Reasons for high bounce rate on

ECommerce Site’s Product Page

Bounce rate is one of the most important

metrics for any website. But for

ecommerce sites, it holds special

significance as it unveils the situation for

each product page and customer

interaction with them. It is considered as a

key performance indicators or KPI that

every ecommerce site needs to monitor

and assess from time to time. You need to

have a clear idea about what the

permissible bounce rate should be and

what is the alarming figure. Let us explain

here various aspects related to bounce rate

in ecommerce sites and the possible factors

contributing to it.

What Is Bounce Rate?

When a website visitor after landing on a

web page leaves it without going to other

pages or sections of the website is referred

as an instance of ‘bounce’. Now the bounce

rate is calculated as per the instances of

bounce per 100 visitors. For example, when

363 instances of bounce are found per 1000

visitors, the bounce rate for the website is36.3%.

Bounce rate fire eCommerce site

E-commerce websites depend on the

customer’s browsing throughout the

product pages for business conversion. The

higher the bounce rate the lesser is the

conversion rate for an ecommerce website.

So, checking the bounce rate and keeping

it under control is extremely important for

ecommerce sites. In ecommerce sites

majority of bounces happen mainly on

product pages whereupon the customer

lands to take a look at the product, makes

the decision to buy or not to buy and take

a look at the other alternatives.

User behaviour on product page: various

situations

When the visitor lands on a product page

of an ecommerce site, the most expected

and ideal outcome is the clicking of the

“Buy” button by the customer and

complete the purchase through the

checkout process. But this ideal outcome

which results in direct business output is

not achieved always.

The other positive outcome can be visiting

other product pages and adding additional

products to the shopping cart. As it is

evident both the situations that are

mentioned heretofore directly result in

favorable business outcome resulting in

good sales. But if the outcome is not

favorable with most visitors declining to

click through other pages there will be a

high bounce rate resulting in downslide in

sales. This is why checking bounce rate is

so important for an ecommerce website.

Is there any feasible and alarming level of

bounce rate for an ecommerce website?

First of all, there is no such thing as “good”

bounce rate. But yes, for any site a certain

bounce rate is unavoidable but whether it

affects the overall business output and

pulls down the business conversion,

depends on several other factors. If you

have a very large visitor base, your bounce

rate will also be a little higher than

websites with less traffic. It also depends

on the region. In certain regions bounce

rate will be incredibly higher and your

competitors in that region also experience

the same.

As of now drawing from the experience of

various ecommerce websites, a bounce

rate of more than 65% is considered as

alarming requiring immediate attention

and measures. Rather than experiencing

such huge bounce rate and addressing it

with proactive steps it is advisable to take

steps in advance and minimize the bounce

rate by following the best practices and

principles.

The reasons for high bounce rate on your

product page?

What are the biggest contributing factors

to the high bounce rate on your product

page? Are you not following the tested and

tried user experience principles of

eCommerce Sites? This is really important

to evaluate the shortcomings and flaws in

your ecommerce site product page that are

playing a part in enhancing your bounce

rate.

Let us explain here some of the key reasons

that boost the bounce rate of your

ecommerce site product page.

1. A cluttered layout with too many

distractions

Honestly, these days the attention span of

the most audience is too low and so, your

page should grab instant attention. This

needs offering a clutter-free page layout

with a clean focus on product images and

description and specifications of the

product in quick to read formats. Instead

of causing a distraction with too many

visual elements, ensure offering white

space between images and text points.

2. Images are not loading properly

There are many ecommerce websites that

lack speed when it comes to loading their

product images. For today’s restless web

audience that is an unpardonable flaw and

you are likely to be punished with most

users abandoning the page.

3. Not offering detailed images from all

angles

Most online buyers make decisions

through visuals rather than through

product descriptions and specifications. So,

images should be high quality and you

should provide several images to allow

viewing from as many angles as possible.

Secondly, the images should come with

hovering effect to allow zooming the

image for a detailed view.

4. Products are described in dense text

paragraph

As the attention span of the mobile

audience is fast eroding, they are less of

the reader and more of viewer now. So,

avoid offering them a description in the

dense text as no one will bother reading

them. Rather offer product description and

specifications in bullet points and in

tables.

5. Too many alternative options

It has been seen that too many alternative

options in a product page actually adds to

the distraction or just takes away the

abstention needed for coming to a buying

decision.

6. Failing to explain the USP of the product

Every product is a kind of solution to a

specific purpose. How uniquely it can

address the purpose or customer need

boosts the buying decision. Failing to

mention and explain the uniqueness of the

product can be enough to drive your

audience elsewhere. We must say that all

the principles for boosting user

engagement plus business transparency as

well as putting yourself in the shoe of your

customers will be important to reduce

bounce rate.