to overcome objections and answer questions for anyone who’s still on the fence about buying your product.

Here’s how Purple Mattress does it:

Purple puts their FAQ immediately after the reviews. Notice that they also use a “+” button to save space (just click the “+” on the live page to see the answer to each question). They also have a link to read even more FAQs (here on the product page, they only list a handful of the most common or important questions).

So what kind of questions should you include in your FAQ?

Here are a few places to find frequently asked questions:

• Look for common customer objections. This would include questions like, How long will the product last? What’s the battery life? Is it machine-washable? And so on.
• Ask your customer support team. Customer service reps usually have a good feel for what kind of questions your customers tend to have…so ask them! And include those in your FAQ.
• Include your refund policy. People always want to know if they can return your product.
• Include your shipping speed & cost. Ditto for shipping.

When writing your FAQs, don’t feel like you have to limit yourself. It’s better to have more questions here than not enough.

And keep in mind that in a lot of cases, your FAQs will already be answered in the copy itself. But that’s OK. You can still repeat the question in the FAQ. (It’s better to be redundant than to have confused shoppers.)

One last thing to be aware of is that you can have two kinds of FAQs on your website: brand-wide FAQs and product-specific FAQs. Feel free to use either kind, or even both.

Boom! by Cindy Joseph, for example, has a brand-wide FAQ that’s linked from the main navigation menu. This FAQ page answers general questions that apply across all their products:

Source: https://www.boombycindyjoseph.com/pages/boom-faq?faq=boomfaq-question1

But they also include product-specific FAQs for individual products, like this one for Boom Clean:

Source: https://www.boombycindyjoseph.com/pages/clean-faq

If that seems like overkill… it’s not.

Remember, clarity is your friend. You want your website visitors to be 100% clear on what your product is, what it does, and how it works. Anytime they feel confused about something, it reduces the odds that they will buy your product.

(Read more about the single product mini-site used to sell Boom Clean.)

ACTION ITEM: Write your FAQ section.

Another way to increase your sales is to give suggestions about other products that your shoppers may be interested in.

Depending on how you do it, this could be a form of cross-selling or a form of up-selling.

This is another landing page best practice that Amazon is well-known for using. Just about every Amazon product has a “Frequently bought together” section that promotes relevant products.

In this example on the product page for a coffee maker, Amazon suggests also buying coffee filters and a coffee grinder:

Source: https://www.amazon.com/Auto-iQ-Frother-Baskets-Thermal-CP307/dp/B07FX73Y7H?ref_=ast_sto_dp

Here, Amazon is using this space to cross-sell relevant items. Anyone who’s buying a coffee maker is liable to also need filters and a grinder — that just makes sense.

So why not make it as easy as possible for shoppers to find the products they need?

Kylie Cosmetics does something similar by suggesting that you can “Complete the look with these products”:

Source: https://www.kyliecosmetics.com/collections/kylies-22nd-birthday-collection/products/ultimate-glow-birthday-bundle

Once again, this is a great example of an ecommerce store making it easy for the shopper to find the products they want.

You can do this in a lot of different ways. Kylie has another section called, “Frequently viewed together”:

Source: https://www.kyliecosmetics.com/collections/kylies-22nd-birthday-collection/products/ultimate-glow-birthday-bundle

Here, the products aren’t necessarily part of the same look, but they’re still related to one another in some way or another.

Kylie has yet another section called, “Other top rated products”:

Source: https://www.kyliecosmetics.com/collections/kylies-22nd-birthday-collection/products/ultimate-glow-birthday-bundle

This is a helpful section because some shoppers prefer to buy the best-selling products with the most reviews.

Each of these sections is slightly different, but the idea is the same: to engage your visitor with other products that they may be interested in. So the goal is to help the visitor find a product they’ll like, and encourage the visitor to buy multiple products.

1. Create a bundle.

One way to increase your average order value is to bundle relevant items together. Typically bundles give the shopper a discount compared to buying each item separately.

Here, Boom! by Cindy Joseph has created a bundle by combining 3 similar products and giving a small discount for buying them all together.

Source: https://www.boombycindyjoseph.com/products/boomstick-trio

Then on the product pages for each individual product, they wisely remind shoppers that they can buy the bundle and save:

Source: https://www.boombycindyjoseph.com/products/boomstick-glimmer

Harry’s uses the same tactic by creating kits with travel-size shaving products:

Source: https://www.harrys.com/en/us/products/deluxe-travel-kit

When creating a bundle, you’ll want to combine products that make sense together, that can be used together, or that complement one another in some way.

2. Promote products from the same collection.

You can also group products into different collections, as Kylie Cosmetics does here:

Once again, it’s important for the products in each collection to be related to one another.

3. Upsell items.

Another way to increase your average order value is to offer upsells in the form of add-ons or more expensive products.

Pay attention to how Harry’s does this. When you add their starter kit to your cart, Harry’s immediately offers you the option to add shaving gel to your ongoing refills:

Source: https://www.harrys.com/en/us/signup/products

For every shopper who takes this upsell offer, Harry’s earns an extra $6-$20 in revenue per refill. Not bad.

But they don’t stop there. When you take the next step, Harry’s offers yet another upsell — giving you the option of adding a “Mystery Item” to your cart for $5:

Source: https://www.harrys.com/en/us/checkout

This is just one example of how creative you can get with your upsells. Thanks to this imaginative little tactic, Harry’s is able to convince a percentage of their customers to spend an extra $5 per order.

Some Amazon pages encourage the shopper to buy a more expensive model by giving a comparison of several similar products:

Source: https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Chromebook-Plus-Camera-Chrome/dp/B07J215RPT/ref=sr_1_1_sspa

By showing you the features side-by-side, Amazon is hoping that you’ll go with a more expensive model.

Another option is to offer a relevant service, like an extended warranty:

Source: https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Galaxy-S9-Unlocked-Smartphone/dp/B079H6RLKQ/ref=sxin_2_ac_d_pm

For more great upsell ideas, check out these lessons learned from $1,000,000 in upsells.

4. Feature items that are frequently bought together.

If you have products that go together, you should make that obvious to shoppers. As we discussed, Amazon does a phenomenal job of this:

Source: https://www.amazon.com/Anker-Qi-Certified-Compatible-Fast-Charging-PowerWave/dp/B07DBXZZN3/ref=br_msw_pdt-13

Kylie Cosmetics follows a similar strategy by displaying products that are frequently viewed together:

Source: https://www.kyliecosmetics.com/collections/bundles/products/kkw-x-kylie-lip-set

Sometimes Amazon even recommends related accessories after you add the product to your cart:

Source: https://www.amazon.com/Anker-Qi-Certified-Compatible-Fast-Charging-PowerWave/dp/B07DBXZZN3/ref=br_msw_pdt-13

Just remember:

The easier you make it for shoppers to view and buy relevant products, the more products you’ll sell.

Zipify’s OneClickUpsell app is an easy and effective way to add upsells like this to your ecommerce store:

A one-click upsell is an extremely effective way of increasing your average order value.

Here’s how it works:

A one-click upsell is offered after the shopper makes their initial purchase. This way, you never lose the initial sale by asking them to buy more — and it also means the shopper doesn’t have to input their credit card information again.

All they have to do is click the “Buy” button on your upsell offer page, and the upsell will be automatically added to their order.

(That’s why it’s called a one-click upsell.)

For more ideas of how you can put this tactic into practice in your store, check out these 4 split-tests to try with OneClickUpsell.

ACTION ITEM: Add a “You Might Also Like” section to your product page.

An exit intent offer is a popup message that appears within the same window whenever the visitor is about to leave.

An exit intent offer gives you one last chance to save the sale or at least get the visitor’s contact information before they leave.

One smart strategy to accomplish both goals is to use an exit intent popup that offers a discount in exchange for an email address. Like Organifi does here:

Source: https://www.organifishop.com/products/sunrise-to-sunset-power-box

A discount can be a great way to incentivize shoppers to stick around and buy — making it a highly effective way to increase your sales.

And by getting the customer’s email address, you’re also giving yourself the ability to nurture and follow-up via email in the future.

In this next example, Boom! by Cindy Joseph also offers a 10% discount:

When you enter your email address, you’re immediately given a discount code:

Then, Boom! does something really smart: they remind you of the coupon code along the top of the page.

So how effective is this exit-intent popup? Take a look for yourself:

The exit popup had 615,000 impressions and over 100,000 sales — a 16.26% conversion rate! It worked so well that it accounted for around 15% of all Boom!’s sales.

Now, you don’t have to offer a discount on your exit popup. You could also offer free shipping, a free gift, or even a free download.

In fact, you can — and should — vary the offer depending on the type of page.

Offering a coupon (usually around 5%-20% off) makes sense on product pages, product category pages, and shopping carts, because visitors to those pages are displaying purchase intent. In this case, offering a discount is usually the best way to save the sale.

But if the visitor is on a blog page, for instance, or your homepage, then they aren’t displaying purchase intent. So consider making a different offer on these pages — like OptinMonster does on their homepage:

Source: https://optinmonster.com/

Or like OptiMonk does on theirs:

Speaking of which, OptinMonster and OptiMonk are our two recommended tools for adding exit intent popups to your website.

Recommended exit intent tools:

• OptiMonk
• OptinMonster

ACTION ITEM: Add an exit-intent popup offer to your product page.

The use of chat apps has grown exponentially over the past few years, surpassing social networks way back in 2015:

The popularity of online chatting makes sense. It fits with the way most people prefer to communicate: one-to-one conversations with fast, personalized responses.

Is it any surprise that using chat is an effective way of increasing your ecommerce sales?

Think about what happens when you walk into a brick-and-mortar store. Usually you have some time to browse and look around for yourself. Then after a few minutes, a sales rep will often approach you and ask if they can help with anything.

Well, adding live chat to your website gives you the ability to do the same thing online.

And generally speaking, we recommend you follow the same approach by giving your visitors some time to look around on their own. Don’t open your chat widget right away; instead, wait a little while (30-60 seconds is common) before asking if they need help.

Here’s how Boom! does it. When you visit the site, you’ll see the live chat button in the lower-right corner:

Source: https://www.boombycindyjoseph.com/products/boomstick-trio

It’s unobtrusive, and gives you the option to start a chat if you want. Then after some time passes, the chat automatically opens up and asks if you need any help:

Source: https://www.boombycindyjoseph.com/products/boomsilk-product

See how this mirrors an in-store experience? It’s a helpful touch-point that prompts the user to engage in chat, but isn’t too overbearing.

If you want to be a little more aggressive, try asking a yes or no question instead. Compared to an open-ended question like the one used by Boom!, a yes or no question will often be able to generate more new conversations.

You could even combine it with a discount, such as saying: “Thanks for stopping by, can I offer you a 5% discount?”

See if that doesn’t move the needle for your conversion rate!

You have a lot of options for different chat platforms. Here are some of the more popular tools out there:

• Zendesk
• Olark
• Intercom
• Drift
• LivePerson

ACTION ITEM: Add a live chat widget to your product page.

In the previous installments of our Guide to Shopify Landing Pages series, we covered other elements of creating a high-converting product page. Such as how to design an ecommerce landing page that engages and converts, and how to craft landing page copy that drives conversions.

Think of those as the basics, the fundamental things you must get right on your product pages.

But while the fundamentals are essential to success, they aren’t always enough to make ends meet.

That’s where the landing page best practices from this article come into play. By implementing these techniques on a product page that already features compelling copy, a conversion-friendly design, and powerful conversion assets, you’ll be putting your ecommerce store in a position to generate the most sales possible.

So test these 5 best practices on your product page!

Then check out the next installment of our Guide to Shopify Landing Pages series, which is all about how to optimize your ecommerce landing page.