CRO Tips for Ecommerce Landing Pages (+3 Examples)

A well-done (and well-maintained) ecommerce landing page can make your brand millions, even billions, of dollars over time. But don’t expect to whip these kinds of pages up in a day or two with a landing page builder and whatever copy you come up with off the top of your head. Those hardly become cash cows. 

What more does it take to develop high-converting ecommerce landing pages that are among your most reliable sources for customer acquisition? Let us fill you in. 

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High-converting ecommerce landing pages are research-based 

What’s the first step to success when building or optimizing landing pages? Do your research. That’s the most important advice we could ever give you. 

Brands are often disappointed to find that it’s not enough to implement general best practices or even to emulate CRO tactics other brands have used successfully. Ultimately, your landing page strategy must be right for your brand and target customers. There’s no way around it—without thorough research, driving conversions is an uphill battle.

So where should you start with conversion research? 

1. Analyze quantitative data: Determine what your ecommerce site or specific landing pages do well and what elements are hurting performance. To do this, scrutinize your analytics and use heatmaps, scrollmaps, and other quantitative data to get the full picture. 
2. Gather qualitative insights: Instead of jumping straight into brainstorming A/B testing ideas as many do, dig into why certain elements of your landing pages do or don’t work. Through usability tests, polls, surveys, and interviews, put yourself in site visitors’ shoes and learn about their wants, needs, and concerns. 
3. Develop a roadmap: With a deep understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of your landing pages and of your ideal customers, it’s time to strategize. How can you meet the needs of the people you’re trying to attract? What concerns should you address or what questions should you answer to make it easier for them to become customers? The research done to this point helps answer those questions and build a solid foundation for conversion optimization. 

We’ve seen this process, which we call the Testing Trifecta, serve many brands well. Laura Geller’s conversions increased by an average of 43% after the discovery that the brand’s landing pages needed to be tailored for an older customer avatar. And DIFF Eyewear saw a 55% increase thanks to new landing pages tailored to the brand’s mobile visitors. 

Your research can achieve similar if not better results if you base your landing page optimization strategy on quantitative and qualitative research. 

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How to build a high-converting landing page like a pro

Now, when thinking about the larger process of building an effective landing page, what are the steps? 

1. Define the goal and target audience

Starting a conversion rate optimization project with no conversion goal is like starting a trip with no destination. You may end up where you want to be eventually, or you could end up lost. Either way, you’ll waste time and resources. 

So, before anything else, clarify what you want to achieve (e.g., reducing cart abandonment rate, increasing add-to-cart rate, boosting conversion rate). What metric would you like to improve, by how much, and by when? 

Having this objective in mind from the start will help you decide on the best route to get there later. For example, if reducing cart abandonment is the goal, your research in the next stage will focus on identifying the top reasons people abandon your landing page and making adjustments accordingly. That could include tweaking language ​​in the copy or adding trust-builders like testimonials to the page. 

Or if you want to sell more of a certain product, you’ll know you need to eliminate page elements that distract from it, such as mentions of other loosely-related products. And you’ll be reminded to cover all of the top selling points, answer the most frequently asked questions, and proactively address any objections that could come up. 

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2. Conduct thorough market research

There are several ways to gather intel about the customer avatar your landing page will be tailored for: 

• Website polls to learn about site visitors’ opinions, wants, needs, and preferences
• Usability testing to identify issues with and opportunities to improve the functionality of a page 
• Customer interviews to learn about the conversion triggers, motivations, pain points, and behaviors of your ideal customers
• Session recordings to identify points of interest for potential customers or things that might be adding friction to the user experience
• Chat support analysis to identify user experience issues, FAQs, information that’s unclear, and so on

From there, you can put the insights you gather to use. 

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3. Craft laser-targeted copy

When wordsmithing landing page copy, there are some key things to remember. 

• Choose headlines wisely. Headlines can be straightforward, clever, or even a little mysterious. But two things they should never be are unclear or uninteresting. Your headlines and subheadings should give a good indication of what the copy to follow is about or, at least, make people want to stick around to find out. 

• Focus on outcomes. Ever heard the saying “features over benefits?” It’s a good point—it’s important to explain why the features of your product or service should interest potential buyers. But we’ll reframe this advice and say you should focus on outcomes. What does enjoying the benefits you point to look and feel like? Describe it in vivid detail. 
• Write for a specific use case. Unlike product pages, which may touch on different use cases, it’s usually best to dial landing pages into one. If there are several for what you offer, pick the one that will be most relevant to the customer persona your landing page targets and stick with it. 
• Use trust builders every chance you get. User-generated content (UGC) can increase conversions by up to 100.6%, according to research by Power Reviews, so add customer testimonials, brand-related social media content, and other forms of UGC to your landing pages. Also, use influencer content, awards, certifications, and mentions in the media to build trust. 
• Promote one high-value, clear call-to-action (CTA). Pick the top action you want people to take after visiting your landing page, and stick to promoting that. Don’t water down the persuasiveness of your copy by trying to point visitors in several different directions. (You may also want to cut down on links that direct visitors away from your landing page.) 
• Consider traffic sources. Users of social media platforms, such as TikTok and Instagram, like to engage with shorter content. They may not convert if you direct them from there to a long, informational landing page. A different landing page type, like a fun quiz, may be better. In contrast, paid traffic from a Google Ad for a commercial intent keyword may convert well on an informative hero landing page, so always consider where you’ll be driving traffic from. 

And one final reminder: The secret sauce of landing page copy is customization. Each visitor should feel like the copy was written just for them based on their needs, desires, where they’re at in the buyer’s journey, and so on. Doing and applying voice-of-customer research is essential. 

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4. Take care of landing page UX, design, and development

At this point, you can create or redesign your landing page—either with a landing page builder or with the help of a design agency. Either way, this should be done with your research, usability best practices, and behavioral design principles in mind. 

Some brands and agencies get this backward, starting with the landing page design and then writing copy to fit within it. Why do it the other way around? In many cases, the copy is doing most of the persuading, so the design should complement it, not dictate it.

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What to remember when creating and optimizing landing pages

With that process in mind, here’s a quick overview of some things to remember. 

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Get information hierarchy right

Depending on the customer persona your landing page is tailored for, some selling points will be more persuasive than others. What’s a huge plus for one potential customer may not matter to someone else. Or a potential objection that’s common for this persona may be no big deal to another. How can you know what pains, desires, questions, or objections to address to hook visitors’ attention and then get them to convert?

Deep customer research is integral for determining what key points to focus on and in what order. As is figuring out how best to present that info visually speaking. Many, if not most, skim pages rather than reading word for word, beginning to end. Your key points need to be able to be seen and understood at a glance. It’s part of the reason why many CRO experts advise structuring pages with common scanning patterns in mind. 

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Use visuals to your advantage 

Photos, graphics, videos, and other visuals are multi-purpose. They can do all of the following and more: 

• Complement written explanations to get important points across
• Spark an emotional desire to own your product or enjoy the benefits of your service 
• Help people feel more comfortable with making a purchase since they can see what they’ll be getting or the people behind the brand 

Visuals can work hand-in-hand with your copy to drive conversions today and bring people back to your online store tomorrow. The right branded image can be memorable and increase the chances that people will think of you when they’re ready to buy in the future, or a friend or family member says they’re looking for what you offer. 

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Never stop testing 

Landing page optimization is not a one-and-done process. There are always tweaks that can improve your conversion rates. It’s just up to you to keep testing to figure out what they are, and that could include either or both of the following: 

• A/B testing of a single different element on two versions of a page
• Multivariate testing to find the highest-converting combinations of page elements, including copy, buttons, product images, and so on

Similarly, over time, there will always be a need to update your landing page copy, design, and overall user experience. There will be changes within your target market, within your industry, and possibly even changes to your offers or brand messaging. All of those should inform your landing pages as they evolve. 

But, if they do, does that mean guaranteed success? Our founder and CEO, Raphael Paulin-Daigle, gave this insight: “Even if a landing page is built following all the ‘best practices’ and customer data available, the first version of a landing page is still a hypothesis. There's no guarantee that it'll immediately outperform other pages you may have been optimizing since the very beginning of the business. 

“Every landing page is a test, and while landing pages can end up being a backbone for profitable customer acquisition, no one can get to get holes-in-one every time. Iterating and testing is part of the game, and some of the most successful landing pages were the result of multiple rounds of testing.”

Just remember not to lose sight of metrics in favor of brainstorming big ideas for your next test. After every optimization and before you move on to the next one, analyze the impact on performance. Did your bounce rate and session duration increase or decrease? How was your add-to-cart rate affected? What about cart abandonment? What about conversions?  

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Learn from 4 of the best ecommerce landing page examples

We’ve talked a lot about what to do if you want a landing page that converts—and you do, of course. So let’s see some examples of ecommerce landing pages that walk the talk, courtesy of SplitBase’s own DTC Swipe Files. 

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De Lune

Women’s health brand De Lune does many things right on its landing page for the product Cramp Aid. One, it leads with a fear-based headline, which can be good for grabbing attention when done right. Two, the headline uses red—often associated with danger—to catch the eye immediately and emphasize the danger of painkillers.  

Subsequent text in this section and the next directly challenges the idea that painkillers are the only remedy for period pain; i.e., it states De Lune’s brand point of view while also making people wonder what the better alternative is. 

After laying out the problem and De Lune’s stance, it introduces Cramp Aid as the solution. There’s a clear visual with instructions on when to use it and a short and sweet list of reasons it’s a healthier, better solution than painkillers. Not to mention two callouts of a special discount to encourage people to buy right away. 

There’s also social proof throughout the page—star ratings, logos of big brands that love the product, and a ton of glowing customer reviews from verified buyers. 

By educating first, promoting second, and using trust-builders throughout, DeLune positions its products as reliable and worth the money. 

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Sandland

Health and wellness brand Sandland has a great mobile landing page that could provide some inspiration for your own landing pages. There’s fairly little copy but, from the first headline on, what’s there is centered on what Sandland’s products do and their benefits (it “improves circadian rhythms naturally,” “improves nightly sleep,” helps users “rediscover restfulness,” and so on).

The copy also emphasizes that the products are “all-natural” and “restore your body’s natural sleep patterns” to appeal to people who agree that natural remedies are more healthful. 

There are also plenty of trust-builders on the page, including a positive comment from BuzzFeed, sleep improvement stats and a mini case study from Oura Ring users, customer testimonials, and doctor bios. 

Lastly, we love that the page features two closely-related products—one for getting to sleep fast and one for staying asleep. No matter what each visitor's challenge is, the page can convert them. 

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Harry’s

Personal care brand Harry’s provides another example of a well-done ecommerce landing page. Although the page is fairly short, it does a good job of promoting a product trial. The headline “Join the 10 million+ who’ve tried Harry’s” instantly makes the brand reputable and can even inspire fear of missing out in folks who haven’t tried it yet. 

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Very early on, the copy also states the brand’s stance that people “have been overpaying for overdesigned razors” for too long. The rest of the copy and visuals drive those points home in a couple of ways: The simple but high-quality product images and concise copy set the brand apart from others that offer “overdesigned razors,” and the price comparison section and graphic set it apart from brands with expensive razors. With both points made and proven, the final call-to-action can do its job of getting people to sign up for a trial. 

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Oakcha

Next is a landing page we built based on insights from the conversion research process we walked through earlier. There are many things it does well starting with the clear, descriptive, and enticing headline. 

Attractive, high-quality product photos are displayed throughout. And bolding, icons, and other page elements draw attention to key ingredients, features, and benefits of the products. Plus, the “choose your scent” filter makes it easier for visitors to find the product that will be best for them. 

This page also uses a ton of social proof. Notice the mention of “over 15,000 5-star reviews” in the hero section, the bestseller reviews in the product sections, the video testimonials, and the written customer reviews toward the bottom of the page. 

Just before those reviews is a special offer—a sampler that allows people to try five fragrances if they’re having trouble choosing one. Not only does this reduce hesitation to convert immediately but the discount code for a future purchase increases the chances that there will be a future purchase. 

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Your next landing page may be the best-converting one yet

You’ve seen examples of great desktop and mobile landing pages and learned the process, do’s, and don’ts of creating your own. That includes the importance of investing heavily in conversion and audience research and using them as the foundation for your copy and design. 

If you and your team follow what you’ve learned here, you can get a higher return on investment from your ecommerce landing pages than you’re currently seeing. That ROI can be even higher if you bring on a trusted partner like SplitBase that specializes in landing page optimization.

Book a call with us, and we'll walk you through a personalized discovery session to discuss how we can help you make more money from your landing pages.