Merchant 404 Pages – Get Creative and Increase sales

Author: Keith

15 Jan

(First Published 18th August 2008 but still very relevant today)

Time and time again I come across pages on online retailers (merchants) websites where the product has been removed, these pages often appear in search engines, and links to them appear on other websites and in product feeds.

The point of this article is the quality of the page that visitors are met with, how many times have you come across this scenario?

404

Page not found

The page you requested cannot be found on the server

Basically its an invite to the user to hit the back button and disappear from the website, also its a potential sale lost.

On the high street if a product is sold out its place on the shelf is soon filled by something else, so why not on the web.

Simply revamp the 404 page to say something like:

We are sorry but the product you are looking for is currently not available,

however here are some similar items.

Then list a few items from the same category, this will make your site more sticky and improve the chances of converting the visitor to being a customer.

The potential of 404 pages is limitless, you could add a search box, a full list of departments, brands, ranges etc etc.

Take a look at your site statistics how many 404′s are you generating?

What if just 1% of them was converted to a sale?

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Filed under: Good Practices, Hints and Tips, Website Usability

5 Responses for "Merchant 404 Pages – Get Creative and Increase sales"

Fraser Edwards (1 comments.) August 29th, 2008 at 10:26 am 1
Good post Keith and it’s something that is often missed. I think merchants can get even more creative too and turn the error into an opportunity i.e.

“We are sorry but the product you are looking for is currently not available,

however here are some similar items and here is a 5% discount voucher to apologise”
Richard Longhurst (2 comments.) November 13th, 2008 at 10:58 pm 2
Yes, good idea and not difficult to do – we do it on LoveHoney with all our discontinued products like this: http://www.lovehoney.co.uk/product.cfm?p=648

But then some merchants have enough problems dealing with current products let alone worrying about old ones.
Andrew Patterson (1 comments.) February 16th, 2011 at 3:16 pm 3
Great post. Those 404 pages are a nightmare for consumers.

They instantly devalue your brand.

The 5% discount is a clever, yet simple idea.
keith February 16th, 2011 at 3:24 pm 4
very interesting, seems to be this is a potential flaw with many sites, could well be utilized, thanks for the post!
Basil Manongwa (1 comments.) April 9th, 2011 at 12:02 pm 5
a lot of people dont talk about this thanks keith