How to maximize conversions on your eCommerce category page

Category pages have just one job. Help shoppers find the product of their choice in minimal clicks. But it is easier said than done. Category pages are the major navigation points of eCommerce sites and play a vital role in shaping user experiences.

The goal of your category pages should be to make them reach their destinations without confusing or tiring them with endless redirects.

Having a large inventory adds another layer of complexity. How do showcase products without overwhelming visitors?

Let’s roll.

Follow these strategies to improve user experience on your category pages

Let your product images sparkle

Contextually relevant and sharp images about products increase engagement. You need to have consistent branding on all your product images.

Most popular brands follow a single photography style.

Your visitors would like to see products in different angles, positions and backgrounds. Provide them that.

Images that can be zoomed work best.

Use uniform size images. Research shows that category pages with uniform product image sizes improve conversion rates.

A leading eCommerce brand conducted an A/B test recently. They tested two variations of their product archive grid system. The control had images in different sizes and the variation had uniformly sized images.

The variation saw a 17% increase in conversions.

Bottomline? Your product images play a key role in improving conversions. Focus on them.

Become a virtual shopping assistant

Not all customers know what they want. A lot many customers cherry pick and it is important to act as their smiling shopping assistant.

How to do that?

Split up the search results page with various shopping criteria.

Amazon does a great job at it by segregating products into various categories such as “Best sellers”, “On a discount”, “Latest Launches” etc.

Use the serial position effect to your advantage. Place important top selling products in the first or last position of product lists.

Use product filters

Using product filters is probably the #1 UX tip. Product filters offer multi-level drilldowns that are of great help to shoppers.

Adding product filters such as price, color, price points etc are proven to improve conversions by 20%.

Create filters that are easy to find and operate.

Ensure that your filters stand out from the rest of the page.

Current filter state should always be visible to visitors. It acts as visual confirmation.

Optimize filters to attain the best design and functional levels.

Use thematic filter groups to help your visitors home in on the right product.

Optimize for searches

We’ve all been there. Navigating endlessly to find the product of our choice.

Go beyond basic search functionality. If there is one CRO tip that always works it is making your products easily searchable.

Have an auto correct option so people still reach your products if tehy type lkie ths.

Auto-filling searches are another nice-to-have. Rule of thumb: Don’t make your visitors type too much!

Improving findability is key to reducing bounce rates. Conduct multivariate tests to provide the best search experience for visitors.

Some other key points to consider for designing high-converting category pages:

• Use breadcrumbs on top of your category pages.
• Category pages with product reviews perform 25% better according to a recent research.
• Show your products in use contextually as people respond positively to familiarity.
• Optimize your category page for search engines by using LSI keywords, SEO Permalinks and strong H1 tags.
• Choose descriptive category names.