As e-commerce sales continue to grow at a rapid clip (about 15% year-over-year)*, it becomes increasingly crucial for brands to innovate, differentiate, and delight customers in new ways.
Having clear and accurate product imagery on your product detail pages is a given. (Or at least should be!) Long gone are the days of dull, lifeless product photos with limited product detail and wash instructions. Brands must now continue the tactility, product knowledge, and emotion evoked throughout all their online and offline communications. You have to stick the landing!
And just as successful Instagram strategies are a mixture of brand-building & product-focus – using the full suite of videos, gifs, and static shots; so too can brands’ product detail pages embrace creativity with innovative, informative, and fun ways to engage and convert visitors to the site.
Here are some brands that we think are getting it right…
1. Apple’s Use of Functional Video
Detail pages that include product videos are much more likely to see add-to-cart conversions than those without. In fact, 37% more likely*.
Knowing full well its strengths lie in its inimitable UI and design, Apple has chosen to use CGI video for its Apple Watch Series 4 product page because of the creative freedom it brings.
Having initially greeted visitors with a full-screen, close-up of the watch, the strategy continues with artful clips of the watch in use, each cleverly slowing down halfway to be supported by attribute copy. There is no ambiguity: the watch is the hero of the page.
The use of video is innovative and functional, while the creative is beautiful and engaging – all attributes central to the Apple brand.
Read More: Is Product Video the Missing Piece of Your Conversion Strategy?
2. David Yurman’s Unique Lighting for Jewelry
Jewelry is tough. Being a high-ticket item, jewelry brands have to ensure their product detail pages reflect a commitment to uncompromised quality and luxury, while also conveying the appropriate emotional tone.
David Yurman seems to have found the right solution for their brand. With clever back-lighting, the rings are given incredible drama and the customer can see every facet and detail of the jewelry. They have also chosen an off-white background, which is notably different from the industry standard white-on-white.
With bold – yet calculated – creative decisions, David Yurman has been able to enhance and elevate both product and brand at point-of-sale.
3. Carl Hansen’s Brand Narrative
A good product detail page will give the customer the info he or she needs to know to make a purchase, a great product detail page tells a story: it draws the visitor into the brand narrative, showing how the product will elevate their lives, rather than just listing product attributes and hoping it’s what the customer wants to read.
This requires the right hierarchy of product and content.
Carl Hansen & Son has done a masterly job with its Shell Chair – showing the product both on its own and in a spatial context (critical for selling furniture), listing the product varieties in a clean, unambiguous manner, discussing the chair’s design history (reinforcing the brand and product pedigree) and bringing the product to life with a video that dives into the chairs’ delightful craftsmanship.
The page is simple to navigate, with the salient product information clearly communicated; yet the experience is elegant and sophisticated.
4. Jonesy’s Cute Cross-Merchandising Section
When your customer is ready to buy your product, that is the perfect moment to upsell and drive up your average order value. Jonesy does an excellent job of cross-merchandising with thoughtful product suggestions in their “Match With…” section. Bright, vibrant images effectively capture the spirit of the brand, and the way they pair the items together allows you to easily envision the complete look. We especially love the add-to-cart functionality for a super easy impulse buy.
5. Acne’s Avante-Garde Approach
If you’ve ever been to an Acne boutique, then you’ll be familiar with their cutting-edge store concepts. In keeping with their modern vision, the imagery on their product detail pages is extra-big, extending below the screen (on all screens). This is a creative decision that makes sure they are extremely clear in communicating the design and/or pattern and is in lock-step with their avant-garde brand aesthetic.
By including a video in the tiles, Acne is able to bring some product-in-motion to the page – a little burst of energy that not only provides visitors a greater understanding of the product but is a great representation of the brand itself.
Of course, the main purpose of product detail pages is to provide prospective customers with all the information they need to seal the deal. However, as shown by these examples, brands do not need to follow a preconceived creative playbook here, there is bandwidth to explore interesting, clever, and fun approaches to showcasing the product, as well as cross-sell additional items. The key, as ever, is to ensure that whatever strategy used fits with the brand overall.
* Footer 1 – https://www.marketplacepulse.com/stats/us-ecommerce/us-e-commerce-growth-rate-55
* Footer 2 – https://www.invespcro.com/blog/e-commerce-product-videos/
