Boost eCommerce landing page conversions: 12 scientific strategies

Top-performing landing pages convert at more than 40% above average. These winners employ conversion tactics that other landing pages lack.

We reviewed the top strategies that leading brands use to command over 70% conversions and distilled 12 distinct qualities that make them stand out. 

Whether you use your home page or create dedicated pages to sell your products, these secrets will work for your business.

Keep reading to find out.

1. Act on data, not hunches

Customers are becoming increasingly unpredictable. 

They expect businesses to anticipate their needs and meet them in real-time. But meeting customers’ expectations requires brands to leverage data at the most granular level and not base decisions on blind hunches.

Case Study: Stitch Fix scaled to 4.2 million buyers using data

Stitch Fix uses big data it collects across all customer touchpoints to guide how people discover and shop clothes on their site.

Stitch Fix does 2 things to act on data, not hunches:‍

a) Artificial intelligence: They invest in machine learning to curate clothes that evolve with shoppers’ lifestyles and needs.

b) Interactive quiz: Stitch Fix also uses an interactive quiz on its website to learn customers’ preferences to set up a personalized storefront for each shopper

Katrina Lake, the former CEO and founder believes data science is behind the company’s astounding growth.

In her words:

“Data science isn’t woven into our culture; it is our culture.”

Lake also thinks Stitch Fix wouldn’t exist without data science. So the brand goes as far as hiring PhDs and data scientists to build custom data solutions.

You don’t need to hire PhDs to start acting on data. However, this story just shows that Stitch Fix takes data seriously. 

You can adopt Stitch Fix’s data-first approach by collecting, analyzing, and applying data on how your customers interact with your store and products.

How to act on data, not hunches

• Introduce machine learning and AI-powered product recommendation engine on your product pages to deliver personalized suggestions to shoppers based on their shopping behaviors.
• Embed interactive online survey and quiz tools on your website’s pages to understand customers' preferences and respond to their needs in real-time.
• Set up heat mapping to learn how visitors interact with your landing pages and use that data to modify your landing page structure and content. So place your CTAs and important elements in the area with the most heatmap.
• Use customer sentiment analysis tools to listen to what people say about your product on social media and use the data you gather to improve your offering.
• Build a remarketing list of your landing page visitors who interacted with your page but didn’t convert and serve them personalized retargeting messages. You can capture and automate this process with Google ads if running ads to the landing page.
• Use scroll tracking to learn when people drop off from your landing pages, and then A/B test your copy to see if you can increase engagement and conversions. Redesign the page if the average scroll depth is less than 50 percent.

Caveat when building a data-driven business

Relying only on numbers without context could be counter-productive. Instead, combine your data with human judgment for the best results.

2. Use the AIDA copy model to speak to your customer's pains and aspirations 

How do you hold your audience’s attention long enough until they buy?

Use the Attention Interest Desire Action (AIDA) copy model.

The AIDA process helps you grab your audience’s attention, keep them interested, and stimulate them with benefits.

This attention, interest, and benefits approach to creating copies compels your audience to action.

Case Study: How BarkBox connects visitors emotionally with the AIDA copy formula 

BarkBox’s homepage copy makes convincing arguments to the prospects.

It allows them to connect visitors emotionally to their message. But, of course, the evidence is the number of returning visits to the website.

According to SimilarWeb, nearly half of the websites’ January 2022 visitors came from direct traffic—visits with no referring website. This data type suggests that these visits are from returning customers, indicating its strong brand message.

Dog lovers want the best for their pets.

The landing page copy grabs attention by offering them a straightforward way to solve their pain point—giving their dogs what they want.

The font size and color also make it effortless to gain visitors' attention.

Having gotten their attention, BarkBox piques prospects’ interest by offering to solve their pain point with a customized box of themed toys and treats for their dog every month.

Furthermore, BarkBox turns casual interest into desire by offering prospects a $35-valued Blink mini camera. In addition, it provides two CTA buttons to guide shoppers’ conversion journey.

The company adds social proof to reinforce its brand message down the copy. For example, it uses numbers to help their prospect visualize the work they’ve done. 

You’d also notice that the copy focuses on the customers. For instance, it uses “you” and “your” to speak directly to its customers.

How to use the AIDA copy model for eCommerce success

Action these AIDA tips to create landing page copies that’ll delight your visitors, persuade prospects and win their sales.

• Use first and second-person pronouns (I, we, us, you, your, yourself) to speak to your customers directly.
• Focus only on the most compelling benefits. Don’t overwhelm shoppers with many features.
• Use appropriate hooks to grab readers' attention. It could be statistics, numbers, or highlighting customers’ pain points—they make your customers pay attention and grow interested in your offer.
• Pique prospects’ interest by explaining what they stand to gain or lose and why it matters to them. Your audience wants to eliminate their pains, so demonstrate that you understand their pains and aspirations by telling a relevant story or showing your past results.
• Make them an offer they can’t resist. Customers are loss averse—if you can eliminate their barriers to buying, they’ll buy. So consider offering them a discount, free shipping, or easy returns.
• Use one CTA for each offer to avoid the paradox of choice.
• Use short, simple, and straight-to-the-point sentences and convey only one message per sentence. Treat each sentence as a chain. Let them connect until your audience buys.

💡 Pro-Tip

Replace bland words with stronger alternatives or more dazzling synonyms to enliven your writing. Let your words convey pictures, sounds, motions, and emotions in your reader’s mind.

3. Ensure your value proposition is hypothesis-driven

Value proposition gives a strong purpose to your products.

It reinforces customers' confidence by detailing why they should buy from you, invariably differentiating you from the competition. Your value proposition tells your brand story. 

So how do you craft one that knocks it out of the park?

Be scientific. Demonstrate that your value proposition takes root from a hypothesis. However, it’s not enough to come up with a hypothesis. It must make sense AND tell a good story. Communicate your value proposition in the form of a story to delight your audience’s emotional and logical minds.

Recess does it well. Let’s learn from them.

Case Study: Recess uses storytelling to sell their hypothesis-driven value proposition

Recess knows how to use stories to sell their product.

Instead of trying to convince customers how nice their products are, the brand established a ground—that is a problem—that their offering fills first. 

The company acknowledges that stress is part of everyday life, so Recess offers its beverage to shoppers as an easy escape from stress.

Recess based its value proposition on verifiable grounds. For example, instead of telling shoppers that they’ll feel calm after drinking the beverages, the brand chose to make its value proposition hypothesis-driven.

We could paraphrase the value proposition as, “The world around you is stressful; taking Recess’s beverages can make you feel calm, collected, and cool.”

The value proposition is scientific. It’s verifiable. It’s experimental.

But crafting this kind of value proposition would have taken some space, but the beverage maker didn’t bore their visitors with bland talks. It communicates the value proposition flawlessly as a story, and down the copy, Recess continues to tell its story by citing specific instances of stress in its audience’s lives.

How to make your value proposition hypothesis-driven

• Establish fact-based customers’ challenges, beliefs, desires, or values. For example, recess uses the phrase “stressful world around you” to highlight customers’ pain points. It also cites specific moments its audiences feel stressed—when they have multiple browser tabs open. 
• Give a value proposition that gives purpose to your offering. For example, Recess promises shoppers an escape from the stress around them.
• Craft your value proposition in a way that customers find verifiable.
• Write your value proposition like a story to make it relatable.

Caveat on making your value proposition hypothesis-driven

Hypothesis statements are often bland. And bland words may have the opposite effect—repel buyers. So sell your value proposition with a story, keeping it short and punchy.

4. Optimize your design based on the web fold 

To sell to customers, you’d need to win their attention on the fly.

So hook them above the fold. Landing page above-the-fold content is the portion of the page you can see without scrolling. It offers you a 12-seconds window to grab your visitors’ attention.

Optimizing this section lets you hit visitors with value the moment they land on the page, allowing you to maximize your first impression.

LuckyVitamin can inspire you to design yours.

Case Study: LuckyVitamin offers value on the fly with an above-the-fold design

LuckyVitamin puts its above-the-fold design to good use.

Visitors don’t need to scroll down the website to understand what the brand offers them. Instead, it allows them to see the value they’ll be getting on the fly without processing too much information.

Shoppers know the moment they land on the page that a 55% discount on heart health supplements, plus free shipping for every order above $49, are up for grabs. 

The brand removes distractions from the section to focus them on that message. It also grabs visitors' attention with color contrast.

Furthermore, LuckyVitamin adds a beautiful product image to make the message more appealing to visitors. Additionally, the brand uses sliders to maximize the potential of its above-the-fold content. 

The company also features a CTA button above-the-fold to make the offers accessible.

How to optimize above the fold design for more conversions

• Make your website mobile-friendly to cater to all screen users.
• Put your most compelling features, offers, and benefits above the fold.
• Grab attention with beautiful images and color contrast.
• Place the CTA buttons above the fold to make them accessible.
• Streamline navigation by adding product categories to the menu.

Caveat on optimizing for above the fold design

Cluttering above the fold with elements and texts distract visitors, making it lose its magic. Keep it as clean and focused as possible.

5. Follow an intent-driven keyword strategy 

Whether your audience finds you in Google search results or by searching your eCommerce store, they will rely on keywords.

That’s why you want to optimize your landing pages for intent-driven search.

Optimize your landing pages for the features, colors, shapes, textures, product or ISO codes, and other attributes your buyers would use to describe your product in a search.

Capture their intentions in your search.

One way to get visitors to discover your landing page is through product searches on your site.

About 43% of online retail shoppers go directly to the search bar to discover products.

And consumers who use search are 

a) 2.4 times more likely to convert

b) Spending about 2.6 times more than those who don’t

However, 12% will leave your site to your competitors if they don’t find internal searches helpful.

But you can prevent this with an intent-driven keyword strategy. It makes the product discovery experience relevant to shoppers’ search intent.

How to use an intent-driven keyword strategy to boost landing page conversions

Intent-driven keyword strategy matches your product and landing page to shoppers’ search purpose. Action these tips to get it right.

• Optimize the product pages for internal searches and enable the filter option so shoppers can narrow search results to their intent.
• Use keywords with commercial intent to optimize the landing page for search engines to target bottom-of-the-funnel organic searchers.
• Write informational blog content to conversions from the top and bottom-of-the-funnel leads. Optimize with long-tailed keywords for quick wins and visibility.
• Create an FAQs page to provide quick answers to shoppers’ queries. Use FAQ schema markup to make them rank easily on Google.
• Add related keywords to your list to boost your keyword profile, add context to your writing and maximize your keyword potential.
• Search your keywords on social media, especially Twitter, to learn what the search term means to people and how they use it in their conversations.
• Find out the most profitable search terms your competitors use and incorporate them into your landing pages.

Here’s an example of how Pipcorn nails its FAQ page. 

It segregates the questions based on categories and also uses a dropdown menu so that users don’t get overwhelmed with the content. 

It works well for SEO since the page focuses on multiple keywords as well as contains a proper structure. 

Caveat on executing an intent-driven keyword strategy

Organic search optimization often takes time to deliver results. So, use additional channels, like ads, to create multiple customer touchpoints and quick wins in the short term. 

6. Focus on the pre-click experience as well

Landing page visitors don’t often convert on the go.

But their experiences the moment they land on the page will determine whether they will click the CTA button or not. So improving the pre-click experience ensures more prospects pass through your sales funnel, boosting their conversion odds.

The pre-click stage allows shoppers to interact with the brand and learn more about the offering. It’s a defining moment for both parties. 

For instance, pre-click experiences let shoppers know whether or not to continue with the sales conversation. But for the brands, it allows them a small window to make an impression on their visitors, so they don’t lose them to someone else.

But how do you optimize your pre-click experience to motivate visitors to convert?

Let’s get to it.

Case Study: Ascent Footwear’s intuitive design improves user experience

Ascent Footwear’s landing page is easy to use, improving shoppers’ pre-click experience.

The landing page is straightforward and eliminates distractions to the conversion goals—clicking the CTA. In addition, it provides a brief and non-fluffy description of what the product does.

Also, the landing page focuses on the products’ most compelling features, making it less overwhelming by not offering too many product details.

Additionally, the colors contrast nicely and are easy on the eyes.

How to optimize for pre-click experience

Action these tips to optimize your landing page pre-click experience to reduce bounce rate and improve conversions.

• Make the landing page load fast. Customer satisfaction drops by 16% for every 1-second delay in landing page loading time, plus visitors abandon sites that don’t load on time.
• Keep all the reader’s attention on the page’s CTA. Remove navigation links and other distractions, including multiple CTAs to focus visitors on the bottom line.
• Make the landing page intuitive and straightforward to use.
• Use a good background color and beautiful image(s) to make visitors feel at home. It’s your biggest ally here. Also, add a lot of white spaces for simplicity.
• Individualize your content messaging and speak directly to customers.
• Create a personalized landing page for each audience segment to improve conversion.

Caveat on optimizing for pre-click experience

Optimizing the pre-click experience is not often enough. Also, look out for the post-CTA-click experience—cart abandonment.

7. Keep incentives on top of the customer’s minds 

Getting customers to buy is never a walk in the park.

But offering some incentive before the real sales conversation starts could get them to change their mind. Consumers often feel indebted to brands that offer value before selling to them. 

It's human nature. The reciprocity principle states that people tend to want to offer something in return when they receive value. So, for example, you’re more likely to give your email address to a website that offers you a valuable resource.

Of course, receiving creates a sense of indebtedness. 

So play on this feeling to boost your conversion chances. You can incentivize prospects with anything of value to make them indebted to you and more open to a sales journey. 

Action these tips to make your offers accessible and in customers’ minds.

• Use floating coupons or pop-ups to make your offers readily available to shoppers.
• Place your incentives above the fold to entice visitors on the go.
• Promote your offers with a beautifully-designed featured banner.

Case Study: LuckyVitamin drives conversion With a pop-up offer

LuckyVitamin incentivizes email list subscriptions with a $10 discount. The brand uses a pop-up to ensure the offers are accessible to shoppers. 

The pop-up triggers when shoppers scroll about 70% of the homepage, making the offer accessible but less intrusive.

Caveat on incentivizing eCommerce purchases

Incentives can cut into your profit margins. So apply them intelligently.

8. Convince your visitors with directional cues

It’s possible for visitors to feel lost on your landing page.

If you’re not getting enough conversion from your traffic, then the prospects might be at a loss on how to proceed or what you expect from them. So use directional cues to guide them to action or convince them they’re on the right site.

These web elements subtly draw visitors’ attention to essential areas. The directional cues narrow their attention so they know what they should be looking at, saving them the stress of navigating the entire page aimlessly.

The cues could be explicit or suggestive.

An explicit directional cue uses lines or arrows to draw attention to the interest area, while suggestive cues involve images of people looking at an area.

Action these tips to add directional cues to your landing page.

• Keep the cues simple to avoid overcomplicating things and unnecessary distractions.
• Use an abundance of white spaces to make the cues more effective.
• Make your cues more visual and louder with color contrast.
• Use cues that align naturally to the pages’ design to knock it off the park.
• A/B test your directional cues to learn the ones that work best for you. For example, you could use eye-tracking tools or click heatmap for the test.

Case Study: How Filly Flair guides shoppers to conversion with visual cueing

Filly Flair uses an abundance of white spaces and suggestive cues to draw attention to their CTA button.

The suggestive cue is an image of a beautiful, smiling lady looking at the CTA. Furthermore, the page uses colors intelligently to focus shoppers’ attention on the action.

Caveat on using directional cueing

Multiple arrow cues could confuse visitors. Keep cues simple.

9. Drive scarcity with out-of-stock products

FOMO is real. People want to belong, and they don’t want to miss out.

The fear of missing out on trendy things encourages shoppers to take quick action. Nobody loves isolation. We love moving with the tide.

A study found that most millennial consumers will make reactive purchases within 24 hours of experiencing FOMO. So, creating a sense of scarcity could help you sell more.

An easy way is to stimulate urgency with out-of-stock messages. We love how Allbirds uses out-of-stock messages to drive scarcity.

Case Study: Allbirds drives sales with out-of-stock message

Allbirds understands that a product suddenly becomes more attractive when it’s no longer available, or it’s going off the shelves. So the brand highlights the scarcity of footwear by marketing it as a limited edition product.

It drives demand for the limited edition footwear by selling it alongside the Classics footwear in infinite supply. The Classics women’s wool runners are probably a decoy to influence customers’ preference for the limited edition shoe.

The truth is most people will prefer limited edition shoes over pairs anyone can easily buy anytime.

Caveat on using out-of-stock products to drive scarcity

Going out of stock frequently can cause you to lose customers.

10. Trigger their loss aversion with a deadline offer 

A typical consumer would rather not lose than get an equivalent gain.

I prefer keeping my $5 to losing it in the hopes of getting $50. It's human nature. Behavioral economists observe that people experience losses more severely than an equivalent gain.

Put in another way, the pain of losing your money is often more than the joy you gain in earning the same amount. It also holds for your customers.

So use deadline offers and urgency-induced words to trigger their loss aversion. The emotion often leads them to instant buying decisions.

Let's see what we can learn from SwissWatchExpo.

Case Study: SwisswatchExpo triggers loss aversion with a count-down timer

SwissWatchExpo uses exit pop-ups to offer a considerable discount plus free shipping to shoppers abandoning carts.

Of course, it’s not every day an online watch shopper will get this kind of deal. So the brand uses urgency-induced words in the copy to trigger customers’ loss aversion sentiment. 

The brand also adds a count-down timer to heighten shoppers’ fear of losses.

How to boost conversions with loss aversion 

Customers are loss-averse—action these tips to leverage the feeling to your advantage.

• Use a count-down timer and urgency-induced copies to trigger loss aversion.
• Offer shoppers easy and free returns to protect them against losses.
• Provide a money-back guarantee to give shoppers confidence.
• Use return and warranty policies to offer them safety nets.
• Make customers know what they’ll lose by not taking your offer. Don’t focus on your product benefits only.

Caveat on using the loss aversion principle

Loss aversion is a double-edged sword. 

It could trigger reactive purchases or make shoppers play safe with you to avoid losing their money. But safety nets like money-back guarantee, free shipping, and easy return could win you their confidence.

11. Make product comparison intuitive

Most online shoppers go to Amazon to research and compare products.

A study found that over two-thirds of these searchers return to Amazon to buy. But providing a product comparison tool ensures all product research happens on your website, minimizing the risk of losing prospects to other websites.

Furthermore, it streamlines product searches, allowing shoppers to make informed decisions on the fly without opening multiple tabs, leading to conversion.

Amazon's product discovery experience is seamless. So let’s see what they do.

​​Case Study: How Amazon streamlines product discovery with a comparison chart

Amazon comparison chart lets shoppers compare products effortlessly.

They could begin by clicking Compare with similar items below the product details, making the comparison tool accessible.

Clicking the product comparison link auto-populates the chart with the best similar products, saving shoppers time digging through its overwhelming categories to find products to compare.

Amazon comparison chart shows enough details for shoppers to make on-the-spot decisions. For instance, it shows the product specs, prices, brands, and customer ratings.

But Amazon shows additional information like warranty, customer review, and best seller rank for the main product below the comparison chart. Shoppers can see this information for similar items by navigating to their product pages.

Spotlighting only the main product makes the comparison chart less overwhelming, perhaps, keeping shoppers focused. 

Amazon also includes CTA buttons on the items so that shoppers add their preferred product to the cart without leaving the page.

How to improve conversion with a product comparison chart

• Make the chart accessible and intuitive with a compare button or link.
• Add all the parameters that’ll help shoppers make informed decisions, like price, brand, rating, specifications.
• Include CTA buttons in the chart to make buying any of the items effortless.
• Cross-sell customers with a “Frequently bought together section.
• Use three columns to make deciding easier. A study found that the human brain can quickly process up to 3 ‘chunks’ of information in our short-term memory.
• Auto-populate the chart to save shoppers’ the stress of finding similar items to compare.
• Supercharge conversion with discount—show products with a percentage off in the chart.
• Tag products on the chart that qualify for free shipping to entice shoppers.
• Provide multiple payment options to help shoppers pay without stress.

Caveat on implementing product comparison chart

What works for Amazon might not work for you. A/B test your product comparison chart to eliminate guesswork.

12. Leverage the science of personalization 

Being the same thing to everyone can cause your conversion to nosedive.

Consumers like to know you’re an expert on a subject. One study found that nearly 60% of people want personalized promotion. A different report shows that 80% of consumers are more likely to buy from brands that provide personalized experiences.

According to Bilal Jaffery of Deloitte, “Mass campaigns, and even personalized campaigns that group customers by persona or segment are no longer hitting the mark.” 

Customers are individuals, and they expect you to treat them that way, not as a profit center. They want brands that can adapt to their changing realities in real-time.

So offer them a personalized shopping experience. Let's see how Stitch Fix does it and what we can learn from them.

Case Study: How Stitch Fix Made $2.1 Billion With Hyper-personalization

Stitch Fix takes personalization to a whole new level.

The former CEO puts it this way:

“Other apparel retailers attempt to differentiate themselves through the lowest price or the fastest shipping; we differentiate ourselves through personalization.”

As part of its personalization strategy, the brand launched an app that sets up personal stores for shoppers, making their online shopping experience more intimate.

You might like: 24 High-Converting Apparel Product Page Examples

Stitch Fix sets up these personal stores by pulling clothes from different brands to match their user’s styles using information they provided in a short quiz. The feed changes constantly based on the company’s current inventory.

The brand tries to make its customers feel as individuals as possible. So beyond giving them personalized clothing recommendations, Stitch Fix also individualizes its web content to speak directly to shoppers.

Individualizing content makes it relatable and spurs shoppers to take action.

How to leverage the science of personalization

Action these tips to copy Stitch Fix’s personalization secrets.

• Speak to your customers directly in a language they understand. If it's not a technically inclined audience, use everyday language.
• Explore interactive quizzes on the landing page to learn about your customers' expectations and use that feedback to personalize your offering better.
• Use artificial intelligence solutions to improve the quality of your personalization and recommendations.
• Offer customized products to shoppers or allow them to personalize your offerings themselves.
• Uses filters and sorting tools to make product searches relevant to shoppers’ intent.
• Use shopper tracking technologies on your website to serve retargeted ads to shoppers based on their shopping history.
• Combine data and human judgment to deliver curated offers to your active customers.

Caveat on using eCommerce personalization

Personalizing customers’ experience requires collecting vast amounts of data about them. But shoppers hate completing long forms—it could make them bounce. 

But using interactive quizzes instead of traditional forms could help navigate this dilemma. For example, you could add a progress indicator to encourage them to complete the exercise.

Final thoughts

You don’t want to spend so much time and money on your promotions only to have a handful of leads trickling in.

Who wouldn’t appreciate reliable results?

You can drive desirable outcomes by actioning the strategies in this article.

Since you’re in on the secrets that high-converting landing pages use, it’s time to put them to good use.

The trick is to be testing these strategies constantly. You can’t apply them all, and not all of them will get you the most results. Take one secret per time.