On the surface, there doesn’t appear to be anything wrong with the older Mattress Mart website. It appears to be functional, with decent framing, a plethora of above-the-fold menu options, and high definition imagery. But websites are a lot like mattresses. Sure, both look great on display, but what truly matters is always beneath the surface.
Mattress Mart was having difficulty drawing the customer from general interest to in-store purchases. By not learning how to display your products online, you won’t give the customer the tools they need to make an informed decision about major purchases.
What Mattress Mart needed was a complete overhaul of its shopping directory – not an easy task. That’s because e-commerce overhauls don’t happen by accident. They are born out of necessity and take time and effort to get right.
Creating the foundation for a digital storefront lies in the products themselves. Basics include photos, product descriptions, prices, size options, and categories. Once this process is complete, the web designer must layer this information in a way that influences customer behavior. For Mattress Mart, this involves description, specification, and warranty tabs below the main image gallery and comfort indicator.
Adding tabs and selectors to the product page does not deter potential leads from engagement. Just the opposite, in fact. People crave designs that compel them to interact with a website’s features. And we’re not just describing buttons. Nearly half of all shoppers go to a page’s product directory before browsing other parts of the site. Which means you can no longer just throw up a wall of text and hope the consumer will walk away from the experience with all the relevant information before they come into your brick and mortar store.
They will simply walk away. Never to return.
Mattress Mart knew this feeling. Its wall-of-text product listings were overwhelming. For purchases as expensive as a new mattress, you cannot occasionally break up product descriptions with a single image. You have to sell the experience of a good night’s rest.
Knowing how to display your products online is why this difference matters. Because if you have a good online shopping experience, it will only increase the probability for repeat business and word-of-mouth marketing.
