Web Hints - The Importance of good Product Copy

It’s an unequivocal fact that the better your general and product copy, the more likely you are going to be to get a customer to buy. How this isn’t obvious to some retailers completely stuns me. But it isn’t.

It seems to be a tough message to get out there that there are no short cuts to be had in this or pretty well any other area of your site if what you’re trying to do is sell product with any success. I review websites constantly, and try (and sometimes fail) to come across as being polite when I find typos, bad grammar, limited information and what basically boils down to lazy copy. Sorry if you’re trying to sell hundreds of different products, but you need to establish a consistent, friendly, informative and accurate format and stick to it with every single item.

Some retailers try and write too much, which can also have the adverse effect of sending a prospective customer scurrying away to another retailer, drowning in an overflow of words.

Once a customer has been tempted by firstly your home page and secondly by easily navigating through to a product they’re interested in, usually via a pic, and hopefully with a zoom facility (and don’t get me on that subject) they will want some more info.

This is what they expect, and what it most likely to tempt them to buy:

1) Friendly, brief and informative descriptive text
2) Sizing information (or dimensions, depending on the product)
3) Fabric information (or ingredients, construction, fabrication etc)
4) Any relevant further detail.
5) Knowledge that they can speak to someone if they need to ask for help

Inevitably one of the best examples of ‘how to get all of this right’ and a role model for selling pretty well anything online is www.netaporter.com. Here you have some inviting ‘Editor’s Notes’ to draw you in. The you can click through to the ‘Details’ where all the fabric information resides plus things like ‘exaggerated shoulders’ and ‘concealed zip fastening’. Then you can click to ‘Size and Fit’ and all three mini pages have the invitation to email their style advisors plus the product code.

Now you may well say to me that Netaporter have spent a fortune on their site, which they undoubtedly have, but that’s not the point. The point is, that through trial and error (probably) they have established a formula which works, and which you should analyse and follow in as much as you can, whether on a single product page or more.

Yesterday I writing about ‘Summer Pearls’ for GlamourSleuth (to be published on Wednesday along with a special offer at thesiteguide.com). I came across some of the worst designed websites I have seen for a long time - dreadful pictures - hopeless copy - totally out of date design. Why the people running these websites think they will work totally beats me. Come to me please………I can really, really help you, I promise………….

Summer Pearls - Classic Chic

Technorati Tags: Pearl Necklace,Pearl Bracelet,Multi Strand Pearl Necklace,Amethyst Pendant,Dower and Hall,By Elise,Astley Clarke

Last week I had lunch with a great friend of mine who lives in Zurich.  She is always slim, elegant and beautifully styled and usually has me wanting to run home and change the instant I see her because no matter how hard I try, I could never achieve that modern/classic seemingly effortless style that some people just seem to be born with.

One of the things I noticed was her gorgeous brown and ivory pearl multi strand lariat necklace, which set off everything she wore, and this made me think about the need for every girl to own at least one perfect pearl necklace, in particular to wear in the summer.  Why summer?  Just because once you bring out the paler neutrals, pastels and whites of a summer palette, pearls seem to enhance everything.  But there are some rules………..

 

Don’t make the mistake of thinking your grandmother’s pearl necklace will do if you want your look to be up to date.  I’ve tried that one and it quite simply doesn’t work - most of those pearls, however beautiful, will be too small, too classic, and make you look older than you are.

 

For now, right now, concentrate on stand-out pearls; a necklace, single or multi-strand.  Earrings preferably that drop and have a modern design, a large South Sea pearl bracelet.

Spend as much as you can afford, and buy from someone reputable - there are endless, atrociously designed pearl web retailers offering quite expensive pearls - up into the thousands of pounds but frankly, if they haven’t bothered to have a properly laid out and photographed website, I would ignore them.

Three places to find beautiful pearls are

Astley Clarke - when you have the cash to invest in something really beautiful
John Lewis (surprisingly), who have some beautiful designs by Dower and Hall, particularly their drop earrings
By Elise, who offers some of the most original designs, for some of the most reasonable prices on the web.

We have a Special Offer of a 15% discount from By Elise, starting July 1st, so visit us at Special Offers at www.thesiteguide.com.

Kabiri - Unique Jewellery from Modern and Emerging Designers

 

Kabiri is a jewellery website with a difference, in that most pieces you won’t be able to find elsewhere and most of the designers you won’t ever have heard of before.  Kabiri specialises in showcasing emerging designers and this makes their online store a real treasure trove of the new, the different, and frequently the very, very special - inevitably my favourite piece of all was one of the most expensive, but it’ll be on my Christmas list anyway………….

Being something of a modern/classic jewellery collector I can truthfully say that I find some of the pieces in the ‘Fashion’ jewellery section just that little bit difficult, however I set myself the task (really hard, of course, being me) of selecting my six favourite pieces on the site.  There’s a wide range of prices and a wider range of styles, from extremely modern - which I’m afraid I walked straight past, but you may not - to very modern/classic and if seriously classic jewellery is what you’re after then you’ll find you’re in the wrong place totally.

 

Buy a statement piece from here and inevitably everyone will be asking you where you found it.  Whether you tell or not of course is totally up to you………………………………………

Visit the Special Offers section at www.thesiteguide.com to find a Subscriber Offer from Kabiri.

The Unpacking Dilemma and Essential Travel Buys

There’s always something slightly glamorous about packing I think, particularly if you know that you’re going to be city visiting, dining out or chilling by a lovely pool.  I would temper that with festival and camping holiday packing (the latter of which I have done, promise, albeit a long time ago, though the former never).  Folding up your fave clothes and accessories, squishing in that final pair of heels, sitting on your case to do up the zipper and then hauling it out to your car/taxi or on to the train - all those things carry with them a curl of anticipation - at least they do in my book.

The reverse is true when ever I get back - usually not quite all the stuff that I managed to fold and squish with such brilliance fits into my case so my tote is filled with the overflow (all shoes this time) and I stagger back into the house in a bad mood to find six kids, a huge (huge) amount of mess everywhere, 16 loads of laundry as one son is incapable of bringing his down from his room and several dogs/puppies more than there were when I left.  The glamour vanishes, instantly.

I have one rule which is to unpack immediately, and so obsessed am I with getting back out before too long I also pack certain things straight back into my tote ready for the off.  So my wash bag and beauty kit is replenished and re-packed with infinite care and is now totally ready to take me away again.  If there’s anyone reading this who doesn’t already do this but does travel I will make your life so much easier. 

Essential Travel Buys

 

Pay a visit to Muji and invest in some of their travel bottles and pots - I mark on the bottom with a permanent marker what’s inside rather than scrawling over the side.  If you’re one of those people to travels with large sized bottles this will lighten your load amazingly.

This summer Reiss has a  large striped tote that will hold everything you could possibly need it to and weighs practically nothing - sling it over your shoulder or balance on your wheelie it’s an excellent investment and so so chic……

Don’t leave home without one of ZPM’s hang-up toiletry Weekenders - no matter how many stops you make all  you do is fold it out and hang it up - it look great in all the smartest bathrooms and has see-through pockets for everything.  Trust me on this.

Finally if you can, invest in Bobbi Brown’s travel brush set, not exactly a snip but high quality and a set that will last you for years - I find swapping brushes each time I leave home impossible and irritating and I always forget something.

Beauty Review - Feel Unique

 

Feel Unique is one of those online beauty retailers once discovered, you wonder how you ever managed without them.  The real advantage here is not that they have a wide selection of most of the premium brands, but that the many of the products on offer are discounted and unlike a lot of the discount fragrance and beauty websites who only offer ends of lines, Feel Unique quite often offers a large proportion of a range.  The brand list is also expanding all the time, making this an excellent one-stop beauty store.

   

Before I run out of one of my beauty staples I always check to see if Feel Unique have it in stock.  Couple their range and service with free worldwide delivery and a reminder service to let you know when your favourite product comes back into stock and you’re bound to be as tempted by this website as I am………….. frequently.

       

Make sure that you’re subscribed to www.thesiteguide.com as an exclusive special offer from Feel Unique is waiting for you there now.

Speaking of beauty products and special offers I have just received one from Sephora, the beauty megastore I wrote about last time I visited Paris.  And surprise surprise, I just happen to be going back there at the end of this week.  Now how did they know that, I wonder?  Having said that, my bag is already packed and full to the brim…………………….oh well, I’m sure I’ll find a corner somewhere for a little something.   Somehow I always seem to manage that.  Which will be absolutely no surprise to anyone who knows me well.

Where to find the Perfect Sundress

The minute the sun comes out it’s too easy to slip into a lace edged vest or t-shirt and some cropped jeans or cargo pants and just live in those. I have numerous combinations, for barbies, lounging around in the garden, visiting friends, shopping and the rest and having spent summer months in the US year after year and knowing just how hot it gets (and that every stitch will need to be dried in a vast tumble dryer that gives no thought to delicates, let alone linen) this seems to be the perfect warm weather solution.

Until, of course, you get invited somewhere both hot and smart, for a dressed-up occasion preferably somewhere such as the South of France, Tuscany or the Bahamas, when the cropped pants/vest/tshirt option just won’t do on certain occasions.

Or you simply have the urge to wear something chic and feminine - which is where, to my mind, the ‘sun dress’ has its place. Not to be confused with the LBD I might add although I, with my addiction to black, have been known to seek out the perfect Little Black Sundress at various times which doesn’t always go down too well. Nor with the type of strappy little number you might wear to do the gardening in. This is strictly smart summer sun-dressing.

So as I do, I went scouring the web (and some of the stores) to seek out my perfect sun-dress for a forthcoming trip, to wear, hopefully, sipping a kir royal and watching the sun go down. I’m not going to tell you which one I ended up buying of these - it is in fact already resting in my suitcase - but this was my shortlist. Let me know what you think………

Currently I have something like 10, 21 year old boys in my kitchen all demanding breakfast, a daughter who needs as in NEEDS a new laptop and two dogs that are now nagging to be fed. I’m watching the sun shining outside and looking forward to warmer climes. Soon………

Become a subscriber at thesiteguide.com and take advantage of our new offer from designer swim and resortwear retailer Simply Beach. There’s a fabulous offer from modern jewellery retailer Astley Clarke coming up next week as well.

Website Review - Astley Clarke’s Summer Jewellery

I wrote a short while back about visiting Bec Clarke - founder of modern online jewellery emporium Astley Clarke and the simple impossibility of visiting her showroom and leaving without one of their pretty blue boxes (or preferably two) tucked beautifully in tissue paper inside one of their elegant cream bags.

The Astley Clarke website is equally irresistible, filled as it is at the moment to the brim of gorgeous summer pieces which, if you’re anything like me, you’ll be just itching to get your hands on, by designers such as Miguel Ases, Shaun Leane and Dana Kellin.

Asking Bec which her three favourite summer pieces were, she told me Vinnie Day’s ‘Wings of Love’ necklace, Vincente Agor’s Moroccan Flower Earrings and Como Blond’s Adria Necklace were top of her list…….at that moment…….as I suspect that if I were in her position and surrounded by such incredible jewellery every day, I would find it extremely difficult to limit my favourites to just three at any one time.

Sign up as a subscriber to http://www.thesiteguide.com/ now, as there’ll be an exclusive Astley Clarke offer to siteguide.com subscribers within the next couple of weeks.


I now have two out of three kids back in the house, and for some reason they seem to want to have all their arguments within about a foot of my desk, at an extraordinarily high volume. Nothing to do with me - they just like me to be a silent partner I think.

Now off to London to meet with the head of retail at Caroline Charles, designer of superbly made classic pieces that stay in your wardrobe forever - the pictures on the website aren't the best, but if you take a look at some of the catwalk pics you'll capture the effortlessly elegant sophistication of this brand.

Then an early dinner with the daughter at San Lorenzo in Beauchamp Place, which I've been visiting since I was around 12 (with my mother) and has the best Bagna Cauda in central London.