Great product design and packaging are essential. Whether you are in a grocery store shopping for coffee or online browsing leather gloves, how a business presents its product will leave a distinct impression. The choice of font on the label can denote cheapness or luxury, while simply changing the shape of a bottle can increase sales.
In an ecommerce environment, how you craft your product listing is even more crucial than it is for an in-person shopping experience. Let’s discuss product listings, how to create them on the most popular platforms (Spotify, Facebook, and Amazon), and most importantly, the best strategies to use when crafting a product listing on your online storefront (make sure to check out #3).
What is a Product Listing?
The product listing page (PLP) shows a list of products that relate to what a customer has searched for, either on an ecommerce website’s search engine or by clicking the link for a product category.
While this might seem like an afterthought as you post individual products for sale, the PLP is actually a crucial part of the ecommerce experience. From here, customers can visit product detail pages, bringing them one step closer to making a purchase and driving conversion. The PLP is also chock-full of metadata that can drive site traffic and improve SEO.
Components of a product listing page
A great product listing page should include:
| ELEMENT | DESCRIPTION |
| Price | List the price (or range of prices) of the item, as well as any applicable discounts. |
| Customer reviews | Share applicable social capital, including star ratings and written reviews from customers. |
| Purchase options | Can customers buy this item by itself, or will they get a better price in a bundle? Can they pay in installments with a service like Afterpay or Klarna? |
| Images and videos | Invest in high-quality images and videos that show your product in a great light from all angles. |
| A thorough description | You don’t need to write a novel, but you should clearly define what the product does and its key features and benefits. |
| Common questions and answers about the product | When you think of the product from a customer’s perspective, what questions or barriers would they have (i.e. cost, science behind the benefits of your product) before purchasing? Make sure to address those on the individual PLP. |
Since an online shopper does not have the luxury to ask an employee in a store about a specific item, it’s imperative to include all the particular features, shipping options, technical details and customer reviews. That way your online visitor will have all the information they need to make a purchase.
What is a Product Listing in Ecommerce?
An ecommerce product listing is any product available to purchase electronically online. Most product listings in a retail ecommerce environment are either Business to Consumer (B2C) or Consumer to Consumer (C2C). Any business that lists their products on their online storefront is usually targeting a specific audience to purchase. However, consumers can also create product listings for their possessions on sites such as eBay or Facebook Marketplace.
Examples of ecommerce product listings include:
- Retail: A business selling a product to a consumer.
- Wholesale: A company selling products in bulk to a retailer for them to sell to clientele.
- Subscription: Products or services sold automatically on a recurring schedule to paid subscribers.
- Digital Products: Digital goods, such as online courses or software, sold to consumers.
- Dropshipping: Products purchased on an online storefront shipped from a third-party location directly to the consumer.
What is a Product Detail Page (PDP)?
A Product Detail Page (PDP) is an online webpage that tells the consumer all the specific information about a product that they’d want to know before making a purchase, such as ingredients, materials and sizes. You’ll want to provide as much information as possible about the product for your consumers.
Visitors may hesitate to purchase if a product page is brief and lacks rich detail about the product they want to purchase. Including more information on your page will also help entice your visitors to buy. For instance, if your item is a cotton shirt, specify where the cotton was sourced and emphasize any market advantage, such as added softness.
What is a PDP in ecommerce?
The PDP marks a crucial moment in the customer journey where a potential sale could occur. Details should be provided in an intuitive order so that your customers can quickly discern whether they are interested in completing the purchase.
| TYPES OF INFORMATION THAT A PDP MIGHT PROVIDE | WHAT IT MIGHT LOOK LIKE |
| Price/Special Offers | “Was $20, now $17.99!” vs. “$20” |
| Color | “Ripe Peach” vs. “Orange” |
| Material | “ComfortLuxe” vs. “Spandex” |
| Shipping information | “Free shipping!” vs. “Shipping calculated at checkout” |
| Reviews | “Customers who bought [previous item this customer has purchased]” vs. Lack of social proof |
What is a Product Listing Ad?
Product listing ads are Google shopping ads that appear based on keyword-queries specified by a business. Typical Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads appear at the top of search and feature a clickable link, URL, description and possible reviews or additional links. However, product listing ads include an image of the product, clickable link and price.
Product listing ads example
If a business is trying to promote a product using Google Ads, they can bid on various keyword searches that align with the buyer’s intent. For instance, a premium belt manufacturer may bid on a keyword search such as “alligator belt.” The keyword price is determined by the search volume, competition and often has an average Cost-Per-Click (CPC) in Google AdWords.
Businesses must evaluate their Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) and conversion rate for each keyword they decide to bid on. For example, if their alligator belt costs $500, the CPC for an ad placement is $5, and they sell 50 belts per 1000 visits, their conversion rate would be 5.0, and their ROAS would be 500%.
A good vs. bad conversion rate and ROAS are contingent on the product or service cost compared to ad costs. In this example, the ROAS is astounding because the business makes $25,000 (50 belts X $500/unit) for every $5,000 ($5 CPC X 1000 visits) spent on ads for a 500% return on ad spend. Easily calculate ROAS and conversion rate using the formula below:
ROAS Calculator: Revenue from Ads/Cost of Ads X 100 ($25,000/5,000 X 100= 500% Return on Ad Spend)
Conversion Rate Calculator: Number of Conversions/Number of Visits X 100 (50/1,000 x100= 5.0)
How to List a Product Online
Check out our quick guide on posting a product listing online for various platforms, including Amazon, Shopify and Facebook.
Amazon
Before you list a product on Amazon, make sure you have the following information on your product:
- Universal Product Code (UPC)
- Measurements and weight of your product
- High-quality images of your product
Once you have collected the information on your product, follow the steps below:
- Login to your Seller Central account and navigate to the “Add a Product” section in the dropdown menu.
- Choose from the following options to add a product:
-
- Enter your product name or ID in the search bar.
- If your product is not sold on Amazon, click on “Create a New Product Listing.”
- For batch uploads, click on the “Bulk Upload” option.
- Select a primary category for your item and include subcategories if applicable.
- Navigate to the “Advanced View” and enter information on your product, including images, description, keywords and offer.
Shopify
To add a new product to your Shopify account, review the following steps:
- Log in to your Shopify admin account and navigate to “Products > All Products.”
- Click on “Add Product” on the Products page.
- Create your product listing with a title, description, price, weight and other pertinent information.
- Click “Save.”
To add a Shop section to your Facebook page to create a product listing, follow the steps below:
- Navigate to your Facebook page and click the “Add Shop Section” link below your Facebook cover photo.
- Agree to the merchant terms and policies.
- Connect your Stripe account or set up a Stripe account by entering your business email address, payment options and business address.
- Choose a call to action prompt for your visitors to select from your Facebook page to take them to your Shop section.
- Include a description of what you sell with 200 characters or less.
- Go to your Shop section and select “Add Products.”
- Follow the prompts to enter information on your product, including name, price, description, product category and shipping method and click “Save.”
The 4 Best Product Listing Strategies to Boost Sales
Now for the fun part. Suppose you are selling a product online, invest in an advertising budget and want to make a profit. In that case, it’s essential to integrate the following strategies to increase conversion rates and create a well-oiled money-making machine.
1. Keyword Research, Thorough Descriptions, and Making Your Product a Star
Keyword research is pivotal to creating a successful product listing that your audience will actually find. If you choose keywords in your title and description that do not have a confirmed search volume, your product will never appear in search engines for your target audience because it does not match their search intent.
First, identify the root keyword based on the product you are selling. In our previous example, the root keyword for “alligator belt” would simply be “alligator belt.” Using a tool like Semrush, we can perform keyword research to identify the best way to title our product based on reliable metrics. The different metrics to review for a keyword include:
- Volume: The average number of monthly searches for a given keyword over 12 months.
- Trend: The interest of searchers in a given keyword during 12 months.
- Keyword Density (KD): The keyword difficulty index (from 1 to 100%) shows you how difficult it would be to outrank your competitors in the Google organic top 20 for a given keyword. The higher the percentage, the harder it will be to achieve high rankings for each targeted keyword.
- Cost-Per-Click (CPC): Average price in USD advertisers pay for a user’s click on an ad triggered by a given keyword (Google Ads).
- Competitive Density: The level of competition between advertisers bidding on a given keyword within their PPC campaigns. Competitive density is shown on a scale from 0 to 1.00, with 1.00 being the most difficult to rank for.
Additionally, leveraging Amazon SEO techniques can further enhance your product’s visibility on e-commerce platforms, ensuring that your listings are not only found but also clicked on by potential customers.
Ideally, you want to select long-tail keywords for your product with low CPC and competitive density but have a high monthly search volume. In this scenario, the competition is exceptionally high for most of our top keywords. However, we can utilize descriptive, long-tail keywords with lower competition and increase our chance to rank.
For instance, instead of titling our product “Alligator Belt,” we could title it “Exotic Louisiana Hornback Alligator Belt with Silver Belt Buckle.” By including multiple adjectives from other keywords in our list, we have a greater chance of searching for our root keyword while differentiating our product from other alligator belts in the market. Plus, including the silver belt buckle is another unique selling point that can differentiate us from the competition and entice our viewers to click.
Make sure to include your target keywords in your URL (the shorter, the better) and image alt tags. Also, draft a captivating meta and product description that focuses on the benefits, utilizes emotional language and makes your product a star. You aren’t selling a product. You are selling an experience. Act as if you just had the best meal of your life and you are talking to your friend about it. You aren’t necessarily selling them on the food. Instead, you are passionately describing your positive experience. Help them visualize what it was like, and they will feel driven to go.
Optimize your product titles to increase click-through rate and consider the following:
- Add emotional and powerful words to your title tags. Titles with a higher emotional score get more social shares and have a higher CTR. Examples include: insane, effective, case study, fast, proven, best, definitive guide, scientifically, instant, free, new, exclusive, hurry, secret, discover, increase.
- Use brackets in your titles. A study conducted by Hubspot found that titles with brackets perform 33% better than titles without them.
- Investigate paid aids for your keyword searches and emulate their recurring words and phrases. Businesses spend thousands on daily ads. Capitalize on their investment.
2. Include Multiple Videos and Images
Video is becoming the most dominant and vital form of media in digital marketing. Video is the #1 form of content to sell products and services. The power of video cannot be understated. 96% of consumers find videos helpful when purchasing something online, and 73% of U.S. adults are more likely to make a purchase after watching a product or service video.
Visitors are also expecting videos and images when they shop online. A Salsify 2019 survey found that US digital shoppers expect an average of about six pictures and three videos when shopping online. Since customers don’t have the luxury to read a box or touch your product in person, it’s crucial to include high-resolution images and videos highlighting the benefits of the product and explaining how it works.
Lead with the benefits of the product and explain how it is the most effective on the market. Include simple, instructional images for visitors to quickly digest how your product works, and its market superiority. PetSafe ScoopFree Automatic Self Cleaning Litterbox perfectly showcases how it should be done.
A cat owner may be ready to spend the extra cash for a self-cleaning litter box but may feel intimidated by how it works. The product listing perfectly features quick explanations in their images of how the product works, the benefits and its market superiority:
Make sure to invest in high-quality images for your product that quickly summarizes your product’s unique selling points, benefits and instructions. Also, don’t forget a great product video demonstrating your product in action.
3. Incentivize Product Reviews
Product reviews are absolutely essential to build trust with your audience and lower their action threshold. A person may like a product, but it automatically warrants suspicion if they are unfamiliar with the brand. However, suppose they see that the product has an average rating of four and a half stars with over a hundred reviews. In that case, they can trust your brand based on other customers’ consensus, which validates that it is a superior product.
Check out this Google My Business listing for an Atlanta auto shop. People spend thousands on car repairs every year, so they are cautious when selecting a car shop. They want to make sure they get excellent service at fair prices, but unfortunately, you never know the quote until you take the car in for an inspection. However, all the sales copy in the world won’t match the benefits of having a near-perfect Google rating:
The listing quickly tells a potential customer that 287 people had a near-perfect experience at the auto shop. If you are looking for a new auto shop, you can feel confident that you will have a 5-star experience. Reviews are the fastest way to build rapport and trust with a cold audience.
Reviews expose a product or service for good or for bad. Ad icon Bill Bernbach once said, “A great ad campaign will make a bad product fail faster. It will get more people to know it’s bad.”
If you sell a product, reviews are essential and some simple testimonials can do wonders to build a relationship with a potential client. If someone is searching for a service, merely posting a positive quote from a former client with a picture on their website can instantly help validate your business and elevate the brand.
After you publish your Amazon listing and get some sales, you have an opportunity to make your product page even better. Check out your customer reviews to see what people are saying. If there is a specific feature that keeps getting mentioned, you might want to consider altering some of the text on your page to highlight it. Auditing your product reviews is an excellent way to include new unique selling points to attract and convert new visitors. It’s free market research!
4. Urgency and Scarcity
Great marketing has to use GREAT sales tactics to increase conversions. Great sales incorporate three crucial elements: urgency, scarcity and straight-line to build rapport. You need to create a ticking-clock for your product and give it the illusion that what you have to offer will not be around for long.
If you present a product with an open-ended, I-can-buy-this-whenever-I-feel-like-it price, guess what? They won’t have any urgency to purchase the product. Adding variability to your prices is a great way to help entice your customers to buy once they land on your page. Check out other ecommerce retail pricing strategies and methods to reduce your ecommerce return rate.
In the immortal words of the great David Foster Wallace, “It did what all ads are supposed to do: create an anxiety relievable by purchase.” You have to be on the move with your products, and when you are in the face of your customer, you better convince them you are moving soon, and if they don’t buy NOW, yes NOW, then the train has sailed, and they missed their chance. It’s a rush.
No brand embodies great sales tactics and branding better than Supreme. They have a trendy and attractive brand built by real scarcity and urgency. They release in minimal quantities at precise times, and if you miss the window to buy, you won’t get your supreme hoodie, lifevest, headband, or shovel. They slap that Supreme logo on anything and sell it at outrageous prices, but every time they sell, they sell out.
The creator of the brand, James Jebbia, said that anything that Supreme releases will never have a “limited” classification but notes that they make short runs of their products because they “don’t want to get stuck with stuff nobody wants.” Although they have powerful branding because celebrities and influencers flash their items, the true power in their branding is the ability to elicit emotion to create desire or curiosity. Elicit is to draw something into existence. Determine how you differentiate your product from the competition and package it to make your customers feel exclusive.
They are already on the search for your products, so give them a reason to buy today.
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- Part One: Evolving State of Ecommerce
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- How to Choose an Enterprise Ecommerce Platform
- How to Scale an Ecommerce Business Business After Budget Cuts
- How CaaS Amplifies and Improves an Ecommerce Business
- Enterprise Ecommerce Replatforming Costs
E-commerce product listing page FAQ
How do you write a product listing?
To write an effective product listing, start by understanding your target audience and their needs. Conduct keyword research to ensure visibility in search results. Create a compelling and detailed product description that highlights both benefits and features, using storytelling to engage customers. Structure the content for easy readability, employing bullet points for clarity. Optimize your listing with strategic keywords for SEO and include high-quality images and videos to enhance visual appeal. Remember to make your product title clear and incorporate keywords that potential customers are likely to search for.
What does a product listing ad look like?
A product listing ad typically features a clear, high-quality image of the product, a concise title, the price, and sometimes, promotional details or customer ratings. It should be visually appealing and provide essential information at a glance to attract clicks from potential buyers. These ads appear in search engine results or on ecommerce platforms, displayed based on relevance to the user’s search queries.
What are the components of a product listing page?
A product listing page includes several critical components: detailed descriptions, pricing information, high-quality images, and customer reviews. It should also list any unique selling points, such as eco-friendliness or technological innovations. Effective product listing pages use bullet points for easy reading, integrate SEO-friendly metadata, and provide clear calls-to-action (CTAs) like “Add to Cart” or “Buy Now.”
How important is a product listing?
A product listing is crucial in ecommerce as it serves as the main tool for conversion. It not only needs to attract customers through SEO and the use of compelling images but also convert them with persuasive and informative content. A well-crafted product listing enhances the user experience, improves sales conversions, and can significantly impact the overall success of an ecommerce business by effectively communicating the value of the products to potential buyers.
How do I add a product to an ecommerce website?
To add a product to an ecommerce website, start by gathering all necessary information about the product, including descriptions, specifications, images, and pricing. Access the product management section of your ecommerce platform, such as Shopify or Amazon, and choose the option to create a new product listing. Fill in the required fields, upload images, and set pricing and shipping details. Review all information for accuracy before publishing the product to ensure it appears correctly on the site and is optimized for search engines.
