20 Must-Have Landing Pages for Your eCommerce Store

26 min. read
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Ecommerce entrepreneurs rejoice!

2023 may just be your year to make it big.

With the pandemic accelerating the ecommerce space by a funky 5 years, what better time than now to get your business thriving?

Whether you’re a thriving business owner already or just getting started, making sure your website has all the components to convert visitors into loyal customers should be at the top of your list.

The fact that you’re reading this article means you’ve probably already settled on an idea for your business and maybe even made plans for the logistical side of things. Awesome! You’ve already done the hard part. Now we just want to make sure you know what you’re doing when it comes to setting up your online store and providing all the necessary ingredients for a high-converting site.

Homepage vs landing page: what’s the difference?

All the marketing jargon can be confusing, especially as there’s some conflicting information about what exactly defines a landing page.

A homepage is the first page a visitor arrives on when they directly put the website URL into the browser’s search bar (as opposed to searching it on Google).

A landing page on the other hand is a marketing tool designed to target specific customer bases. Usually a visitor will arrive on a landing page through a paid ad (e.g. on Google) or email marketing, but the main thing is that it’s a targeted route designed by the company’s marketing team. What sets landing pages apart is that they are very simple and pared back, without a navigation bar or the footer links that you’d see on a homepage. It’s focused on driving the visitor towards a specific call-to-action (CTA) such as signing up to a trial, creating an account or even subscribing to a newsletter. Sometimes a company will have a number of landing pages, as well as different homepages for marketing campaigns targeted at different audiences.

Take Shopify for example. Google ‘Shopify’ and their ad sends you to a landing page dedicated to signing up for the 14-day-trial. Searching ‘Sell stuff online’ sends you to a version of their homepage featuring existing Shopify merchants. Simply putting in the shopify URL into Chrome takes you to a generic website.

Landing page

Targeted homepage

Generic homepage

What landing pages can do for you

As you can see from our above example, considerations about landing pages are really a step along from initial website creation. They’re part of your marketing strategy for funneling customers to where they want to go. People arriving on your page from paid ads already have a certain set of expectations, an intention of what they need from you. So they want to arrive somewhere that is related to what they were searching for, and find it easily. According to Hubspot, having 10-15 landing pages can increase leads by 55%. A powerful marketing tool indeed!

You may for example consider creating landing pages for campaigns targeted at awareness (completely new customers), remarketing (return customers), upselling (existing customers), and re-engagement (past customers). This lets you tailor the messaging specifically to each group.

Airbnb’s awareness landing page (search term ‘rent out my spare room’)

Building your eCommerce website with high-converting pages

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Before you can start thinking about capitalizing landing pages for your marketing strategy, you first need to set up a well-structured website that has all the components needed to lead potential customers through their eCommerce journey.

Some of the main considerations here are authenticity, simplicity and usability. And no, these are not three sisters from the latest season of Bridgerton, but things you really need to keep in mind when designing each page for your website.

  1. Authenticity: You want to stay on brand in everything you do. Otherwise the messaging is confusing and customers might get put off because they don’t understand what you’re about – much like meeting a shady personality you just can’t pin down would make you feel uneasy. This means first defining what your brand is all about and what values are at the forefront. And that doesn’t need to be super complicated or full of jargon! It could just be as simple as defining your brand as ‘a no-frills online store selling great value-for-money products in a reliable setting’. This can then inform your design as neutrally coloured, pared down, with professional straightforward language throughout. Don’t overthink it, but do think about it.
  2. Simplicity: The visitors to your website are humans, not machines. This means they also experience very real emotions such as frustration and impatience. Sound familiar? The rise and rise of the internet through the years really hasn’t done much for people’s attention spans, but that’s ok. People want things to be easy and streamlined, so keep things as simple as possible throughout (while obviously making sure all the necessary information is there). Highlight the important bits such as CTA buttons and vital product information – these aren’t things people want to be searching for.
  3. Usability: How easy is it to take a step back within the checkout flow? How easily can a customer access their order and purchase history? How accessible is important information such as shipping and returns info during the checkout process? All these questions are vital when thinking about great usability on your website. Keep considering what you would personally want from an online shopping experience and go from there. It also doesn’t hurt to do some trialing with test customers, even if they’re just your family and friends. They might well spot some clunky parts of the website that you haven’t been aware of.

Throughout all of this, the key word is friction. Friction is what makes customers drop out of the purchase journey early. In plain English it means things got hard, so they abandoned ship. We want to reduce friction wherever possible and give our customers a smooth shopping experience.

The 20 pages you’ll need and why

We’ll now go through the 20 pages necessary for a well-functioning eCommerce store, why they work, where there are stumbling blocks, and some cherry-picked examples to boot.

1. Homepage

The homepage is often your first (and maybe only!) chance to make a great impression. It’s the metaphorical front door through which a large amount of traffic will enter your store. On top of that, it provides a point of reorientation people navigate back to from other pages on your site (the company logo should always link back to the homepage).

So you need to make sure your homepage fulfills two purposes:

  1. Curb appeal and communicating your unique selling proposition (USP = what makes your store unique)
  2. Being a well organized point for navigating your site and highlighting any news or promotions.

While it might feel there’s a lot you want and need to squeeze into your homepage, keep simplicity in mind here. Less is more! Focus on large evocative imagery and some choice messaging. The last thing you want to do is overwhelm your potential customers and scare them off delving any deeper.

Do (how to make it high-converting)

Introduce your brand Use bold, on-brand imagery Highlight promotions and particular products Have clear navigation

Don’t (what can go wrong)

Squeeze too much in Use overly wordy language Confuse the customer with too many CTAs and pathways

Asos’ homepage excels at both telling the brand story through imagery and simple messaging, as well as leading customers to product pages

2. About us

Since the About page isn’t directly product-related, it may feel like a bit of an afterthought when it comes to building an online store. But don’t be fooled, this page is key in building trust and creating real connections with your customer base. In fact, 52% of new visitors to a website will look at the About page!

Here’s where you can really tell a story about your brand and your personal journey to building your company. This can be key in customers feeling seen and heard in what they’re experiencing in their own lives, which in turn means they’ll feel more inclined to buy from your business. Essentially, people like people. And putting a face and story to a brand turns it into something relatable.

Plus, customers may be interested in your value propositions (such as sustainability) to see if it gels with their own ideas about the world.

For these reasons, don’t be afraid to use a bit of long-form copy on your About page and be sure to emphasize it with pictures of you and your team and/or imagery to really bring home your story. Questions customers might have when visiting this page are: Who’s behind this company, what are their values, can I trust them? So keep those in mind when composing the copy for your About page.

Do (how to make it high-converting)

Tell your story

Be genuine

Make it relatable

Highlight the company’s values

Emphasize with imagery

Don’t (what can go wrong)

Keep it too short and impersonal

Just tell people what they want to hear (=ingenuine) Give conflicting information (=untrustworthy)

Sock Club’s About page starts off highlighting their mission and unique production characteristics

It then highlights their story, introducing the founders and their inspiration

Finally, they champion their team members and cleverly incorporate a hiring CTA, followed by engaging readers in their social channels. So their About is working for them on lots of different levels.

PRODUCTS

Depending on the size of your store and product range, the Product pages need to be divided into several subpages to make navigating your shop easy and engaging.

3. Category overview

This page is all about promotion and wayfinding. Say your store has several big subcategories, such as Dining Room, Living Room, Bedroom, Bathroom; or Women’s, Men’s and Kids – it’s a good idea to have a category overview page, which basically works as a kind of ‘homepage’ for that category. So think big bold imagery and prompts for products or subcategories the customer might be interested in exploring.

From here, customers should be able to dig deeper into whatever products they’re looking for or start a search to narrow down their choice.

Some shops don’t have a specific Category Overview and instead take customers directly to a list view of all the products in this category. However, it can definitely pay to add this page and perhaps entice the customer into a direction they hadn’t considered before.

Do (how to make it high-converting)

Use striking imagery

Provide clear navigation to subcategories

Entice the customer with product ideas

Don’t (what can go wrong)

Use Category Overview with a small product catalog

Use long-copy: simplicity and ease of use is key here

Staples uses their Category Overview to ferry customers into the desired subcategory, while also linking related categories and promotions

4. Product list / Search results

You get to the Product List either by selecting one of the subcategories from the Category Overview or by searching/ filtering for a particular product type.

From here, the customer should have the ability to filter results to narrow down their search, as well as go into Product Detail pages.

A clear and intuitive structure is key here. Some shops have their navigation/ filtering system at the top, some down the side. But whatever you do, it needs to be easy to use and help the customer find exactly what they’re looking for.

Small things like a breadcrumb trail at the top of the page (a chain of navigational links, usually just below the site menu) can really help people find their way around your site.

You can also provide the option for a ‘quick view’ of products which means customers can preview the product detail page without leaving the list view of search results – a great option for a large product catalog.

Do (how to make it high-converting)

Make it easy for customers to find what they’re looking for

Provide faceted filtering options

Use clear product titles

Use high-quality photos with full view of the product

Use suggested search to surface products

Don’t (what can go wrong)

List products in the wrong categories leading to skewed search results

List products without imagery

M&S’s product list has its filters at the top, as well as the ‘sort by’ options. Other standout features are the product reviews visible for each product and high-quality product photography

Zara’s search functionality shines through suggested search terms and loading results as you type

5. Product detail page

Here’s where we get into the nitty gritty of each individual product, and closer and closer to actually finalizing a sale for your store!

Needless to say you want to be providing plenty of accurate details about your product here, with at least 3 photos for the customer to click through. Depending on what you’re selling, you’ll need to have more of an emphasis on either imagery or description, although both are important regardless of the product. Fashion stores traditionally  highlight imagery, whereas selling things like technology products warrants detailed text descriptions.

Once you get to this stage of the sales process, you also want to be giving your potential customers information about shipping times and prices, as well as the returns process. Do you provide free returns? How long does shipping take? These are questions customers will be thinking about before hitting that final ‘check out’ button.

Another thing to mention is the increasing trend for using video on product detail pages. According to research by Wyzowl, 84% of people say they’ve been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video. So if you’re able to add some video content to your product pages, this may well pay off. Especially since the popularity of video is only forecast to grow with younger generations replacing traditional TV with online video completely.

Do (how to make it high-converting)

Give detailed product descriptions

Use both photo and video

Mention shipping estimates and return policy

Have a clear CTA (Add to Cart)

Show reviews from previous customers

Suggest related products (cross-selling)

Don’t (what can go wrong)

Have hidden costs like shipping and taxes

Omit important product details

Be too aggressive up- or cross-selling

Dell’s product detail pages, while providing imagery and videos, focus on picking specs for your chosen laptop and provide detailed information via a custom navigation at the top of the product page

Product suggestions like Urban Outfitters is utilizing here are a great way to cross-sell while also enriching the customer’s shopping experience

6. Blog

Having a blog is not a necessity for an online store, but it’s a powerful marketing tool that doesn’t cost you a penny (other than time invested) – so it’s well worth pursuing. The aim of a blog is creating a genuinely useful resource for existing and potential customers. So the name of the game is quality over quantity. While a well-populated blog will draw more traffic, if the content doesn’t have any substance to it you’ll have readers drop off quickly and reap no benefit from this traffic whatsoever.

If you’re building a new website, you’ll want to have at least 3 blog pieces already posted when going live, and then continue posting high-quality content regularly, ideally at least once a week. Posting regularly will encourage people to keep coming back to your website. This will require a bit of work and dedication, so to make it easy for yourself keep an ongoing ideas bank and come up with a content calendar you can follow. That way you’ll have plenty of ideas ready to go when you need them.

The content you’re posting should be valuable to people interested in the space you’re in and address current and up-and-coming topics. An added benefit to creating truly engaging content is that it boosts your SEO through plenty of organic traffic and improves your rankings on Google etc.

Do (how to make it high-converting)

Post at least once a week

Create content around topics relevant to your brand

Break up writing pieces with exemplary imagery

Check you’re including relevant keywords by using services such as SemRush

Link to credible sources

Make it shareable

Encourage comments and interaction from readers

Don’t (what can go wrong)

Create pieces simply for click-bait

Put your readers to sleep with boring content

Leave your blog dormant and outdated

Company Rosetta Stone runs a bustling blog all around languages, tying in perfectly to their language learning products

Sexual wellness company Maude’s blog The Maudern publishes faceted pieces around love, sex and intimacy. The tasteful design aesthetic and open approach to talking about subjects sometimes considered taboo works perfectly with their mission to ‘make intimacy better – for all people.“

 

CHECKOUT FLOW

Your customer has worked their way through the product list, scrutinized the details page and finally added a product to their cart. This person has decided to purchase, which is just what we want – now we need to make sure the checkout process carries on smoothly or risk losing the sale at the last minute.

Baymard found these top reasons why the people abandoned their checkout process

7. Cart / Bag

So let’s start with the cart itself. As you well know, the cart should be collecting all the items the customer has selected to ‘Add to Cart’. Once they go to the actual cart page, they should be able to see all basic details of these items and make changes if required, i.e. adjust things such as color, quantity or delete the item entirely.

To make this easier throughout the shopping process, some websites include a ‘Mini Cart’ which works as a dropdown or flyout menu (usually from the site navigation). This can ease friction as the customer doesn’t need to click away from whatever they’re doing to see what’s in the cart and amend their selections.

Regardless of whether you opt to have the mini cart or not, once the customer is moving towards checkout, things should be very straightforward with all the necessary information easily accessible. For example, it’s a real boon if estimated shipping costs are obvious from the start without having to complete the whole checkout process. Getting to the end and then being stung with a higher-than-expected shipping fee can be a real turn-off! Same goes for Promo Codes - if you can find a way to incorporate them before the payment page, that can work in your favor too.

Do (how to make it high-converting)

Make the cart easy to find

Enable user to change cart items easily

Utilize a mini cart for ease of use

Provide access to shipping and returns information before final payment page

Don’t (what can go wrong)

Allow out-of-stock items to be added to cart only to then come up with an error message

Lululemon’s ‘Add to Cart’ confirmation features product recommendations for pairing up the chosen product. A well-placed opportunity to cross-sell.

8. Shipping & payment details

Your customer is happy with their selection and is ready to finish the checkout process. Excellent news! Now it’s more important than ever to keep friction to a minimum so the sale goes through unimpeded.

There are usually two options for collecting the details you’ll need from the customer: Sign In to an existing account, or Checkout as Guest with the option to create an account at the end (since you already will have collected all the details needed for an account anyway). Sometimes the guest checkout isn’t offered at all and creating an account is mandatory – but keep in mind that it can put people off who feel overwhelmed by the amount of things they need to sign up to these days.

The shipping details page should consist of a form to collect the shipping and billing addresses, with a tick box to take over shipping details as billing details, saving the customer having to put their address in twice.

You also have the option of having all data collection (so shipping and payment) on one page with e.g. collapsible sections. Doing this as opposed to having shipping and payment details over several pages has the advantage of saving people from accidentally using the browser’s back button and losing all their info. So if you do decide to go with several pages, you need to have clear navigational links for the user to go back to previous steps and make changes.

Finally, when it comes to payment details, you want to make sure that you’re offering all popular payment options – especially Apple and Google pay, which make paying online as easy as hitting a button. Just another easy way to decrease friction for your customers.

Do (how to make it high-converting)

Offer guest checkout

Offer incentives for creating an account

Provide tickbox for using shipping as billing details

Provide easy navigation for going back

Offer all major payment options including (minimum) Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Apple and Google Pay

Don’t (what can go wrong)

Make navigation clunky and hard to use

Force account sign up

Add hidden costs right at the end of checkout

H&M offers three checkout options from the get go but highlight the benefits of signing up, which gives the customer a gentle nudge without being too pushy

Asos arguably has one of the smoothest checkout processes out there, with all steps and information easily accessible through one page.

9. Checkout review

A small but important step! You’re basically saying: this is what you’ve decided to buy, these are the details you’ve given us. Is it all good to go? It’s the last chance for the customer to change something, so it should be easy to do so.

Some stores don’t have this as a separate page, but as an automatically generating sidebar, such as Macpac in the example below.

Macpac offers an easy navigation at the top and shows all details in the order summary on the right, including tax and delivery charges

10. Confirmation page

The customer hit ‘Pay Now’ and completed their order. The payment is on its way to you, ka-ching! But the relationship doesn’t end here. It’s time for a well-phrased order confirmation page (which should be about the same as the order confirmation email).

A thank you is definitely in order! As well as an overview of the order they’ve just placed, you should give the customer an estimated delivery time and information on where to turn if they have any questions or problems with their purchase.

Now’s also the time to ask if a guest would like to create an account if this hasn’t already happened. As mentioned before, you’ve already collected all the information, so the step up to an account is easy if the customer decides to take it. They may also be open to other suggestions, such as leaving a review, giving feedback or sharing on social, so those are also options to explore for your order confirmation page.

Do (how to make it high-converting)

Say thank you

Give a delivery estimate

Offer account sign up if new customer

Link back to the order (‘View Order’)

Provide customer support contact info

Offer related product suggestions where appropriate

Send an email confirmation at the same time

Don’t (what can go wrong)

Be too pushy with account sign up or product recommendations

Omit contact info or be hard to contact in the case of problems with the order

11. My account

If the customer decided to create an account, or already had one, the My Account age will be where all of their details, preferences and order history is stored. These come in the form of several subpages where users can view past orders or change their details such as address or password.

An attractive part of My Account which is also a great incentive for signing up in the first place is the Wishlist (also Saved Items or Favorites). Many online stores offer the ability to save favorites to a list for later without having to add them to the cart. This means customers can window shop but don’t have to make a decision there and then. It can also serve as a destination for abandoned cart items – i.e. any products that weren’t checked out to completion will be moved to the Wishlist. It’s also a handy option for the user within the checkout process: instead of simply deleting an item from their cart they can ‘Save for Later’. For you this means the sale won’t be completely lost, maybe just postponed.

When it comes to Order History, it should show tracking information for individual orders and will usually tie in with any shipping or fulfillment software you’re using.

Do (how to make it high-converting)

Offer a Wishlist feature

Provide detailed order summaries for all past orders

Make it easy to change personal details

Don’t (what can go wrong)

Make the My Account page hard to find

Kmart offers detailed individual order summaries with tracking info

West Elm’s product list lets users favorite items easily without having to go into the product details page

12. Email opt-in

You want people to sign up to your newsletter. Why? Email marketing is still one of the most effective marketing channels, with an ROI of roughly $50 for every dollar spent. It makes sense really – somebody that signs up to your newsletter is already interested in your brand and the products that you sell. So you’re able to market directly to your target audience.

The Newsletter opt-in page is often a pop-up, a floating widget or a small area with a button on the homepage (often as part of the footer), but can also be a landing page. Since just about everyone wants people to sign up to a newsletter these days, having a sweet incentive helps. Some examples include offering a unique discount code, free shipping or free digital resource when people sign up.

Do (how to make it high-converting)

Try to snag people soon upon entering the site

Offer enticing incentives

Explain the content users can expect from these emails

Don’t (what can go wrong)

Be too pushy or obvious with your marketing intentions

Fail to push the sign-up at all or hide it away where nobody can find it

RemoteOk’s email opt-in is a dismissible bar that floats at the bottom of every page (much like a cookie notification)

Girlfriend Collective’s Email sign-up pop up entices with a discount code and fresh copywriting

Ripped Body’s email signup is the focus of their homepage and offers some freebies as an incentive

13. Testimonials page

You may choose to have a testimonials page, although this is not a strict necessity. The advantages are clear: people like to know that other people had a good experience buying from a brand. Testimonials are great for that, especially if your shop doesn’t have a review and ratings function for each individual product.

Testimonials can be as simple as displaying written quotes from past customers, but video tends to be very effective here too. Whatever you do, make sure people can put a face to the words – we are visual creatures after all.

When starting out, you may not have any reviews or positive customer feedback yet. One way to get around this is giving your products to family and friends to review and using their words on your Testimonials page while you’re still building your business up.

If you already have some happy loyal customers, it could be as easy as asking for a few words from them via email. Just make sure you ask their permission before publishing anything on your website.

Do (how to make it high-converting)

Utilize product reviews

If you can’t do product reviews or they don’t work for your type of shop, set up a testimonials page

Get family and friends to review products for initial testimonials

Use video where you can

Don’t (what can go wrong)

Publish anyone’s words or image without their consent

Zendesk’s testimonials are called Customer Stories and are presented as case studies with facts and figures to back up their successes

14. Store locator

If your online shop is accompanied by physical stores or retailers, it’s a good idea to have a store locator that points customers to the closest physical location for your brand.

Depending on the products or services you sell, you want to make sure that customers can filter for exactly the kind of thing or store they’re looking for. In many cases, a simple location-based search and an on-brand, well-functioning map design should suffice.

Beardbrand’s simple search and map design makes their store locator super easy to use

FOOTER

The footer may seem like a, yes, footnote to your website. But it’s actually jam-packed with important information and content for your customers. And due to its fairly consistent set-up across sites, people know where to go to find what they’re looking for.

15. Privacy policy

Again, the customer privacy policy isn’t just a filler page. Aside from legal requirements (and we’ll get to those in a minute), having a customer privacy policy builds trust, as it assures customers that you won’t sell their information to third parties, that the site and payment methods are safe and secure and that you won’t store their credit card information. By definition, a privacy policy discloses your practices when it comes to the collection, use and handling of personal data.

If you’re going to be receiving customers from the EU, the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) actually stipulates that you must have a customer privacy policy.

In the US, the customer privacy policy itself isn’t mandated by the law, but there are various laws around data privacy and protection. So if you’re collecting any kind of data from your visitors (even if it’s just using Google Analytics which uses cookies to track and record user data), you still legally need a privacy policy that indicates you’re using this information lawfully.

There are various boxes you need to tick when writing your customer privacy policy, such as who is collecting the data, for what reason and purpose and who will have access to it. Luckily there are plenty of free and paid resources on the net to help you out here, such as policy templates or generators like TermsFeed.

Do (how to make it high-converting)

Spend time making sure you’ve covered all bases on how data is collected and used on your website

Ensure you’ve covered all legal requirements in your policy

Don’t (what can go wrong)

Publish your site without a customer privacy policy

Copy and paste another site’s customer privacy policy (you’ll be breaching copyright law)

Uber lets you view their policy depending on which jurisdiction you’re in and what language you’re speaking. Plus it has a handy little navigation up top.

16. Terms & conditions

Where the customer privacy policy protects the rights of your customer and stipulates your responsibilities towards them, the T&Cs set out your company’s rights in all of this. They’re the rules and guidelines for customers using your website.

T&Cs aren’t a legal requirement, but it’s still smart to have them because they also protect your right to the contents of  your website and may limit your liability if a customer ever decided to take you to court due to, say, errors on your site.

Some things to include are which country’s laws govern the websites’ terms, an intellectual property disclosure and a ‘links to other sites clause’ that clarifies that you’re not responsible for any content on third-party sites linked to from your site.

Again, the easiest thing to do is enlist professional help or use a free template or trusted T&Cs generator such as Termly.

Do (how to make it high-converting)

Make sure your intellectual property is protected

Ensure you’re not liable for court action due to errors on your site or third-party content

Don’t (what can go wrong)

Publish your site without Terms and Conditions

Copy and paste another site’s T&Cs (you’ll be breaching copyright law)

17. Returns and exchanges

Things don’t always go according to plan, and that’s ok. Customers will want to exchange or return products from time to time and you’ll need to make sure the necessary info is readily available on your site. If people can figure out how the process works without reaching out to customer service, this will make it easier for both them and you.

Plus, the Returns and Exchanges page is an important destination to reassure new and prospective customers they’ll be in good hands if they’re not happy after they’ve purchased. According to Shopify, having transparency around shipping and returns is one of the key things that makes people trust an online store.

Information you’ll want to include is your returns policy (i.e. how long things can be returned for and under what conditions, such as tags on) and whether returns are free, exceptions to the returns policy (e.g. clearance items), and steps to follow if you’re not happy.

Do (how to make it high-converting)

Make the Returns page accessible from your product pages

Provide essential info around refunds and returns

Be transparent about your process

Set up an automated returns and exchange process

Don’t (what can go wrong)

Make it difficult for customers to return items or get in touch

Allbirds are super clear and transparent when it comes to all things returns, while also keeping it fun with an engaging design

Brooklinen keep it simple and lead you straight through to the returns or exchange process

18. Shipping

Another important part of the puzzle! Your shipping information should include everything from what countries you ship to and what the fees are, to estimated delivery times and troubleshooting.

Much like the Returns page, this page is targeted at both prospective customers looking to find out what they can expect from you and existing customers looking for information on their current order.

Both the Returns and Exchanges and the Shipping page can also be part of a larger FAQ or Help Center on your site.

Do (how to make it high-converting)

Make the Shipping page accessible from your product pages

Provide essential info around all things shipping

Provide contact information in case of a problem

Don’t (what can go wrong)

Skew delivery estimates in your favor - this will only come to bite you in the butt later

Zalando’ Delivery page offers various contact options if the customer needs more help with their shipping-related query

19. FAQ / Help center

Having a dedicated place for frequently asked customer questions will save you a lot of time answering emails and calls. There are the obvious things to address such as shipping estimates, returns policy, international shipping, accepted payment methods and gift wrapping options. Others will be very unique to your business and customer base and may only become obvious after some time answering said emails!

You may also want to include the ‘Contact Us’ page as part of the FAQ, with your business address and preferred contact options (e.g. email, a dedicated contact form or live chat). Or you may choose to have a separate Contact Us that could also include current job openings.

A successful FAQ page is one that anticipates its users’ needs. This way your customers feel heard and understood and their shopping journey is just that little bit easier again.

Do (how to make it high-converting)

Make your FAQ searchable

Go by ‘more is more’ – better to answer a few too many questions than not enough

Don’t (what can go wrong)

Only address generic questions – the more tailored to your particular business the better

souk + SEPIA’s FAQ is well-structured through a little directory down the left side which makes it super easy to find what you’re looking for

20. 404 Page

The dreaded 404 page! It’s not what anyone wants to land on. And yet, it’s better to be prepared and have a dedicated page ready than have a generic error message that doesn’t help anyone. This way, you can control both the tone of the messaging and also lead customers on to other useful destinations.

Do (how to make it high-converting)

Keep it light, maybe even joke if it’s on-brand

Redirect the user somewhere useful

Don’t (what can go wrong)

Don’t be flippant – you don’t want people to get more annoyed than they might already be

Lego’s 404 keeps it fun and redirects to their shop

Slack’s 404 is an idyllic gardenscape that moves with your cursor. It also redirects you to the Help Center for further assistance.

Who has the full package?

Now we’ve gone through all the individual elements of what makes a successful online store tick, we thought we’d give a couple of examples of who’s really done everything right.

The first of these came up in loads of best-of lists in our research on great-performing pages. From an engaging About page, over great product pages, to an extensive FAQ and a transparent Returns page. Allbirds’ website really ticks all the boxes of a smoothly tailored and high-converting website. No surprise really that they posted over $100 million fourth-quarter sales in 2021.

Allbirds homepage draws the user in with striking imagery and a captivating value statement.

Secondly, ASOS, who we mentioned a few times in this article already, really does an incredible job at navigating a huge product catalog that is fully online. Their ordering and returns processes are second to none and really create a seamless shopping experience for a global audience.

Asos are experts at capitalizing on seasonal sales and a wide range of product categories

Conclusion

Starting and running an ecommerce business takes a lot of work and dedication. But setting yourself up with a beautifully-designed, well-structured website really does make all the difference. It’ll make or break an online business! With online shopping, it’s all about converting visitors and window shoppers into loyal customers, and every single page should be doing that work for you. The more thought you can put into every detail of your website and its usability for future and present customers, the more successful your business will be.

Do you know any outstanding examples of online stores and how they make shopping an absolute pleasure? Let us know in the comments below!

Want to brainstorm some ideas about landing pages or anything else eCommerce related? Chat with our 24/7 customer support team today!

 

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Michelle Yuan

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