The How and Why of Ecommerce Landing Pages: 15 Optimization Tips and 10 Design Examples

Dedicated ecommerce landing pages are among the most neglected of all ecommerce pages. Online retailers tend to focus on more “obvious” parts of their sites like product detail pages and category pages, both of which tend to be treated as landing pages even when they shouldn’t be.

Product pages underperform when compared to other types of landing pages. Source.
Landing pages are often the first experience of your brand for visitors. And if that experience is positive, it can turn them into returning, vocal customers, thus providing you with the best possible return on your investment.

Landing pages are often the first experience of your brand for visitors. #ecommerce #tips Click To Tweet

But neglecting to provide adequate resources to the design and optimization of dedicated ecommerce landing pages is a common mistake ecommerce managers make.

Because of this, most online retailers’ conversion rates are well below what they could be. This is evidenced by the fact that big players regularly report figures above the industry average.

Improving the quality of the first pages that new visitors will see is one of the surest ways of boosting your overall conversion rate. And there’s no better way to do this than by providing dedicated ecommerce landing pages.

What you’ll find in this article?

What Is a Landing Page in Ecommerce?
What’s the Difference Between an Ecommerce Landing Page and a Product Detail Page?
Why Do You Need Landing Pages on Your Ecommerce Site?
How to Increase Landing Page Conversions for Ecommerce Websites: 10 Proven Tips
Landing Pages for Ecommerce: Top 5 Design Tips
Great Ecommerce Landing Pages: 10 Examples With Design Tips
Conclusion

Dig in!

What Is a Landing Page in Ecommerce?

It’s important to note that, while there are areas of overlap with other pages, landing pages represent unique ecommerce pages in their own right.

Any of the main types of pages that make up an online store – specifically, home pages, category pages, and product detail pages – can act as landing pages. And product pages will often be the first point-of-entry for new customers who have discovered a product through search engines or social media.

Examples of a product page and a custom-designed landing page on Amazon.com.
But “landing pages” constitute separate pages. Category pages and product pages are more numerous – and make up the main body of content on an ecommerce site – but it’s wrong to think that landing pages aren’t equally important.

In an ecommerce setting, the term “landing page” is used to describe a page designed specifically as an entry-point for certain kinds of traffic – the first touchpoint for new visitors – with one clear objective, often to motivate visitors to buy a product.

What’s the Difference Between an Ecommerce Landing Page and a Product Detail Page?

In a nutshell, a landing page is specifically designed to encourage targeted traffic to take a single action or choose between a limited number of actions. This action, which represents the retailer’s most-desired outcome, may be to buy a product, sign up for a newsletter, or simply click through to learn more about a sale, promotion, or event.

“Targeted” traffic is any traffic that has been pre-defined in terms of data – whether demographics, psychographics, or buyer history. This kind of traffic might come from an email campaign, paid platforms (like Facebook), joint promotions, or even offline advertising.
This landing page on Dollar Shave Club is designed to appeal directly to new visitors.

Product pages, on the other hand, have a broader purpose. While there are areas of similarity – both, for example, are often designed to prompt visitors to add items to the shopping basket – there are also other features that aren’t found on landing pages. Product pages will often include related product suggestions along with trust-building elements like entire sections dedicated to reviews.

In short, product pages are designed to cater to all types of traffic, whether it comes from search engines, social media, email, third-party sites, or directly through the browser.

Also, landing pages will rarely be optimized for search engines. Retailers will usually purposely make sure that they are de-indexed so that analytics are not skewed.

Why Do You Need Landing Pages on Your Ecommerce Site?

If you’re not already taking advantage of landing pages, you’re likely losing out on conversions, customers, and revenue.

Here are some of the main benefits of using them on your site:

Landing Pages Drive a Higher ROI for Paid Ecommerce Traffic

Landing pages are highly customizable and can be designed to cater to customers and potential customers at specific stages of your funnel. In particular, top-of-the-funnel visitors to your site will have low levels of engagement and trust in your brand.

By creating offers, copy, and branding that speaks directly to a particular demographic of visitors, rather than sending them straight to generic product pages, you are much more likely to connect with them. And connection equals conversions. This is especially the case with paid traffic, where it’s essential to achieve a clear ROI on any ad spend.

Landing Pages Provide Excellent Opportunities for Testing

Landing pages are ideal for testing and optimization. Firstly, landing pages tend to be structurally quite minimal, with far fewer elements than other pages (e.g. they don’t have the menu). This makes A/B testing less of a chore.

Secondly, because the flow of traffic is under your control with paid and email campaigns, you can hone in on the most profitable segments of your market and maximize returns.

A feedback loop is created in which you can identify the highest-value portions of traffic within your targeted group (such as your email list or Facebook audience) and use this information to further refine your targeting methods and choices on ad platforms.

With Customized Landing Pages, You Can Target Existing Customer Segments Directly

One of the best ways to use data about your existing customers is to build segment-specific landing pages for email and social media campaigns. Designing landing pages in this way enables you to drive higher conversions when promoting specific products, giveaways, discounts, etc.

There’s a common misconception that landing pages are only for new customers. But they’re one of the most effective tools for re-engaging your current customer base and boosting average lifetime value.

Landing Pages Are Flexible and Can be Tailored to Most Ecommerce Goals

Landing pages are surprisingly flexible.

They can be used for a range of purposes, for both potential and existing customers. Whether you want to build awareness, collect email addresses, retarget existing customers, promote upsells during checkout, or advertise promotions and sales, landing pages can enable you to do so.

Landing Pages Are Quick and Easy to Set Up

The development cost of landing pages is usually relatively low.

Most landing pages can be created, tested, and optimized in a short period of time and with a minimum of resources. This makes them viable for short-term promotions, test campaigns, and marketing to smaller segments of your customer base.

How to Increase Landing Page Conversions for Ecommerce Websites: 10 Proven Tips

Ok, so you’re likely already aware of the benefits of using ecommerce landing pages. But how do you ensure that your landing pages are working as hard as possible to drive conversions and sales?

Here are a few tips to ensure that your site visitors click that all-important CTA:
1. Limit clutter – Potential customers should be able to evaluate your offering and click on the CTA with an absolute minimum of friction. Distractions are perhaps the category of obstacles that create more friction than any other. Furthermore, cluttered landing pages dilute your main value proposition and reduce visitor engagement.

Hello Fresh’s landing page is incredibly simple and clutter-free.
2. Include ONE clear CTA (call to action) – A landing page should have one clear aim, whether it’s prompt customers to add a product to the shopping basket, navigate to a product or category page, or simply to “learn more” about your brand and products. This singularity-of-purpose enables you to provide a streamlined, compelling customer experience while removing any confusion. If you have to include multiple or secondary CTAs, such as separate buttons for men and women, then keep them to an absolute minimum.

3. Personalization is key – Marketers have reported a 20% increase in sales when using personalized content. Ecommerce personalization doesn’t necessarily need to cater to an individual, but it should mirror the shared characteristics of the appropriate customer segment as closely as possible. An ecommerce landing page aimed at women aged 20 to 35 will be different from one aimed at older men aged 50 to 70. All parts of your landing page, from images to content, should be chosen and created with your chosen audience in mind.

Marketers have reported a 20% increase in sales when using personalized content. #EcommerceTips #ecommerce Click To Tweet

4. Get rid of all distractions – Remember, landing pages are designed to move visitors to complete one, clear action. Any distractions, including navbars, social media icons, and non-related images, should be eliminated. Product pages will often have secondary CTAs (such as links to related products) and navigation links. There is no need for these on ecommerce landing pages.

5. Create urgency – Including urgency-building elements on product pages can boost conversions by up to 10%. And many of the same tactics are effective for landing pages. Urgency and a sense of scarcity are two of the most powerful emotions that retailers can evoke in would-be customers. Check out this Growcode post for fourteen actionable tips for creating ecommerce urgency. Hint: next-day delivery, limited stock, and time-sensitive discounts are all included.

Including urgency-building elements on product pages can boost conversions by up to 10%. #EcommerceTips #ecommerce #CRO Click To Tweet

6. Leverage social proof and showcase top reviews– Landing pages are an excellent place to showcase your best reviews. Unlike product pages, where dedicating an entire section to reviews helps to facilitate research for customers, the main purpose of landing pages is to persuade. So there’s no need to display every single product or brand review. Including a selection of testimonials and reviews from celebrities and well-known publications will also build social proof.
Snow, a company which sells teeth-whitening products, has an enviable array of celebrity endorsements.
7. Use high-quality images – Have you ever arrived on a landing page or product page only to be met with low-quality, pixelated images? I’ll bet you left pretty quickly. High-quality images fulfill a number of functions. They communicate professionalism, help visitors evaluate a product, and boost engagement by creating desire. It’s difficult to look at the image from Simply Cook below, for example, and not feel your taste buds tingling just a little.
The Simply Cook landing page makes use of high-quality food photography.
8. Display “trust” seals – Keep in mind that many visitors to your landing pages will not know or trust your brand. Anything you can do to build trust is worthwhile at this stage. “Trust” seals usually reference the name of a well-known company and are particular well-placed next to CTAs like “Add to Cart” or “Purchase Now” to allay fears about entering credit card details. Internet users have also been conditioned to respond with trust to seal-like images, which makes them useful to retailers.

Note how Snow includes an FDA-approved seal along with a non-official, generic one that simply says “Results Guaranteed”.
9. Draw attention to extras – If you offer free shipping or a lifetime warranty, then say so! And say it as loudly as possible. Whenever a customer arrives on your landing page, you have a few seconds to persuade them to pick you over your competitors. Your whole value proposition – the sum-total of all the benefits that makes you a better option than other online retailers – should come across clearly on your landing pages.
10. Ensure that landing pages “link up” with ads – This one is huge. There’s nothing worse for a visitor than clicking on an advertisement or email link only to land on a page that looks absolutely nothing like what they were expecting. Making landing pages congruent with your ads is more than just about matching the offers (though this is important too). It’s about ensuring the whole look-and-feel builds on the emotions that motivated them to click the ad while assuring them they’re in the right place.

Landing Pages for Ecommerce: Top 5 Design Tips

There are five main components of a landing page. Giving proper attention to each will ensure that visitors have access to all the information they need while being encouraged to click on the CTA.

Use the following five-part template to create your landing pages:

1. General Structure (Wireframe)

The first stage of designing a landing page involves creating a wireframe. A wireframe provides you with the general framework for putting together your page and is the vital link between brainstorming and implementation.

A wireframe is also useful for other reasons – for making sure you’ve included all the appropriate information, ensuring that you haven’t missed any essential sections, and checking that the user flow and experience is seamless.

Your wireframe should adhere to the following rules:

• Use a one or two-column structure – A one or two-column layout is preferable. Including more columns can make the page look cluttered.
• Eliminate any links other than the CTA – Remove any links, including navigation headers, that may distract visitors from the primary CTA.
• Show where images and videos will go – Mark areas of the wireframe for images and videos. It will often be clear at the wireframe stage if rich media does not fit into the flow of the page.
• Have clearly divided sections – If your landing page is going to be made up of multiple sections, clearly delineate these in the wireframe.

A basic landing page wireframe. Source.

A wireframe may include only a logo, headline, small body of copy and a CTA, as in the example above. Alternatively, it may be made up of many sections and include rich media like videos (see example below).
An example of a longer landing page wireframe. Source.

2. Headline

On average, six in ten people only read the headline of an article or webpage without bothering with the rest of the copy. The headline is arguably the most critical part of a landing page. It’s the first thing that visitors will read and will determine whether or not they stay on your page or leave never to return.

Headlines should be short, outline at least one clear benefit, and meet the expectations of visitors. If they clicked through to your landing page from an ad, make sure that the headline matches up.

Use proven templates when crafting your headlines. The best headlines aren’t necessarily the most creative and clever. In fact, research has shown that “generic” headlines outperform original ones.

Summaries of value propositions work well, like “Cook Restaurant Quality Meals in 20 Minutes” from Simply Cook. Testimonial headlines, like “America’s #1 Rated Mattress” from Casper, can also be powerful. And free offers and promotions, like “Get Access to Beachbody on Demand for 14 Days Free” from Beachbody on Demand, always go down well.

Examples of great headlines.

3. Above-the-Fold Copy

Don’t overburden your landing page with excessive copy. “Supporting” information should be concise, to-the-point, and interesting. “Above-the-fold” copy comes immediately after the headline. It’s what visitors will see before they start scrolling.

Follow the guidelines below when writing this copy:

• Outline your main USP or value proposition – Elaborate on the value proposition or USP expressed in your headline. This is a chance to reinforce the points that you made in your headline, deepening the desire-to-buy felt by your site’s visitors.

On one of its landing pages, Heaven’s Door tells the story of its whiskey in only two sentences. This page could be improved even more by making the text easier to read by putting it in a lowercase font and changing the color so that it stands out more.

• Make it scannable – It goes without saying that content should be scannable, with only the main points included in this section of your landing page. Bullet points are useful for organizing landing page content.
• Include any stand-out product details and extras – List the main product USPs, along with any additional benefits like free shipping or discounts. You should also include the price if the main CTA is a purchase button.
• Keep people’s emotions in mind – Don’t forget to talk to visitors’ needs and delights. People buy feelings, not product features. Emphasize the emotional benefits that features provide.

4. Main CTA

Understating the importance of CTAs is difficult. There are countless case studies reporting huge increases in conversions, achieved by tweaking tiny parts of the CTAs on landing pages.

Here are some quick-and-easy tips for creating attention-grabbing and click-worthy CTAs:

• Test to find the best color – Data about the best color to use for CTAs is mixed. The main thing to keep in mind is that is should stand out from the rest of the page. The only real way to know which color works best is by testing. Fortunately, that’s very easy to do.
• Use an imperative statement – An imperative statement is one that “orders” somebody to do something. Some examples, like “Buy Now”, “Learn More”, and “Join for Free”, work exceptionally well.
• Make sure your CTA is above the fold (at least to begin with) – Follow best practices to start with and don’t make visitors scroll to click your CTA. There are differing opinions about the best place to locate CTAs (above or below the fold). Start with the safe option and test from there.
• Make it BIG – The CTA should be one of the most prominent elements on the page. On mobile devices, make sure it fills the whole screen so that users can click it with both thumbs.

For more information about this important topic, we’ve put together an in-depth guide about crafting Call to Action!

5. Follow-Up Information

The remainder of your copy will come below the above-the-fold, section. This is your chance to provide more information, overcome doubts, and build trust.

Consider including the following sections:

• Further details about your product and how it works – The first “below-the-fold” section of your landing page should go into greater detail about your product. Include information about pricing, features, and delivery. Remember to keep it concise, scannable, and include another CTA directly underneath.

Simply Cook includes a scannable, easy-to-read “How It Works” section.

• Company history and values – Dedicate a section of your landing page to an “About Us” section. This gives visitors the chance to connect more deeply with your brand, mission, and values. Many customers have a strong desire to form this kind of personal connection.
• Reviews – Customer testimonials, industry awards, celebrity endorsements, mentions in the media – all are great for building customer trust. You don’t need to include all your reviews, just a sample of the best. Including face shots of individual reviewers also helps add credibility.

Simply Cook includes a showcase of its best customer reviews along with a five-star badge from Trustpilot.

• Videos and rich media – Your product determines the kind of rich media you should use. Product images that clearly show key features will likely be most appropriate in an ecommerce setting. Alternatively, graphs, tables, and charts can help visitors understand the benefits of other types of products and services. Videos can also be a powerful tool for engaging customers and quickly explaining product features.

Ok, so now you’ve got the basics, let’s take a look at how these principles are applied in the real world.

Great Ecommerce Landing Pages: 10 Examples With Design Tips

If you want to improve the quality of your landing pages, there’s one strategy that never fails: copy the best.

Here are ten examples of superb landing pages, along with short breakdowns of what makes them so good.

1. Casper

This is a top-of-the-funnel landing page that communicates Casper’s central value position in only a few words: highly-rated products with industry-leading customer service. Customers also get free shipping and returns and a 100-night guarantee. It also makes use of high-quality images and a single “Shop Now” CTA.

The headline, “America’s #1 Rated Mattress”, is very clever because it’s essentially a giant testimonial.

2. Beach Body on Demand

Mid-funnel pages like this one are excellent for retargeting customers that dropped off before adding a product to their cart or left during checkout. Why? Because it allows them to sample a product with zero risk.

3. Beats by Dre

The effectiveness of this page on Beats by Dre lies in its simplicity. The image is highly relevant and shows the product in action; the snappy headline has strong emotional appeal; the discounted price is clearly shown; and the product’s main USPs are also included below the CTA.

4. Thread

This landing page from Thread immediately demands engagement from visitors. The headline provides a clear benefit and assures potential customers that they need only spend a few minutes to find what they’re looking for, thus overcoming hesitancy about a lengthy sign-up process. The CTA is straightforward and further assurances – “it’s fast and free” – are provided below.

5. Apple

Apple has mastered the landing page game. The headline balances clarity and playfulness, striking just the right tone for the intended audience of this landing page. The images are relevant, and there is a clear but unobtrusive CTA in the top-right corner.

6. Watch Gang

The Watch Gang landing page sums up its main USPs – home-delivery of new watches, entry into a weekly contest, and exclusive membership of a club – in only a few sentences. The main image is enticing and the color of the CTA is perfect for the background.

7. Plated

Plated ticks all the boxes on its landing page. The headline communicates the key practical and emotional benefits of its products. The information is in bullets. And the CTA uses a tried-and-tested phrase on a background image that is directly relevant to what is offered. A promotional discount is also highlighted at the top of the page.

8. Native

Native’s landing page is notable because it includes two CTAs without confusing the viewer. The headline and tagline clearly express benefits. What’s more, the whole structure is very visually pleasing, with lots of relevance.

10. Snow

This page from Snow – one of the most successful ecommerce stores in the teeth whitening space – is a hybrid of a landing page and a product page. It acts as an end-of-funnel product page but also includes many elements of landing pages, such as a simplified navbar, prominent headline, and minimalistic design.

Snow also builds urgency by including a notification at the top of the page that states, “Extremely Limited Time Offer”.

10. Naked Wines

The landing page above from Naked Wines is simplicity itself. The headline is a direct question that leads nicely onto its CTA. The supporting text alleviates hesitancy by telling visitors that the quiz only has five questions. And there’s a great incentive – free wine – for clicking the CTA.

Conclusion

Don’t fall into the trap of assuming that any old page, whether it be a home page, category page, or a product page, will suffice as a landing page. If you take this view, your conversions and sales will suffer.

With the tips in the post, you can create high-quality landing pages that convert visitors at a rate well above the industry average.

But keep one crucial point in mind.

Testing is crucial. While this post outlines the best possible template to get started, you’ll only achieve a truly winning formula by running your own tests.

The good news, however, is that landing pages are perfect for running split-tests and multivariate tests. And once you start to see the results, you’ll wonder why you didn’t start sooner.
So, time to start working on that headline.

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