Product Page (PDP) Optimization: Your Route to a high-converting PDP

Your product detail pages (PDPs) are arguably the most crucial part of your website. It’s where one of the most important actions take place: add to cart. The moment a customer decides that this is probably the product they’re looking for, and he or she might purchase.

With the product advisors that you’re building with bluebarry, it’s inevitable that you drive more visitors to your product pages. But let’s be honest. How well are your product pages optimized for conversion? How well defined is your testing plan to improve this performance? And how frequently do you brainstorm with your team about ways to optimize these pages for better performance? If you’re like many eCom businesses, you probably think about this from time to time but wish you could do more.

Today, we’re talking about conversion optimization. Not SEO. While SEO is very important for your product detail pages, you want to be found when individuals are specifically looking for your product, we will neglect that for a second. That might be for another blog post. Right now, our focus is on making sure your product page converts casual visitors into buyers.

I’m Jelmer, one of the co-founders of bluebarry. Below, you’ll find what we’ll cover in this post.

What we’ll cover

1. Understanding how to track and evaluate the success of a product page.
2. Strategies to optimize your product pages.
3. Personal actions you can take to improve your product pages.
4. Building an actionable plan to implement these changes.

Let’s dive in, shall we?

How to Measure the Success of a Product Page

I always like that marketing is a game of data and people. That allowed me to bridge purely digital marketing data with psychology. A powerful combination. However, it all starts and ends with the numbers. You need data to figure out how well your product page is performing and where to look for improvements. After implementation, you need to assess whether any improvements you make are truly moving the needle.

But make sure your data is accurate. Errors in data might lead you to find patterns that don’t exist, resulting in wrong conclusions and decisions. So, it’s essential to ensure your data is clean and also reliable.

That said, data is not the only thing you should rely on. As I mentioned, the power is in combining this with human behavior and psychology. After all, while our (digital) environments may change, human nature stays relatively constant. Trust your instincts and leverage best practices—those timeless principles based on how people think and act.

And if you’re uncertain about your data and your ability to rely on the knowledge of human behavior, look at industry leaders for inspiration. E-commerce giants don’t succeed by accident; they use well-researched strategies that you can adopt as well.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We need at least some data. Here are some key metrics to track when optimizing your PDP:

1. Add-to-cart rate

This metric is often more insightful than purchases, especially if your traffic is low and conversions take longer to track. Your product page’s primary goal is to encourage visitors to add items to their cart, so tracking this action is a direct indicator of how well the page is performing.

2. Purchases

While “add-to-cart” is crucial, tracking actual purchases is, of course, still essential. This metric helps determine whether your optimizations in the end drive revenue. And that’s why we’re here, right?

3. Bounce Rate & Exit Rate

A high bounce rate means visitors are leaving the page without taking any action—an indicator that either the product isn’t what they want, or the page design is ineffective. Similarly, the exit rate shows how many users leave the site after viewing the product page without progressing further.

Both metrics provide valuable insight into whether your product page is engaging visitors or if your PDP has the opposite effect.

4. Return Rate

If a product is being returned frequently due to reasons like “it didn’t fit” or “it wasn’t as expected,” that’s a sign your product page might not be giving customers a realistic understanding of the product.

Monitoring return rates might be a bit harder for the general e-commerce store. But it is a good way to discover improvements.

How to Optimize Your Product Page for Conversions

Data data data … know that you’ve opened up your Analytics and looked at the metrics. It’s time to actually optimize. The fun part.

I’ll break down the key elements of your product page and see how each one can be fine-tuned to enhance performance.

1. Imagery

According to research from Salsify, high-quality product images are one of the top factors in convincing customers to make a purchase. Right after ‘pricing and discounts’. Most of the marketing leaders I talk to immediately start to sweat when talking about the product page imagery.

“Do you know how many product pages we have?!”

The right answer is to ask if they know how many clicks and conversions they are leaving on the table. It’s all worth it in the end. And you can always start with a top 10, top 50, to cut down on the initial amount of work.

With imagery, there are two things that are very important:
– Quality
– Transparency

Low-quality pictures don’t build trust. It’s that easy. If your product images are low quality. Update them ASAP, it does more harm than good.

Next up: transparency. In general, orienting visitors are looking for engagement and action. Social platforms like TikTok and YouTube are almost always part of their search. Why? To see the product in action. To get an honest, real life, visual idea the product. So why not meet this need directly on your product detail page?

Show a 360-degree video view of it. The honest version of your product. Below, you can find an example of Upfront, this is how they display their protein powder on their product pages. Convincing, right? Trust is built by transparency and quality, it’s clear that they have nothing to hide.

Imagery tips for higher conversion:

• Start with high-quality images set in a relatable environment for your customer.
• Follow up with detailed product shots on a clean background.
• Add videos that show the product in action, giving an honest, 360-degree view.

2. Pricing and Discounts

There’s a wealth of research on the psychology of pricing. We won’t go down the rabbit hole here, but let’s touch on some essential points.

Your price is always relative to value and alternatives. High-prices are even directly related to products being perceived as high-value. You know that famous experiment where they let people taste wine from a cheap bottle, normal bottle, and expensive bottle?

Guess which wine tasted the best? Exactly, the expensive bottle.

And here’s the twist: both the cheap bottle and the expensive bottle contained the exact same wine. Yet, we perceive higher quality when a product comes with a higher price tag.

Similarly, potential buyers are always comparing you to other options in their minds. They mentally position your price against alternatives they’re familiar with. This might be an identical product from a different brand, or something similar from another category that also does the job. If you are being compared to competitor X, but your delivery is 2 days earlier. Chances are pretty likely people don’t care about you being 10 euros more expensive. As long as you deliver it quickly.

Understanding where your pricing stands within this domain of alternatives in the consumer’s mind is incredibly valuable.

Now, what about discounting? It works, and here’s a pro tip: always pair your discounts with a time or seasonal limit. Using urgency and scarcity alongside discounts makes the strategy even more effective.

Pricing tips for higher conversions:

• Understand where your product sits within the realm of competition, but remember that alternatives don’t always mean direct competitors.
• Test different discount strategies. Avoid cutting prices on every product. Instead experiment with special offers, using scarcity and urgency principles. Then measure how they impact conversions and make it a recurring thing.

3. Title, Descriptions, and USPs

Your product title must be crystal clear about what the product is and compelling enough to grab attention. Descriptions, on the other hand, should emphasize key selling points, product specifications, and address common customer questions.

Your Unique Selling Propositions (USPs) are powerful tools for overcoming the final obstacles a customer may face. I’m begging you—talk directly to your customers! Ask them what made them hesitant or convinced to buy your product. Those insights are your USPs: use them to remove any remaining barriers.

Tips for Titles and Descriptions:

• Be specific. Don’t leave any room for confusion about the product and its specifications.
• Use persuasive language that highlights the product’s unique value.

4. Call to action

The trigger it’s all about on your website: the product page CTA.

But it’s also a very easy one.

You should be able to see the button with almost closed eyes. It needs to be your main CTA color that you are already using throughout your website, so there’s no confusion or inconsistency.

Lastly, a good CTA is very actionable and clear about what the next step is. On your product detail page, I almost wouldn’t expect anything else than “Add to cart”.

Would you?

CTA Tips:

• Ensure it stands out visually—use contrasting colors or bold text to grab attention.
• Keep the CTA layout consistent across your site. You don’t want any confusion or inconsistencies.
• Make the call to action clear and direct. It’s likely something like “Add to Cart.”

Building an Action Plan

Now that you know the key areas to focus on, here’s a simple action plan to help you get started on optimizing your PDPs. And don’t make this harder then it is.

1. Evaluate your pages: Use analytics (data) to analyze bounce rates, add-to-cart conversions, and overall performance.

2. Prioritize improvements: Start with the areas that have the most potential for impact, such as imagery or the product description. Use some common sense here. It’s necessary.

3. Run A/B tests: Experiment with different CTAs, product titles, and layouts to see what works best for your audience.

4. Outperform your competition! Use the key metrics we discussed to see how you are doing. Optimizing your website in general is something that you should make a habit of. It’s an important flagship of your business. Track your progress, make informed decisions, and don’t be afraid to try.

Conclusion

Due to the amount of product detail pages, optimization probably feels like a daunting task. But the honest truth is that it is necessary to keep optimizing your product pages. Both for conversions as for SEO. In other words, it’s important for the general health and growth of your e-commerce business.

Start by focusing on the fundamentals—clear product titles, descriptions, quality imagery, and actionable CTAs. Measure your efforts, experiment, and make continuous improvements based on data and customer behavior.

Who am I?

I’ve been working in marketing for 8 years, and I love combining data with the human behavioral aspects of marketing.

I want to to help e-commerce marketing leaders drive better results with fewer resources. Sharing knowledge is a big part of that.

If you’d like to continue this conversation, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn!

Are you looking to attract more visitors to your product pages? It might be worth exploring bluebarry—a product advisor that guides potential buyers on your webshop to the products they need.

This will help drive more traffic to your PDPs, so you can put your newly learned skills to the test