Is your Hero Product E-commerce ready?

In the vast world of e-commerce, all products appear equal on product list pages, especially if you don’t invest more in e-comm ads. This might sound like a good thing, but it’s not. In every brand’s portfolio, there is a clear product hierarchy, with each product playing its own role and communicating in its unique way. In brick-and-mortar stores, your Hero Product can get the “hero” treatment it deserves with POS designs, but in e-commerce, all it gets is the same template, the same amount of space in a small box for the image.

Not only that, in e-commerce, your Hero Product can lose its aura, and worse, it might not even be easily findable. Statistics tell us that around 50% of potential sales are lost because visitors can’t find what they are looking for. If you add the fact that 70% of users don’t look past the first page, and you haven’t ensured your Hero Product is on the first page, there is a real possibility that your product goes from hero to zero. 

However, with the right testing framework and adjustments made as a result of recommendations provided by testing, you can give your Hero Product the diva treatment it deserves. 

Step 1: Don't let your Hero product get lost in the vast e-commerce landscape 

In today's competitive e-commerce landscape, ensuring your Hero Product stands out is crucial. The primary business needs revolve around the product’s findability and appeal, or in other words a product must be seen and liked to be bought. Key questions include: Is the Hero Product easily discoverable on the website, and how much time do shoppers need to locate it? Additionally, does it stand out on the Product Listing Page (PLP), and what elements make it compelling on the Product Detail Page (PDP)? 

To solve these challenges, it's essential to understand the effort shoppers invest in finding the Hero Product and the trade-offs they make if they can't find it. Analyzing the product's visibility and purchase-ability within the competitive environment of a retailer's list is also crucial. 

Finally, pinpointing the key areas of the Hero Product's PDP that require investment is vital to securing high conversion rates. By addressing these aspects, businesses can enhance their Hero Product’s shopping experience and drive greater success. 

Step 2: Do you keep track of the right things? 

These KPIs should encompass various aspects of shopper behavior and interaction with your website.

Monitoring filter usage and the purchase touchpoints where transactions occur reveals how shoppers narrow down options and finalize purchases. Assessing conversion rates from specific browsing starting points, identifying key bottlenecks, and evaluating brand visibility and consideration on product lists are also vital. Additionally, analyzing the impact of product positioning on visibility and consideration, as well as key conversion drivers on product lists and detail pages, helps optimize the shopping journey.  

By evaluating the overall browsing experience and the importance of various product list and detail page elements, you can pinpoint areas for improvement and ensure your Hero Product stands out. 

Step 3: Are you looking at the problem holistically? 

EyeSee's solution offers a comprehensive approach, using a mix of live website and static page analysis, hero sku tracking, eye tracking, interaction tracking and surveys. This mixed-method approach helps pinpoint key areas of your Hero Product's performance that require investment to secure high conversion rates, ensuring thorough coverage across both desktop and mobile versions of the retailer's website. 

However, this is just one of four modules from a larger testing framework called Ecommerce Shopper Insights, which on one hand goes deeper into portraying your category online shopper, resulting in a customer profile, and on the other hand, can provide even more detailed and narrower insights about Ecommerce Category Experience and Online Pack Testing, allowing you to test your hypotheses in context. 

In Conclusion 

In the competitive world of e-commerce, making your Hero Product stand out is essential. Unlike in physical stores, e-commerce platforms resemble constantly transforming mazes that can easily confuse shoppers, leaving them feeling desperate to exit, even if it means abandoning their purchase and clicking the close window button. 

To address this challenge effectively, consider implementing a comprehensive testing framework tailored to assess your product's findability and appeal on both the Product Listing Page (PLP) and Product Detail Page (PDP). Here's how: 

• Utilize a robust set of KPIs to monitor shopper behavior and pinpoint potential bottlenecks. 
• Employ a mixed-method approach incorporating Hero SKU navigation, eye tracking, interaction tracking, and surveys. 
• But first and foremost - ensure your Hero Product receives the visibility it deserves, leading to increased conversions and overall success.  

After all, Heroes must shine regardless of their environment. 

Eager for more knowledge about e-commerce success? Find out How to navigate e-commerce shopper behavior.