Product Pages - Why they are killing your conversions

Imagine this, your company spends millions on adverts for billboards, buses, social media, and still only gets 2-3 people out of every 100 to buy from you.

People in e-commerce have come to expect a loss of 97% of customers. The solution to getting more customers is by spending more on adverts, celebrities and influencers - tactics at the top of the funnel. The global ad spend per year is $674 billion.

There is no shortage of analytics tools to measure return on ad spend with marketing teams furiously researching likes, reposts and mentions on social media.

Yes, these tactics are key for awareness raising, building brand reputation and growing an audience.

But, sales don’t happen at the top of the funnel.

The point of sale is the product page. You’ve got them in the funnel, you’ve earned their trust and they move closer and closer to the point of sale only to think, huh? Our research into e-commerce stores online, shows us that the product page is the most overlooked and forgotten part of the customer journey.

Product information is often complex and fails to make sense, especially to those with varying reading or language skills. It creates unintended barriers for customers who value clarity and ease of understanding and is directly related to lower sales. Tigim’s own research study found that 95% of product descriptions online are too difficult for customers.

Coupled with an overreliance on images that lack meaningful descriptions, customers who need text are also blocked from buying. Scribely’s study found that less than 3% of e-commerce sites had meaningful or quality alt text.

Can you blame 97 people for leaving then?

But, these issues have solutions and can dramatically improve sales through trust and transparency.

The forgotten land of product pages

Selling online versus face-to-face

Selling online is a relatively new phenomenon while selling itself is one of the oldest recorded professions.

It differs in our approach, as well as our behaviour. Both customers and sellers behave very differently online from how we behave in a face-to-face environment.

In a face-to-face interaction, the salesperson quickly gathers information on the customer without saying a word. They can evaluate their age, style, gender, ethnicity and make informed decisions on the best way to communicate to achieve their goal - the sale. They start and realise again quickly that need to adapt and adjust their approach based on new information gathered. The customer’s non-verbal communication informed the salesperson that she couldn’t really understand all the points he was making.

So he adapted. He started again communicating in a way that would be best for this customer to build trust and achieve the goal.

The salesperson considered the needs of his audience and used the data he gathered to make the necessary changes.

Online selling is missing 100s of these data points that naturally occur in face-to-face interactions. Choosing instead to bombard people with discounts, sign-ups and games which increases people’s cognitive load rather than trying to match their needs and build trust.

It is missing the feedback loop we depend on.

But people’s online behaviours hold that key. We just have to look beyond the return on ad spend.

Side-by-side of selling face-to-face in the 1960s compared to online sales today

What customers want

The Future Shopper Report by Wunderman Thompson found that 69% (combined total) of customers value product descriptions that are accurate and easy to understand. High-quality images play an important role (32%), yet it is important to note that of the 31,000 customers surveyed, there is no mention if people with visual impairments were part of this study.

Content that influences shoppers worldwide when shopping online, 2023 (Wunderman Thomspon, presented in eMarketer)

Over 60% of sales are now happening on mobile phones. So people are often browsing to buy in the evening after work sitting on the sofa, or doing other tasks at the same time. At the end of the day, they are less willing to put effort into understanding the product benefits and how it can help them.

The result?

Abandoned carts.

In Tigim’s Interaction Intelligence study, we looked at how product descriptions impacted consumers’ cognitive load (brain effort) and their purchasing behaviour. Surprisingly, we found that the amount of brain effort needed to understand a description was directly related to the time on page and to lower sales.

People spent more time on the pages with descriptions that require brain effort to understand, but they were not buying.

Putting in effort affects all customers, not just those with dyslexia, dyspraxia, ADHD, Autism, other cognitive issues or who do not speak English as their first language (if in an English-speaking country). It can be context and situation-specific, too.

Creating effort for consumers is the danger zone. Why?

Because this is the excuse they need to now go and open other tabs and compare brands. So all that ad spend at the top of the funnel has just been wasted.

And we can say this with certainty as we worked with the company to reduce the brain effort customers needed to use, time on page decreased and sales went up.

People made positive purchasing decisions faster.

And price was not an influencing factor.

Less brain effort gives people less willingness to leave a trail of abandoned carts around the internet.

Results from Tigim’s Interaction Intelligence report, 2024, on the impact of language complexity in e-commerce product descriptions on purchasing behaviour.

Grocery will become the largest e-commerce category by 2026 taking over apparel and accessories (Insider Intelligence). But many companies do not actually provide information about the products in text, they rely solely on the image.

Grocery products online displaying information as visually impaired customers would experience.

As Scribely’s e-commerce report found, less than 3% of companies surveyed provided descriptions of images (alt text). There can be an assumption here that everyone would understand what spinach is and beetroot. However, without proper information it can be difficult to understand quantities or packaging.

This may seem simplistic, however, it extends into other foods and medicines where failure to clearly to communicate the product can image usage, as well as purchasing decisions.

Clear communication, descriptions and ease of understanding can engage customers with disabilities who are more brand loyal and less price sensitive.

The CeraVe customer journey

It costs approximately $7 million for a 30-second advert at the Superbowl, so you got to make it count.

That’s what CeraVe did bringing in Micheal Cera which was called the ‘best Super Bowl commercial in years'.

The ad was satire suggesting that the actor was the creator of the brand. The mix of humour and the character’s own popularity earned the brand over 6 billion impressions and reports suggest that sales were up for this particular moisturising cream by 18% on Amazon the following week.

Micheal Cera holding CeraVe Moisturizing Cream in the Super Bowl advert.

That all seems great, right? But there are no reports of sales of other products or repeat orders.

The advert is funny, light, easy to understand and totally engages an audience. Their target was a younger demographic and they definitely achieved that with the impressions on social media they gained.

Yet, could that have still missed out on a higher level of engagement and conversion?

Let’s see,

Product details:

• Features a 5% AHA blend of glycolic acid and lactic acid for gentle exfoliation
• Formulated with three essential ceramides (1, 3, 6-II), moisturizing hyaluronic acid, and MVE Technology
• Paraben-free
• Non-comedogenic

I have a Master’s degree in Biology and still struggle here.

The details focus on features rather than the benefits. It uses complex language that lack any engagement features to hold attention.

Of course, there is an argument for using this academic language, however, there is still an option to maintain formality, build credibility as a scientific product and still be easy to understand.

In Tigim’s work with large scientific brands, our linguistic intelligence detected formality as a positive, yet it needed to coupled with ease of understanding. The results increased sales between 64%-103% across all products and price was not a factor (see Tigim’s Interaction Intelligence Report).

So can a younger audience really understand why they need this or did they just buy it because it was a trending moment?

As much attention to detail in the product description as the advert may have helped them achieve even more.

Can AI save us?

Not alone.

Look at this...

Product page on Amazon showing automated text from a generative AI source

If you’ve been around for the last year or so, you may have noticed the rise of getting generative AI to do it. Only, as you can see from the image that without even a tiny amount of human input or intelligence would identify the errors here and not let it go live.

The problem with using generative AI for products is that it using all of the content that has already been uploaded onto the internet.

As we mentioned, Tigim’s study found that 95% of product descriptions are too difficult for people to understand or they use an inappropriate linguistic style to achieve the goal - sales.

Gen-AI creates things quickly. It doesn’t mean that it is good.

There is becoming on overreliance on speed and quantity to quality.

A Fortune 500 e-commerce company informed us that the use of gen-AI was increasing their liabilities issues. The generated content was using words like ‘the best, fastest and most powerful’ in product descriptions that the company were not able to claim, and so pulled their subscription to the large producer of content.

Without a layer of linguistic intelligence to detect language like this, it is very easy for highly liable and poor-quality content to be seen. Detracting again from the efforts and costs invested at the top of the funnel to get the customer to your site.

Tactics for engagement

Tip #1: Accessibility sells

Making information easier to understand increases sales. Sounds nonsensical really, yet it holds many objections.

Tigim's Interaction Intelligence measures the level of complexity and cognitve load certain words, phrases and sentence structures put on consumers. Using a scientific approach we found that when it is lower, sales go up.

Objections to this include a sense that your product 'has to sound formal and academic' because that is your brand voice.

The myth here is that ease of understanding and formality can't co-exist.

They can.

Tip #2: Don't lead with numbers

Although many still believe their customers don't have any issues with reading, a number of highly qualified and successful people have Dyslexia and Dyspraxia (maybe you fly on their planes or use their products).

So when we lead with numbers, it can be confusing for many. Another issue is not knowing the context which can happen to anyone.

• 27g of protein

OK, is that good or bad? What is that relative to?

• 15% of unsaturated fat

Again, what does this really mean?

How about changing the order of the sentence so those who turn away when there are too many numbers will continue to engage? Relate it to something

• A higher level of protein than a small steak (27g)
• A higher level of unsaturated fat (the good kind) than in an avocado (15%)

Tip #3: Use engagement features (even for a 'formal' brand voice)

Remember that people are likely browsing your product pages on a mobile phone at night time. They are probably tired and could have found their way there through a social media post or ad.

One thing to consider is if your tone is consistent across these touch points.

Just think about the CeraVe ad and the formal academic tone in the product description.

Yes (objectors), you can still maintain formality and use linguistic devices that hold people's attention (they are tired, remember).

So we can go from this...

• Paraben-free
• Non-comedogenic

To this...

• We have removed parabens (nasty chemicals) to support your health (paraben free)
• Does not have chemicals that clog your pores (this is called 'non-comedogenic')

In this case, yes, our sentences are longer, but with the use of engagement features personal pronouns ('we, you') we're creating a dialogue with the consumer that is more likely to hold their attention.

High directness and formality can be offputting for people as it requires a higher cognitive load.

The answer is in the balance of linguistic devices used to talk to your customers. It is important to note that customers from different cultures and cognitive abilities react differently and understanding how language impacts their decision-making is a vital part of maximising trust, engagement and business performance.