User Experience Content Strategy For E-commerce Sites

Content is no longer marketing, it’s the revenue engine! For years, content and commerce existed in silos. Brands ran ads, drove traffic to product pages, and worked hard to ensure users wouldn’t drop off before checkout. But the rules have changed. The most successful app-first companies don’t just use content to attract users, they use it to drive seamless, high-intent purchases inside the app. 🔹 Why are traditional funnels broken? Users don’t want to be sold to. They want to discover, engage, and buy - all in one flow. The second you make them switch platforms, create an account, or dig for product info, you lose them. Every extra step in the journey kills intent and conversions. 🔹 The new content-commerce playbook Winning apps don’t “market” products, they embed shopping into content experiences. ✅ Amazon Live: Users watch influencers demo products and can buy instantly - no external clicks needed. ✅ Myntra Studio: Shoppers consume influencer-led fashion content, then shop for the exact look inside the app. ✅ Strava’s Feed: Fitness insights from real users drive engagement with premium features and gear purchases. 🔹 The takeaway for app-first businesses If your content doesn’t reduce friction and increase conversions, it’s just noise. Here’s how to turn content into a revenue driver: ✅ UGC-powered decision-making: Users trust users. Make peer content (reviews, experiences) part of the shopping flow. ✅ In-app content-to-checkout pipelines: Stop driving users elsewhere to buy. The transaction should happen inside the engagement. ✅ AI-powered personalization: Serve content based on browsing history, social proof, and live trends to increase purchase intent. The biggest shift in in-app commerce? Content is no longer just marketing, it’s the sales funnel itself! #ContentCommerce #AppGrowth #InAppEngagement

It will happen slowly, then all of a sudden. Your customers will shift how they search for information about your products. They will use: 1) Decision engines like Google, designed to help them compare products, confirm product details and make purchases. 2) Information engines like ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overviews that feel more like a conversation with a trusted expert or knowledgable friend. Traditional search engines hand you a research project — many pages to sift through to find the information you seek. Generative AI search engines give you direct answers — with a chance of hallucination and inaccuracies. Here's what marketers need to understand: 🔹 Acknowledge the shift: Your customers are learning how/when to use two different types of search engines. There's the traditional "decision engine" like Google, and the "information engine" like chatGPT. 🔹 Accept that humans are lazy: Humans will choose the most convenient option. It’s human nature. Your customers prefer speed and convenience over absolute precision. 🔹 Information queries are moving to AI: When your customers want to learn about their problems, they’ll have conversations with AI instead of reading your blog posts. If your brand isn't appearing in these AI responses, you're becoming invisible to a growing audience. 🔹 Prepare for reduced website traffic: Expect fewer visits from basic informational queries as AI handles these directly. However, the traffic you do receive will be higher-intent visitors, closer to making a decisions, that should convert better. 🔹 Update your content strategy: Create different content for different search engines — intent-targeted informational content for generative AI search, and conversion-focused content for traditional search. 🔹 Build content AI can't summarize: Create interactive content, like calculators and data-driven content that requires user input. This ensures your brand stays visible even as AI handles informational queries. 🔹 Focus on intent, not keywords: The old approach of targeting high-volume keywords is outdated. Instead, understand and align with your customers' search intentions. The key takeaway? Humans are lazy. Your customers will consistently choose the convenience of direct answers from generative AI, even if those answers are sometimes inaccurate. They want to avoid sifting through pages of search results. As marketers, we need to adapt to this new reality. We must create content that caters to both types of searches: (1) content that helps your brand appear in generative AI responses for informational queries and (2) content that attracts and converts for decision searches on traditional search engines. How are you starting to search differently with generative AI?

Ecommerce stores can learn a LOT from brick and mortar. 'Digital marketing' isn't really a thing anymore - it's just marketing. Software and the internet ate the world. The lines between physical and digital are blurring, if they still exist at all. And the best brands treat their ecommerce experience a lot like an IRL store. → Personalization: Just as a good retail salesperson in a physical store can help a first time shopper or remember a returning customer’s preferences, ecommerce platforms should leverage data to personalize the shopping experience. → Immersive experiences: Brick-and-mortar stores have the advantage of creating sensory-rich environments. Ecommerce stores can replicate this by investing in high-quality content, virtual try-ons and 360-degree product views. There used to be an excuse that your product is 'difficult to sell online', but it's been busted. If people buy sunglasses, mattresses, and cars online - then you can definitely find a way to make your product more immersive. → Trustworthy customer service: For many shoppers, a helpful store assistant can make or break a sale. Ecommerce stores should focus on excellent customer service through live chat, and responsive customer support that goes the extra mile. → Leverage Data for continuous improvement: Physical stores often use foot traffic and sales data to optimize store layouts and merchandise. Ecommerce stores should use website analytics to understand customer behavior, optimize the sales funnel, and refine the user journey. It’s a no-brainer for brands to gather heat maps and customer feedback to unlock valuable insights into improving the online shopping experience. → Omnichannel: Successful brands integrate their online, offline, and marketplace channels to create a cohesive shopping experience. Features like BOPIS, Buy with Prime, and seamless returns across channels can enhance customer convenience and satisfaction. → Community engagement: Brick-and-mortar stores often serve as community hubs, hosting events and fostering a sense of belonging. Ecommerce brands should build communities with their audience so customers can engage with each other, as well as with the brand directly. → Innovative tech stack: IRL stores are investing heavily into technology, from POS to loyalty and beyond. Your ecommerce experience should feel fresh, easy, and exciting if you’re going to stand out in a sea of competitors. Ensuring that promotions, loyalty programs, and customer data are unified across channels strengthens brand consistency. Anything I'm missing?

After 10+ years of optimizing e-commerce websites, I can say this: your Product Detail Pages (PDPs) are most likely draining your marketing budget. Why? Because up to 75% of e-commerce traffic from ads lands directly on PDPs, which are often under-optimized for conversion. While every product and brand is unique, there are some strategies we've learned from extensive A/B testing: 1. First impressions matter - Invest in design and delight. Don't ignore these side-doors shoppers enter from. 2. Conversion levers - Small things matter. Sweat the details. Learn what makes customers bounce or stay, buy and come back for more. 3. Trust signals - You're not Amazon or Apple. New users landing on PDPs don't know and trust your brand yet. Every trust signal you can add helps. I'll be sharing examples of before / after PDPs we've designed to illustrate our learnings. YMMW. Test, test and test more. Here are 9 key PDP improvements that can help beauty brand- The Wellness Shop 1. Add breadcrumbs: They help navigation and encourage deeper catalog exploration/ product discovery. 2. Concise product name & benefit-driven description: A clear product name paired with a one-line benefit statement instantly communicates value. 3. Images or videos of the product being used: Lifestyle images with models using the product (and tagged benefits) build trust and desire. 4 & 9. Give them a path to find other products. Or they'll bounce. "You might also like" or "Similar products" will also increase average order value (AOV). 5. List top product benefits above the fold: Highlight key benefits in a short, skimmable list for quick understanding of "why is this awesome". 6. Highlight savings: Display discounts and offers prominently near the "Add to Cart" CTA to create urgency and to motivate customers to buy. 7. User-Generated Content (UGC) Videos: Authentic customer videos build trust and demonstrate real-world product use. 8. Add well designed enhanced product details: a. Before & After Visuals: Showcase tangible results. b. Usage Instructions: Simple steps demonstrate ease of use. c. Comparison Table: Position your product against competitors. Found this useful. Would love to hear in the comments! DM me to learn more about optimizing your PDPs or any ecommerce page! #conversionrateoptimization #PDP #ABtesting

A client came to us frustrated. They had thousands of website visitors per day, yet their sales were flat. No matter how much they spent on ads or SEO, the revenue just wasn’t growing. The problem? Traffic isn’t the goal - conversions are. After diving into their analytics, we found several hidden conversion killers: A complicated checkout process – Too many steps and unnecessary fields were causing visitors to abandon their carts. Lack of trust signals – Customer reviews missing on cart page, unclear shipping and return policies, and missing security badges made potential buyers hesitate. Slow site speeds – A few-second delay was enough to make mobile users bounce before even seeing a product page. Weak calls to action – Generic "Buy Now" buttons weren’t compelling enough to drive action. Instead of just driving more traffic, we optimized their Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) strategy: ✔ Simplified the checkout process - fewer clicks, faster transactions. ✔ Improved customer testimonials and trust badges for credibility. ✔ Improved page load speeds, cutting bounce rates by 30%. ✔ Revamped CTAs with urgency and clear value propositions. The result? A 28% increase in sales - without spending a dollar more on traffic. More visitors don’t mean more revenue. Better user experience and conversion-focused strategies do. Does your ecommerce site have a traffic problem - or a conversion problem? #EcommerceGrowth #CRO #DigitalMarketing #ConversionOptimization #WebsiteOptimization #AbsoluteWeb

Users determine whether your products are right for them in just 1/2 a second. If you're leading with discounts, you've already lost the game... First impressions don't just matter, they're everything in the digital world. Half a second is all it takes to form a lasting anchor in your customer's mind. Yesterday I spoke with an ecommerce brand selling premium products at premium prices. The first thing visitors see on their site? A 15% discount offer. This undermines everything they've built. The psychological principle at play here is called anchoring bias: whatever users see first becomes the reference point for every decision that follows. So when your homepage leads with "15% OFF!" you're telling customers price is your main differentiator. You've just anchored your brand as a discount option, even if you sell luxury goods 😳 This has devastating long-term effects on perceived value. Customers trained to expect discounts will wait for sales rather than buying at full price. They'll question the value of anything that isn't discounted. The data proves this approach is deadly for conversions. For one client, we shifted focus from discounts to their unique value proposition: "the best guarantees in the industry." This simple change in anchoring generated over $1.1 million in additional sales. The initial anchor point set customer expectations for the entire journey. When we positioned the brand as premium rather than cheap, customers responded accordingly. Take a hard look at your website's first impression: ↳ Are you anchoring on value or on discounts? ↳ Are you setting yourself up for sustainable growth or a race to the bottom?

Imagine walking into a store and getting hit with 9 questions before you see anything… That’s what most ecommerce sites feel like today... You land on a homepage and immediately get: - A popup  - A cookies notice  - A sale banner  - A floating chat with us! bubble  - A take our quiz prompt  - A get 10% off squeeze All before you’ve even scrolled. That’s like a retail employee hitting you with 9 questions before you walk 3 feet. 𝗜𝘁'𝘀 𝗲𝘅𝗵𝗮𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴. We don’t talk enough about how 𝗨𝗫 𝗳𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗴𝘂𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. When a customer’s already had a long day, their brain isn’t craving more decisions... it’s craving clarity. So simplify your landing experience: → Kill the popups (or delay them) → Show one clear CTA → Limit top nav to 3-5 items → Don’t stack 3 promos at once → Start with ONE hero action and build from there Fewer choices = faster action.

Ecommerce SEO Tip: REI's "Expert Advice" feature is a brilliant example of how to integrate expert content + a commerce page. One question we get asked a lot by eCommerce clients is how to better optimize their category pages. Oftentimes, optimizing these this content is limited since stores are limited by their SKUs, filtering options, existing modules and more. A suggestion that commonly comes up is how to integrate existing informational content such as buying guides and blog posts on relevant category pages. While the suggestion is interesting, oftentimes there's pushback since this type of content could infringe on the purchasing experience. REI has a fantastic solution of creating a separate tab at the top of their category pages that includes the "Expert Advice" heading. This allows for an easy connection to informational content. Clicking this module expands related articles to the category page (Best Hiking Boots, How To Break In Hiking Boots). To me, this is one of the most creative integrations of informational content and a commerce page. It allows for users and search engines to connect the informational content to the core page without interrupting the shopping experience.