4 Best Practices for Showcasing Products on Your Ecommerce Website in 2023

It’s estimated that there are between 12 and 24 million ecommerce sites, but only one million achieve over $1,000 in yearly sales. That indicates a big conversion problem.

Whether you’re selling an article of clothing or a piece of B2B software, the way you showcase your products on your website can go a long way in determining whether someone will actually buy from you.

Let's look at why you might need to revamp your product pages this year, and what best practices you can follow.

Why You Need to Revamp Ecommerce Product Pages in 2023

These days, it seems that most online sellers are following the same playbook as Amazon and other mass retailers: displaying a few static (albeit high-quality) images of the product and a lengthy description. For those selling software products such as B2B tools or a mobile app, the product page is likely to feature a few screenshots showing different use cases. While there is nothing inherently wrong with these practices, they don’t help your products or site stand out from the other ecommerce websites.

The ability to showcase products in a unique and attractive way can differentiate you from the majority of unprofitable online sellers. When you can showcase your products in a more engaging way, you’ll capture the attention of your target audience, enhancing brand awareness and making them far more likely to buy.

How to Optimize Your Ecommerce Product Pages

1. Make images interactive.
2. Offer personalized product demos.
3. Offer “build your own” orders.
4. Show products in action with video.

1. Make images interactive.

Any time you can make an image more dynamic and interactive, it’s going to make your product page far more engaging than if you stuck with a standard, static image.

For example, cosmetics brands and remodeling companies will often make use of images with interactive sliders so customers can see “before” and “after” results. Other websites make use of what are essentially gifs to show the product in action.

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Depending on the nature of the product, customers might be interested in seeing a 360-degree interactive view of the item. Or, you could even add clickable highlighted areas to a product image. When the user clicks on a highlighted area, the website can display a zoomed in view of that part of the product, or showcase a specific product feature or benefit.

Tools such as ThingLink can help simplify the process of making product images more interactive. Not only does this tool allow brands to embed clickable hotspots on product pages and other images, but it also tracks engagement with each image.

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This can help you better understand which elements are the most appealing to your website visitors so you can plan accordingly when you design future interactive images.

2. Offer personalized product demos.

“Try before you buy” has become an increasingly popular trend in ecommerce, and for good reason. Many online shoppers are wary about whether something they buy over the internet will actually live up to their expectations once it is delivered — and many items don’t. For example, a 2021 consumer survey by Statista found that 25% of online shoppers have returned a clothing order in the last year.

Many customers hate the hassle of the returns process, especially when the seller doesn’t provide free shipping for their returns. These negative experiences can keep a person from doing business with an online retailer again.

Similar issues exist when selling software products online. Businesses are especially cautious about investing in new tech solutions if they cannot see a legitimate benefit for their brand. And while many SaaS sellers offer product demos, these tend to be limited in scope, failing to give a full idea of what a business can or cannot do with the product.

In the B2B space, for example, this is where tools like Walnut can have a significant impact on the buying experience. This tool allows brands to create personalized demos for different use cases and various business verticals. The ability to customize flows for different features and to replace generic text or images with personalized or branded elements can help sellers understand the prospects’ needs, while helping the demo user better understand the product’s actual application for their business.

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For physical goods, the idea of “try before you buy” has become more widely expected thanks to the feature being included in Amazon Prime for clothing orders.

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Customers are given the option to “pay later” when they complete their order. When the clothing arrives, customers have one week to try it on and decide if they want to keep it. The package arrives with a prepaid return label so customers can quickly and easily return any unwanted items.

Whether the demo itself is physical or digital, these up close and personal trial experiences can help alleviate customer concerns and make them more likely to go through with a purchase.

3. Offer “build your own” orders.

While many customers love the convenience of one-click buying, this isn’t the most engaging purchasing experience. For some product categories, it also isn’t a feasible option.

Similar to how you would “custom build” your order in an ice cream shop by choosing your flavor, cone type and toppings, many websites have brought the ability to create the dream version of their product to their websites.

This is perhaps most easily seen with vehicle manufacturers such as Volkswagen. When shopping for a new car, visitors who click on a specific Volkswagen model are given the ability to build their “perfect” vehicle using the on-site configurator tool.

Visitors select a base model and then are walked through a series of build selections, such as engines, colors, interior and additional options. They are also given the ability to compare their custom setup with the standard configuration.

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While this in-depth process isn’t going to appeal to every buyer, the ability to test different options (including how they affect pricing) can keep customers engaged with a site for a much longer time. For the car buying experience specifically, giving users the ability to self-educate on different vehicle features can also eliminate the negative connotations of dealing with a car salesman who tries to up-sell buyers with unneeded features.

Best of all, the process ends by matching site visitors with nearby dealerships that have vehicles with their selected preferences.

The idea of building a customized order isn’t just limited to cars or bicycles. TV streaming services such as Sling have also found great success by letting customers build their own personalized streaming package, choosing from available base channels and then adding specialty packages (such as sports or news) based on their interests and budget preferences.

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When you give customers the ability to tailor their order (and online experience) to their own interests, you personalize the experience and drive conversions.

4. Show products in action with video.

Video has fast become one of the most desired ways to consume content on the web.

In fact, research has found that 73 percent of your website visitors are more likely to make a purchase after watching a product video. This is especially true among Generation Z. 87 percent of Gen Z prefer branded videos or ads that show someone talking about a product, such as demos, tutorials and even unboxings.

Naturally, this means that video should be a central part of your online product marketing. Partnering with social media influencers to create video reviews or unboxing videos can be especially effective in reaching younger demographics.

However, not everyone who visits your site will have seen your social media content first. This means you need to integrate video directly onto your product pages.

Video content can be especially helpful for unique items that require more explanation than a standard hat or sweater. For example, the product page for Bottle Cutting, Inc. includes a how-to video that shows interested buyers exactly how to use the product. Alternatively, you could include a video testimonial where a current customer shows how they use your product in their daily life.

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To see more examples, check out 18 Impressive Product Demo Videos You'll Want to Copy.

Incorporating video content doesn’t mean you should forgo adding text to your product pages. There will still be people who prefer to read a written description. But by adding an appealing video that provides a more in-depth explanation or a positive testimonial, you will increase understanding of what you have to offer and cater to the content preferences of everyone who visits your site.

While adding these creative and interactive elements to your product page requires more work than simply uploading a few images and a product description, the results are well worth it.

Creating High-Converting Product Pages

By following the steps above, you’ll create product pages that are not only more interesting to your customers, but also get them to actively engage with your brand before they ever make a purchase. By turning something as simple as visiting a product page into a curated experience, your brand will make a far more powerful impression and be more likely to get those coveted conversions.