What a good product page needs

A good product page answers every question a customer would ask in a shop, before they have to ask: what it is, what it looks like up close, what it costs in total, which option to choose, when it will arrive and what happens if it does not fit. In practice that means clear photos, a plain title, a visible price, easy options, a description that covers size, material and care, and delivery and returns information next to the buy button.

The product page is where the decision is made. Everything else in your store — the home page, the collections, your social posts — exists to bring people here. This guide goes through each part of the page and what makes it work.

The checklist

Before a product goes live, check that its page has:

1. Photos that show the whole product, its details, and its size or use.
2. A title that says what the product is in the words customers use.
3. The price, visible without scrolling, with any delivery cost made clear.
4. Options (size, colour) that are easy to choose and show what is in stock.
5. A short summary of why someone would want it.
6. The details: dimensions, material, what is included, how to care for it.
7. Delivery and returns: how long, how much, what if it is not right.
8. A clear button to add it to the cart.
9. Proof that others bought it and were happy, once you have it.

The rest of this guide looks at each one.

Photos

Customers cannot touch the product, so the photos do that job. A complete set usually includes:

• The main photo: the whole product on a plain background, well lit, filling most of the frame. It is the one shown in collections and when the page is shared, so make every product's main photo consistent.
• Other angles: back, side, inside, underneath — whatever a customer would turn it over to look at.
• A close-up of the material, texture, stitching or finish.
• Scale: the product worn, held or in a room, so its size is obvious.
• One photo for each colour you sell, linked to that option, so choosing "green" shows the green one.

Give every photo a short description of what it shows (its alt text). It is read aloud to people using screen readers, and it helps search engines understand the image. "Brown leather wallet, open, showing six card slots" is useful; "wallet1" or "image" is not.

You do not need a studio to take these. Our guide to product photos with a phone shows how.

Title

Use the words a customer would search for: what the product is, then what makes this one different. "Linen shirt — short sleeve, relaxed fit" tells people more than "The Riviera". If your products have names, keep the name and add what it is: "Riviera linen shirt, short sleeve".

Keep titles consistent across your store, so collections are easy to scan.

Price

Show the price near the top, next to the title, in the store's currency. If the price changes with the option chosen, update it when the option changes. Show a compare-at (crossed-out) price only when the product was really sold at that price before — customers notice, and in many places it is required by consumer law.

Say how delivery is charged before checkout: on the page, in a banner, or in the delivery section. An unexpected cost at the last step loses more orders than almost anything else, and with cash on delivery it also causes refused parcels.

Options

• Use buttons or colour swatches for options with a few values, rather than drop-down lists.
• Show what is out of stock instead of letting people choose it and fail at checkout.
• Change the photo when a colour is chosen.
• For clothing and shoes, link a size guide right next to the size option, with measurements in both centimetres and inches if your customers use both.

Description

Start with one or two sentences on who the product is for and why they would want it. Then give the facts in a form that is easy to scan:

Write it yourself. A supplier's description reads like every other shop that sells the same product, and rarely answers what your customers actually ask. Every time a customer messages you with a question, add the answer to the page.

Delivery and returns

Put a short delivery and returns summary right under the buy button: how long delivery takes, what it costs, and how returns or exchanges work, with a link to the full policy. These are the last questions people have before they buy, and the answers are often hidden on a separate page.

If you offer cash on delivery, say so here as well — for customers who do not want to pay online, it is a reason to buy.

Proof that others bought it

Reviews, photos from customers and short quotes help new customers decide. Only show real ones — invented reviews destroy trust when they are spotted and are illegal in many places. Until you have reviews, a line about your returns policy or how products are made does a similar job honestly.

Speed and phones

Most visitors will see your product page on a phone, often on a slow connection. Large photos are the usual reason a page is slow.

• Upload photos large enough to look sharp (about 2000 pixels on the long side is plenty) but do not upload huge camera originals with no cropping.
• Check the page on your own phone: the title, price, main photo and button should all be visible without scrolling much.

On Soooks, smaller copies of every product photo are made automatically when you upload it, and your store shows those instead of the original, so pages load quickly on phones.

How search engines read the page

Search engines show product details — price, availability — when a page describes them in a way they can read. On Soooks this is added to every product page automatically from your product's real price, stock and options, so you do not need to do anything technical.

What you can do:

• Write a clear title and description: they are what search engines show.
• Fill in the search engine listing (the title and description shown in search results) for your most important products, if you want them to differ from the page's.
• Use a readable address for the product (/products/linen-shirt-short-sleeve).
• Give every photo alt text.

Common mistakes

• One small photo. Customers cannot judge what they cannot see.
• No measurements. The most common reason for returns and refused deliveries.
• Delivery information only at checkout.
• Options that let customers pick something that is out of stock.
• Copied descriptions. They do not answer your customers' questions or help your page stand out in search.