In the wild world of ecommerce, Product Listing Pages (PLPs) are the unsung heroes of digital storefronts, capable of major heavy lifting, and entirely deserving of the focus and attention given in our recent Design Lab: PLP Workshop.
Think of your shoppers as readers, your brand's digital experience as a novel, and that very last page turn as a purchase. You may liken your PLPs to a table of contents, but what if they actually functioned as that plus a bypass to the back of the book without robbing readers of your colorful characters, plot twists, oohs and aahs, and loving your story (so much they recommend it to their friends)? That’s the power of an optimized PLP.
Now, we’re not diminishing the importance of Product Detail Pages (PDPs), but we are absolutely saying that there is some competition when it comes to the MVP of conversion-driving pages on your digital storefront. Let the games begin...
Let’s talk essential elements. Afterall, your PLPs do bear the responsibility of being functional, so here’s our take on PLP necessities:
A quick summary of PLP must-haves from our recent Design Lab: PLP Workshop
Grainy, low-res photos? We think not. Regardless of what types of photos you’re using, show your products in their best light – figuratively and literally.
Make your PLPs work like a personal shopper. They should dynamically adapt to site visitors based on custom parameters such as traffic source, best sellers, special offers, buying history, etc.
It should be a no-brainer to show your customers what they can (truly) get their hands on. If a product isn’t available, be strategic about how you handle out-of-stock (or low inventory) items. More on this below!
Shorten the path to purchase with experiences (think shoppable images and quickviews) that make it all too easy for your shoppers to scoop up an item with as few clicks as possible.
Remember that not all of your traffic is casually browsing; some shoppers are there with clear direction. So, enable those users to control their shopping experience with functionality like filtering and sorting (think price, category, popularity, etc.). See how this women's fashion brand caters to those shopping with a purpose:
A peek at Natori's no-brainer filtering and sorting functionality
With these fundamental elements in check, you’ve got the building blocks for solid PLP. Now, let's talk about how to make your PLPs function like a well-oiled, revenue-driving machine...
You've got to go beyond the basics to take your PLPs from “meh” to “wow”. Here’s how to optimize them for peak engagement and conversion power:
Slow-loading pages are like inviting customers in and then slamming the door in their face. It’s the fastest way to divert traffic and hemorrhage potential customers. This vlog will get you up to speed on the causes and effects of site performance (plus how to drastically improve it).
With the majority of shoppers scrolling on their phones, your PLPs need to be mobile-first. Think big buttons, easy-to-use filters, and layouts that scale down perfectly.
If your customers need a map to find or purchase your products, you’re doing something (very) wrong. Take time for customer journey mapping and implement crystal clear calls-to-action, create short cuts to your checkout page, and facilitate shopping with as few clicks as possible.
Constantly tweak and test different layouts, CTA placements, and design elements to see what clicks (pun intended). Data is your friend. If you need experimentation inspo, eavesdrop on our chat with UrbanStems' Content Director to hear about their team's enviable testing strategy and impactful findings.
Not only is it the right thing to do, but making your site accessible to all users opens the door to a broader audience and shuts the door on accessibility-related lawsuits. And good news: ADA and WCAG adherence can be achieved without a headache and with only a moment’s time; watch this.
Overloading customers with a wall of text is a surefire way to send them running. Use your PLPs to show off your goods, convey your brand in a way that speaks to your shoppers, and grasps their attention. While there are still strategic ways to include details like product variations, pricing, or reviews, save the deeper-diving text for your PDPs or quickviews.
Get the most out of every visitor by implementing tactics that increase your Average Order Size (AOS) and Average Order Value (AOV). Experiences such as countdown timers or low inventory warnings create a sense of shopping urgency and smart product recommendations are an ideal way to present related products or frequently bought-together items to your shoppers.
There’s nothing worse than selling your shoppers on a product that you can't actually sell to them. Don’t be a tease! There are a variety of ways to handle out-of-stock items, but two popular ones are suggesting similar products to keep the shopping journey going or giving shoppers the option to be notified when the item is back in stock.
How to handle low or out-of-stock products from the recent Design Lab: PLP Workshop
Bare essentials + best practices = high functionality. But FYI, we don’t pick sides in the battle of style versus function. We proudly stand for and empower brands with the best of both. So keep reading – style amplifying design coming in hot...
Perfectly aligned tiles? Wonderful for your bathroom reno. Precise columns and rows? Love that for data-saturated spreadsheets. But for your PLPs? Yawn. Hear this: your storefront pages can still be functional for product organization and display while also boasting a little life, a lot of conversion potential, and an absolute ton of style...
Interrupters are design elements that, in short, break up the traditional grid on ecommerce PLPs and refocus the attention of shoppers (yup, even those who've fallen into doom-scrolling). There are so many ways to implement them and so many benefits to reap...
What are interrupters? What do they do? How can brands use them?
Brand Reinforcement: Use interrupters to create a cohesive brand vision across all of your sites, pages, ads, and social pages.
Special Promotions: An announcement in your hero banner can be easily scrolled past, but will get the attention it needs as an interrupter.
Featured or New Products: Highlight new items in an interrupter format so they don't get lost in the product grid.
Product Knowledge: Let your PLPs do some of the PDP heavy lifting by using interrupters to convey must-know product info like features or ingredients.
AOV-Driver: Images showing how your products work together (think full outfits for fashion brands or full room interiors for furniture brands) will entice a shopper to load up their cart
Email Capture: An interrupter is a great place to encourage shoppers to sign up for newsletters, updates, or offers.
Social Proof: Break up your grid and back up your awesome products with customer examples, testimonials, or reviews.
Quizzes: Pop a quiz (think gift guides, style quizzes, etc.) into your interrupter to act as a personal shopper that beelines shoppers to the products they're looking for.
Style or functionality? These brands have achieved both. They’re shredding the “table of contents” mentality and stitching together PLPs that are organized, engaging, intuitive, story-telling, and opening the door to on-the-spot purchases.
In our recent Design Lab: PLP Workshop, we dove into examples from a variety of brands ditching the dusty, old PLP playbook and rewriting effective page design as we know it. Here are just a few of them:
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NATORI
Natori’s PLPs use interrupters to inspire seasonal head-to-toe fashion with gorgeous lifestyle imagery. We're also giving bonus point for their use of shoppable images – hotspots placed over their interrupters, make for a seamless shopping journey. And that video carousel at the bottom of the page? Chef's kiss.
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REVELRY
This PLP includes can't-miss interrupters and swaps out their product grid with carousels. Their clever use of filtering tactics? Instead of the traditional dropdown menu, they use imagery to give shoppers a preview alongside clear CTAs and navigation buttons to continue to shop a product category.
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FSA STORE
Specializing in health and wellness products, FSA Store uses data-driven content to ensure their PLPs are hyper-relevant to every shopper. They employ best-in-class PLP elements and tactics like personalization, innovative filtering options, urgency-driving countdown timers, and quickviews.
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R.M.WILLIAMS
This is the epitome of interrupter inspiration. This brand breaks up the traditional PLP grid with big, beautiful lifestyle images, but with a brilliant, yet subtle strategy: the grid tiles next to the interrupter images are populated with the products shown on the model – merchandising magic that provides outfit inspo and drives AOV.
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Check out more stunning examples from leading ecommerce brands and see what’s possible when you rethink your PLP game.
Want to drive your shoppers to the purchase finish line as quickly and seamlessly as possible? A stale table of contents framing what you merely hope they'll find in yet-to-explore pages just won't cut it. It's time to optimize your PLPs to envelope shoppers in your site, brand story, and products, fast-track their path to purchase, and provide an unmatched, engaging online shopping experience.
...And this isn’t a nice-to-have. We’re not talking about frills. Optimized site-wide experiences are a need-to-have if driving revenue with unparalleled speed, ease, and design is a priority for your brand.
The real kicker? Achieving gorgeous storefront pages that convert doesn’t have to be a months-long undertaking to pile onto the plates of your developers.
All of the essential elements, best practices, and even the examples shown above are made possible by and created with Fastr Frontend – an ecommerce platform enabling teams to design, build, deploy, and manage every facet of their digital storefront without a line of code or a developer in sight.
If you have the creative vision and the will, we have the powerhouse platform and the way.