Highlight the Value of Your Products With New Product Subtitles

The modern shopper can sometimes be a bit like a little kid: easily distracted and often very picky with their choices. The best way to snap your shoppers back to attention? Make the shopping experience as smooth as possible, and help them on their quest for the perfect purchase. That’s much easier than it sounds when you have our new tool on hand.

Product subtitles are short pieces of text that describe an item’s advantages right on the product list: be it a special offer, ingredients, services available, or any other information that customers need to make a purchasing decision.


Answer the questions before they were asked

Read on to find out how you can tap into product subtitle’s potential to help your customers make all important purchasing decisions.

In this post:

How Product Subtitles Help Sell More

Online shoppers are easily distracted — so distracted that 88% of online shopping orders are abandoned. Plus, the larger your product range is, the harder it can be for a customer to choose the right item. People get overwhelmed when presented with too many options, because they often weigh each one against the others to select which is best, and get confused or distracted along the way.

You can’t change human nature, but you can help your customers find the right product. They might be searching for a discounted item, the one that comes with free shipping, or the one with specific ingredients. The easier it is to identify the product customers are looking for, the more likely they are to complete their purchase.

There are lots of tools that make store navigation more convenient, from product filters to ribbons. But let us introduce you to the newest card up your sleeve — product subtitles!


Free shipping can increase your sales. Offer it as soon as possible.

Without subtitles, customers have to click on product details to learn more about what you’re selling. Or, they might not click at all — and miss finding what they were actually looking for.

But if you set up subtitles, a product’s benefits are visible right away — first on your storefront, and then inside your product details page.


Do remind about free shipping along the customer journey

The text of subtitles is “searchable”. If shoppers type in “gluten-free products” in your store’s search box, they will see a list of all the items that have “gluten-free” in their subtitles.

How to Use Product Subtitles

What your product subtitles say should depend on your target audience, niche, and services available in your store. Below are just a couple of ideas for product subtitles.

Don’t forget, you can always come up with your own use for subtitles! Just make sure they aren’t overloaded with content and actually address the customer’s interest and needs.

Show what the product is made of

If you run a cafe or a restaurant, picky eaters and people with allergies will appreciate it if you display the ingredients right on the storefront:


Gluten-free? Give me two!

Food isn’t the only product where ingredients matter. Customers are conscious about the contents of their cosmetics, clothes, toys for their kids, and many other things.

List product characteristics

“Machine washable”, “non fading paper”, “hand-crafted”, “can go in a dishwasher” — all these characteristics are essential for shoppers because they might influence their decision to buy a product.

Keep track of the most common questions customers ask about your products and include that information in product subtitles.

Explain the benefit of complex products

New and innovative products can be the hardest to sell. Not all shoppers are curious enough or have time to do research about a product they don’t fully understand.

Anticipate your customer’s questions and include all relevant information in the subtitles to make your product, no matter how innovative, relatable to shoppers.


Give your cautious customers an extra reason to buy

Bring out products on sale

Discounted items, “Buy One, Get One Free” deals, gifts with a purchase — those types of products are likely to catch the eye of thrifty shoppers. Make sure they won’t miss out on the best deals your store has to offer.

Highlight various services

Do you offer extended warranty options, or the fastest delivery in your city? Your customers want to hear about it! (And will reward you with more orders.)

If you offer popular services like free shipping, customization options, or gift wrapping, don’t hesitate to let your customers know.


Gifts with a purchase are my favorite!

Show off products that make a difference

Does your store support non-profit or local suppliers? Are your products made from upcycled materials? For some shoppers, strong company values are as essential as product characteristics — so make sure to highlight business practices that your customers might find compelling.


Tell customers that they contribute to a big thing

How to Set Up Product Subtitles

Product subtitles are available on all premium Ecwid plans.

Before you start adding product subtitles, you might need to go to the What’s New page and enable the Next-gen storefront. (If you’ve set up your Ecwid store after spring 2018, Next-gen storefront is already enabled for you).

To add product subtitles:

  1. Go to Catalog → Products.
  2. Open details of a product you want to add a subtitle for.
  3. Find the “Add product subtitle field” and click on it.
  4. Enter the subtitle for your product.
  5. Click Save.

That’s it! Now your product is ready to wow.

Keep in mind that subtitles are displayed under the product title by default. You can change that, and display subtitles if your customer hovers a mouse over the product picture in the grid:


Make subtitles a useful part of your design

Also, by default, product subtitles are displayed both on your storefront and on your product page, but you can choose to show subtitles only in one place.

Learn more about adding and placing product subtitles in our Help Center.

Set up product subtitles

Three Tips to Get Attention to Your Products

A buyer’s decision is largely influenced by what they see on your storefront. It’s not just about great photography, but also building trust and demonstrating the demand for your items.

Mark bestsellers with product ribbons

A simple “Bestseller” label can work wonders as it proves your product is popular with other shoppers. Use product ribbons to highlight the best selling products in your store. You can’t add as much text on a ribbon as in a subtitle, but ribbons are brighter and more eye-catching.


Tell what’s in high demand

Show product ratings

When shopping online, customers rely on reviews and ratings a lot. They help a buyer make a decision between different options and prove that your products are worth buying.

Install the HelpfulCrowd app to display product ratings on your storefront and customer reviews on product pages.

Demonstrate instant social proof

Recent order notifications (“Someone just bought this item”) act as an instant reminder that the item in question is a great deal. These notifications also create a sense of scarcity which may stimulate sales.


Create the feeling of the crowd inside your store. Prove that you have lots of customers.

Use apps like Fomo or Crowdlever to to display recent purchases made in your store and build social proof for your brand.

Your Ideas for Using Product Subtitles

It’s likely your online store is going to have more visitors this holiday season, as online shopping is on the rise (thanks, pandemic). Anticipate your customer’s needs and roll out product benefits to make the most of this busy period.

Now over to you: do you have any creative ideas for using product subtitles?


 
About The Author
Sergey Savelev is a Product Manager at Ecwid. He creates marketing tools to help online sellers get more orders. In his free time, Sergey enjoys PS games and plays in a rock band.

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