A landing page is the online equivalent of a storefront in the physical world. It’s the consumer’s first impression of your business, and you have about seven seconds to grab the average web user’s attention before they navigate elsewhere. It’s imperative that you provide an experience that is inviting and intuitive to the user since any amount of frustration or confusion could lead to losing a sale.

To that end, we’ve provided the seven elements of successful e-commerce landing pages so that you can grab their attention before it’s too late.

Transparent Navigation

Of the different types of web pages, an e-commerce landing page is the one that should offer the least resistance between the consumer’s arrival and their ability to act. A general rule of thumb for navigation is that it should take no more than three clicks of the mouse to get from any page on your site to their intended destination.

This means when you’re considering how your landing page will link to pages deeper into the website, eliminate any unnecessary detours that may lead them away from that all-important “buy now” button.

Substance Over Flash

Many web designers make the mistake of thinking you need blinking buttons or deceptive links to get consumers to buy things. If this is the case, then chances are their products simply aren’t high quality. Assuming yours are, your job becomes providing users with as much relevant information within the page as possible, as seen in this example for commercial fire extinguishers.

Be advised, however, that the key word here is “relevant information,” meaning that which will assist them in their purchase. It does not mean bombard them with sales pitches beyond the facts. Rather, strive for intelligent and compelling copy.

Use Space Efficiently

In landing pages or any web page for that matter, efficiency is measured through use of the available white space. Most users peruse a page from top left to bottom right, so you should have the most important bits of information in that order.

There should be opportunities for the user to go where you want them to along the way, either through links or buttons. As an example: Image-heavy landing pages with lots of white space use every opportunity to lead consumers toward a purchase.

Avoid Technical Issues

There is some leniency with other types of pages in terms of 404 Errors and the like, but e-commerce users usually have a low tolerance for those kinds of problems.

A link that leads nowhere or a button that doesn’t work can give the impression that your site can’t be trusted with their credit card information. Extensive testing is recommended.

Gather Reviews

The end-all for e-commerce pages is, of course, the conversion. This involves monetary exchange for either a product, a subscription, or a service. However, failure to convert isn’t a total loss. Much of e-commerce success is based on marketing, and much of online marketing is gathering consumer email addresses so you can approach them from different angles.

A potential customer may decide against a purchase at any given time, but they could be swayed by a landing page that features positive reviews from happy customers.

Use Social Media

This should be a no-brainer for any webpage in the modern era. Much of how you generate business online will come from visitors who share your products with their friends and family. Indeed, word-of-mouth is a powerful tool.

You can take advantage of this by making your landing page easy to share on the various platforms. In fact, sites like Twitter and Facebook have marketing tools available to target former visitors and remind them why they were interested as they browse their news feeds.

Choose Images Carefully

This is one of the more important aspects of an e-commerce landing page because product shoppers usually require visual confirmation of products before they make a purchase. Hosting platforms can limit the quality of your images according to available space, making smart compression and web-optimized file types a must.

Regardless of their quality, make sure the images match your brand and present the most attractive sides to your physical product.