Attempting to improve the conversion rate of an ecommerce website should be high on the list of priorities for any webmaster. Focusing on optimising your product pages, in order to achieve a higher conversion rate, is a worthwile investment of your time, and can help to improve both sales volume and profitability.

Google recently published a range of worthwhile tips on how to improve the product page conversion rates, for ecommerce websites. The top 10 most useful tips from this report are as follows:

Product Descriptions

• Sell the benefits of your products, not their features. Your customers are only interested in purchasing the benefits of your products, not their features. Therefore explain to your customers that the fridge freezer they are considering buying is energy efficient and the low running costs will save them money, rather than highlighting the extra deep shelves and a built in wine rack.
• Try and create original sales copy instead of using the standard product description provided by the manufacturer. This is a great way to set you apart from your competitors.

Product Images

• It is essential to use professional, high quality, product images.
• Use a minimum of 3 to 4 images for each product. This will enable your customers to view each product from different angles.
• Adding the functionality for visitors to zoom in and get a closer look at the product is a useful feature that helps to improve the overall online shopping experience, especially if this feature is not available on your competitors websites.

Delivery and Stock

• Include up to date and accurate stock levels, prominently displayed on each product page. Your customers will have more confidfence in purchasing from you if they know that the product is in stock.
• Your customers want to know how quickly they will receive their orders and the delivery cost. Provide this information on every product page, if possible.
• Run free delivery promotions. This offers a great way to boost conversions during slow sale periods.

Other Important Elements

• Product reviews will help to improve conversions, but make sure to only use legitimate reviews.
• Make sure that your product pages display a concise and clear call to action such as an “add to shopping cart” button.

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If you operate an ecommerce website then the frequency of your shopping cart abandonment rates is likely to be high on your list of major frustrations.

Imagine getting a customer all the way to your checkout page with a cart full of products or services – only to have them change their mind at the last minute and quit the order!

According to a recent report by the e-tailing group, nearly 60% of US online retailers, experience shopping cart abandonment rates above 20%.

A study by PayPal and comScore also found that 45% of US online shoppers had abandoned their shopping carts, multiple times, in just three weeks. The average cost of abandoned goods in those shopping carts was $109. If you do the maths, there would appear to be a significant amount of potential revenue going begging for online retailers, which is obviously cause for concern.

So the question every online retailer should be asking is “Why are customers abandoning my online shopping cart?”

According to the report the main reasons for abandonment are as follows:

• High shipping charges: 46%

• Wanted to comparison shop: 37%

• Lack of money: 36%

• Wanted to look for a coupon: 27%

• Wanted to shop offline: 26%

• Couldn’t find preferred pay option: 24%

• Item unavailable at checkout: 23%

• Couldn’t find customer support: 22%

• Security concerns: 21%

By making relevant changes to your  ecommerce website, online retailers should be able to deal with these issues and improve the shopping cart abandonment rate. Even the 36% with ‘no money’ might be persuaded to purchase a product or service if a discount is offered at the point of abandonment.

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If you own an E-Commerce website, using Google Product Search is a great way to promote your website and your individual products.

By using Google Product Search you can submit all of your products, which will then enable potential customers to easily and quickly find your site.

For example if you wanted to find out where you can purchase a ‘travel hairdryer’, you can simply enter the query in Google Product Search. The search results will include websites that sell travel hairdryers, including a relevant image, product description and price. The search results can be sorted by price, product rating or seller rating.

Google’s Information for Sellers states the following:

Increase traffic and sales

Shoppers can quickly and easily find your products when you submit them in Google Product Search, delivering you more traffic and helping you increase sales. Based on your items’ relevance, shoppers may find them in their results for searches on Google Product Search, and even our main Google web search.

And if you’re a Google Checkout merchant, the Checkout badge will appear on your Google Product Search listings, attracting even more visitors to your site.

Submit and sell your products for free

Inclusion in Google Product Search is completely free; there are no charges for uploading your items or charges for the traffic you receive. Ranking in search results is based solely on the quality and relevance of your product listings.

Submit everything

Our bulk upload tool allows you to easily and efficiently submit your entire product catalogue. It also gives you flexible and timely control of the information displayed in Product Search. Your bulk upload can be updated as often as once a day, or as infrequently as once a month.

Suitable for merchants of all sizes

Products can be uploaded into the Product Search index either one at a time or with a bulk upload through Google Base. Merchants can also use an API to code their product catalogue into the Product Search index.

If you would like to find out more about using Google Product Search to promote your website, then you are in luck! The Google team have recently launched a video which takes an in depth look at Product Search and includes some hints and tips for submitting your products.

The video was created by Google’s Maile Ohye, and covers frequently asked questions such as:

* Will my products’ rankings improve if I include custom attributes in my feed?
* Do product listings expire after 30 days?
* How often should I submit my feed?

So if you looking for a new way to get your products in front of shoppers, then definitely check out the video and remember Google Product Search is free!

If you have experience of using Google Product Search, please feel free to share your thoughts with us or alternatively visit our main website to view our range of Website Promotion services.