Increase online orders: breaking down Amazon’s Product Page Tactics

This long page has a lot of elements that increase the odds of someone adding the product to the shopping cart. Now, you might think “There are a lot of elements, we don’t have the capacity or developers to add all those”. And that’s fine. It’s best to just first learn from the different elements that Amazon uses to sell more. To understand why they do it and how it increases the conversion.

And through understanding that, you will get a better insight into what you can do on your own product pages to provide similar tactics to your own users. Let’s look at the individual elements on the page now.

The most interesting element on Amazon’s product pages

If you listen to many different conversion optimizer in the online retail world, they will tell you one extremely important thing: “Make adding to the shopping cart the most obvious thing on the entire page!”

Now let’s look at Amazon’s product page. Do you know where the ‘Add to shopping cart’ button is? It’s the (quite small) yellow button on the right side. It doesn’t float along when you scroll down. It doesn’t have huge arrows around it. It doesn’t have a huge font screaming “ADD ME TO YOUR CART”. Rather, it’s one of the smallest elements on the entire page.

And there’s a big reason for that. Selling a product isn’t about having people add it to the shopping cart. It’s about WHY you should buy the product.

Let’s say you to go a Tesla dealership. One of the best qualities of the Tesla dealership is that the sales people aren’t screaming all the advantages at you (they don’t get paid with commission). Rather, the sales people outline all the advantages and disadvantages of the product. They allow you to think about why this is a good match for you. They don’t just slowly lure you towards the desk to buy the car. Instead, they make sure you understand everything about the product.

Instead of forcing people to buy your product, you need to make sure it is the right product for them first. If you don’t do that, and force people to buy something without any good reasoning, you are setting yourself up for more returns. Amazon doesn’t design their entire page to lead you to the ‘add to cart’ button. They design their entire page to sell a product. And once you’re ready to buy, you can easily add it to your cart with the small yellow button on the right side of the page.

Many online retailers put the ‘add to cart’ button everywhere on the page. They copy the element multiple times and make sure visitors see it. If people really want the product, they will find the ‘add to cart’ button. First, sell the product itself. And we will cover how Amazon does that below.

So Why is the Why so important?

Our brains are designed to relate to stories. If we feel like we are drawn into a story, we can visualize how something is going to change us or is a perfect fit for us. Let’s pick hammocks for a second. Which story do you think is more likely to sell a hammock to a visitor to the product page?

This hammock is 8 feet long and comes with two lines. It’s made out of cotton and polyester. You can order the hammock in a few different colors, like red or yellow. We give you a warranty of 3 years when you purchase this hammock. The delivery of your hammock is free if you order today.

Now, let’s rewrite it a bit:

Relax in your backyard like you’d relax on a perfect Hawaiian beach; grab your coconut and a straw and experience the warm sunny days as if you’re hearing the waves in the background. This hammock is made of two strong materials, cotton and polyester, allowing you to lay down in the most relaxing way. We give you a 3 year warranty on the material, that’s how confident we are of our products. Match it with your favorite swimsuit and order it in colors like red or yellow. You can easily assemble the hammock on a tree or pole with the 2 strong lines. Afraid your legs might stick out? With a length of 8 feet, this hammock is the perfect fit for any length. Order today and we’ll make sure you’re relaxing tomorrow.

Can you spot the difference? Besides the fact that the second description obviously is a bit longer, it also tells a story. It tells you how you can use the product, what the benefits are. You can imagine yourself laying in the hammock in your backyard, sipping some coconut milk through a straw while enjoying the sun. It shapes the situation, allowing readers to realize how this product is going to change the way they are experiencing a hot sunny day. It’s important to give your readers a good vision on how to use the product. What kind of benefits it has. Why it’s a product that they need to have.

Availability of the product (stock)

So, most e-commerce stores already show their stock yet some of them do not. And it’s important to at least show people that your product is in stock (even when it’s obvious). Today, consumers are so used to seeing this one the page, it’s better to show it’s in stock even though all your products are in stock all the time.

Amazon uses different ways of showing a product is in stock. They either show the ‘In Stock‘ line, the ‘Only 17 left‘ line or the ‘Out of stock‘ line. Make sure you communicate well with your customers about the number of products you still have left, as it will help them decide to buy a product or not.

Product arrival

Amazon adds an arrival element to their product pages, telling you exactly when the product will be delivered to the front door. This helps consumers decide whether they should buy it at Amazon or at a competitor. In this version of the page, it’s going to take a while for the product to arrive in The Netherlands since it’s shipping from the United States. But at the German Amazon version, it will show me that the product is going to arrive tomorrow thanks to my Prime subscription.

Using social proof to sell more products

One of the best findings from Amazon has been that people buy products that are recommended by others. See, consumers are looking for reasons to buy a product.  Especially when you’re selling products they’re not entirely familiar with, they need a reason to buy the product. Only a small percentage of the visitors will actually instantly buy the product (these are usually the people that have bought something on the website before). But even those people need some form of social proof to buy the product.

Amazon has a ton of elements on the product page that show the social proof of a product.

The essential review scores

One of the first elements on the product page is the review score and a link to the reviews people have written for this product. See the screenshot below.

The reviews are listed right underneath the product title and author. Since social proof is essential for consumers, it’s important to show the review score high up on the page.  If people see that others have liked this product, they are more likely to buy it. But, once you look at the reviews, something really interesting happens.

The importance of pros and cons

Rather than just showing all the beautiful reviews people have written for a product, Amazon takes a different step.

See, it’s easy to think that just showing a high amount of perfect reviews is going to make people love your stuff and they will buy it. But by doing this, it makes it look like everybody is happy with this product. And once somebody buys this product and they’re not happy with it, you have a problem.

They are more likely to return the product, leaving you with extra costs. Not just that, you are more likely to lose a customer that might return to your website in the future because they weren’t satisfied with their order. By showing both positive and negative reviews, Amazon gives a better overview of the product’s pros and cons. This will make sure that only people that find it a good fit for them will order the product, reducing the number of returns.

You might make some short-term money this way, but in the end, you will lose a lot more money in the long term. People are more likely to share a negative experience than a positive experience. Selling a product to someone who doesn’t think it’s a great fit afterward will not only damage the product’s and manufacturer’s reputation, it will also harm your own brand. By showing visitors both positive and negative reviews, they are much more likely to buy the products that are truly a good fit for them.

This saves money on the short-term (fewer returns, less time spent on customer service) and increases money in the long term (better reputation, higher odds of customers returning to your online store). And it’s a major way to build trust with your visitors, which Amazon is great at doing.  As you can see, almost 25% of the entire product page is dedicated to these reviews.

How to get better product reviews

This is also why it’s extremely important to ask customers to leave a review on the product they have bought.

You can set up something that sends them an email a few days after or maybe even a month after their purchase, based on when you think people have used the product. When people buy a book, it wouldn’t make sense to ask them to review it the day after they received it. They’re more likely going to need a few days or weeks to finish the book. When someone buys a body supplement, it’s more likely they will notice changes after 30 or 60 days rather than the day they received the product. Clothes, on the other hand, are usually worn within a day or three after someone bought them.

But to get a really good product review, you need to wait a while to get long-term reviews like ‘The material is fantastic. It feels good and after 3 months I still don’t see any damage’. You can’t always ask for immediate product reviews. It’s usually better to ask them for reviews a few days or weeks after they ordered.

Want to use the best product review plug-in for your e-commerce platform? Google the name of your software along with “product review plug-in”. To help you along the way, we’ve already collected some of the best plug-ins.

Magento: Detailed Product Review

WooCommerce: WooCommerce Product Reviews Pro

Shopify: Product Reviews Addon

Lightspeed: Trusted Shops Product Reviews

 

Pointing to other products

This social proof doesn’t just end with the reviews.

As stated in the intro of this article, research by McKinsey has reported that 35% of Amazon’s revenue comes from recommending products. This is one of the reasons Amazon manages to get 3.5 orders per month from their Prime users (or 2 orders per month from their regular users) with an average of $1300 per year spent by their Prime users and $1000 per year spent by their regular users.

Social proof is very important for Amazon, as it gives them a great way to sell more products to their visitors.

There are two more elements that use social proof:

These two elements help potential buyers to see if there are other products that match their own interest. If you’re going to order the original product because you believe it seems like a great fit, then products that similar people have bought could also be a great fit.

First, this helps visitors find additional products that they may want to purchase. Second, this allows Amazon to increase the average order size and revenue per order. It’s a great way to make sure that you get the most out of visitors.

But again, the products that are listed here have to be completely related to the product that the visitor is initially planning on buying. By showing the similar product matches, you can also increase the odds of a visitor ordering a product. If they’ve already added the original product to the cart and then add another product, odds are they are less likely to do a price check on other websites (because it takes more effort). Along with that, they are also more likely to order the whole cart since there’s at least one product in there that they really want.

Further down on this page, Amazon even adds another element to improve the possibilities of visitors adding additional products to their cart:

And once you add the product to the cart, Amazon again shows you three more elements to order additional products. By adding so many different elements, it gets increasingly easier for Amazon to at least sell one extra product. And once a visitor buys one extra product, they are more likely to buy another as well.  It’s like selling Mars bars at the gas station checkout: these extra sales are going to help you increase the average order value and also improve the odds that visitors will add more items to their cart.

This is why most conversion optimization tactics are wrong

You shouldn’t focus on getting the call to action button in sight of your visitors to scream at that them that they should buy. You should give them as much information as you can before they finalize their purchase.

Amazon gives the visitor a lot of information regarding the product. Let’s first look at the product description. It’s a very easy-to-find element on the product page.

Rather than hiding the product page behind an extra button or just showing 2 lines and a ‘read more’ link, Amazon shows almost all of the content that is written for this product. This helps visitors to read the description immediately, to figure out whether it’s a good fit for them.

The product description is your product page element to really sell the product:

• What is this product about?
• Who will find this product a good fit?
• Why is this product a good fit?

By answering questions like this in the product description, you are much more likely to sell to visitors that are engaged with this product. That will see that this product is a solution to a problem that they may encounter. Amazon does a great job at this and doesn’t stop there yet.

Author information

If you scroll down on the page, you will also see an author description.  This is a description that is shown on every product page related to this author. Even if you’re not selling books, this is a great way to sell to your visitors.

Let’s say your products are made by a specific manufacturer. Maybe you’re selling tea leaves that were dried by Monks in the Himalaya’s using the sun heat between noon and 3 PM.  In that case, it’s important to tell the story of the manufacturer on the page as well. By telling the manufacturer’s story (or your own story), you create a better sense of understanding who this product is for. People will recognize new things they can relate to.

By feeling more related to the brand behind the product, they will find it easier to see themselves with this product. This is especially important with products where you aren’t competing on price but originality. You allow visitors to feel better with this brand and make them feel more aware of themselves. And when they can see themselves using the product or at least feel a sense of commitment to the brand, they are much more likely to order the product. Once they’ve ordered it, they are also much less likely to return it since it now identifies with who they are as a person.

Show lots of related products

Amazon obviously has a huge database that is full of products. It also has a giant history of products that are ordered by the same users. This allows them to give great product recommendations on every product page. Even if you don’t have a giant database or a big history of users, it is still necessary to add the related products to the website.

Most e-commerce software platforms have their own product recommendation systems. They require a bit of manual programming in order to improve the results.

Let’s look at the product recommendations by Amazon.

They add the following elements for every single product:

• Product title
• Product manufacturer/author
• Review score + amount of reviews
• What type of product it is
• The price

And some of the products even have a shorter product description in the recommendation element. This is all set up to make sure that visitors that see these products are much more likely to order something. The product manufacturer/author is added to make sure the visitor knows there are more products by this brand/author – this allows a new opportunity to sell more. The review score + amount of reviews are added in order to add more social proof to the products, allowing people to buy bestsellers or highly recommended books – and allows Amazon to sell more. The product description is shown to give visitors a little teaser on this product before they even click the link – and allows Amazon to again sell more products.

Magento: Automatic Related Products

WooCommerce: WooCommerce Smart Product Recommendation

Shopify: Product Recommender

Lightspeed: Personalized Product Recommendation

 

Showing products that are personally recommended

Social proof is great, especially when a person visits your website for the first time and is about to make their first purchase. But the best customers are returning customers. They already know your brand, they already know how you work and they know they can trust you with their money (which means they are more likely to buy. And, most of all, you are spending a lot less marketing money to acquire these customers.

And Amazon knows this. It might cost them $15 to acquire me as a customer for the first time. But after they have my email address, they spent less than $0.0001 to get me to buy more products. Which is great for them because it means I can spend more of my hard earned money with them (which ultimately puts a bigger smile on Jeff Bezos’ face).

Returning customers are great for upsells. You already know what they like, you have data on their behavior on the website and you are way more likely to sell more and better products to them. Which is always good since this turns into more revenue relatively quickly. This is why personal recommendations are great.

How great? Well, you’re recommending products to someone personally. You’re pretty much the person behind the counter in a store, saying: “Hey, it looks like you bought a vacuum cleaner with us 3 months ago, which usually means you need new bags. Would you like to buy some new bags?”. And when they say Yes, you have just boosted your own revenue.

Giving personal recommendations definitely needs a lot of data. But luckily, you can combine personal visitor behavior with the behavior of other people. Which ultimately leads to better matches. If other people with a similar profile as mine have bought specific items, it’s very easy to recommend specific products to me that would be a great match as well. Here are the two elements that Amazon uses in order to recommend personal products:

It’s a great way to tell your customer you know what they might need. And they’re more likely to check it out since they’re personal recommendations. If they’re personal recommendations, they have to be good, right?

So, when you are showing these personal recommendations, you are much more likely to sell more products to your returning customers. Which just shows it’s extremely important to make sure you give new customers a perfect experience the first time they make a purchase since they are much more likely to buy products in your store again.

Magento: Recolized Recommendation Engine

WooCommerce: WooCommerce Product Recommendation

Shopify: Product Recommendation

Lightspeed: Personalized Product Recommendation

 

Conclusion

Amazon uses a lot of different elements on their product page that allow multiple instances to sell more products to their visitors. They are also great at giving the right information and don’t push visitors to buy quickly since this usually results in a higher return rate (and more costs).

Here are all the elements Amazon uses to increase the conversion, lower the return rate, increase the average order value and improve revenue overall:

• A small Add-to-cart button
• Great product descriptions
• Reviews (both good and bad)
• Customers who viewed this item also viewed
• Customers who bought this item also bought
• What other items do customers buy after viewing this item?
• Inspired by your purchases
• Inspired by your browsing history

So, what’s next for you?

As you have read, it isn’t actually too hard to copy many of Amazon’s product page tactics. You can learn a lot from analyzing the page (and they spend millions making sure it looks like this).

Odds are that you would like to implement these elements into your own pages as well. And you should since it is a great way to improve all the important statistics for your online store.

If you need help finding the right tools or to implement anything that is listed on this page, feel free to contact us with your questions (and we can also help you set up these elements).

There’s a chat box in the right bottom corner of this page or you can just contact us through email: