Many business owners don’t realize the value of a FAQ page in their e-commerce stores, and they thought it was a general page of static content. However, it is not just limited to answering the common questions or queries that arise from customers, but it can play a huge role.
If created properly, the FAQ section can be a useful addition to your website and serve different purposes like:
- Reduce the anxiety of new customers who have multiple queries that a product description page can’t address
- Exonerate your customer support team from answering prominent questions of your customers
- Improves the SEO and site navigation
- Gaining trust by showcasing the value of the product in customer’s life and also explaining your business model
- Delight customers by resolving their queries
If you are running an ecommerce store and still haven’t created a FAQ page for your store yet, then this article should be the first read for you. It will make you realize the importance of the FAQ page, its benefits, and many other aspects.
What Is A FAQ Page?
Frequently Answered Questions or a FAQ page is not like any other website’s landing page. Its aim is not to convert the incoming flux of visitors but to answer their simple questions, concerns, and objections. Don’t confuse it with the About Us page on which we tell the people the story of our company, team, or brand. On the other hand, the FAQ section of the page deals with the details of the product, and it is the ultimate destination where customers can get resolved their specific questions about your product.
A FAQ page can also be the first encounter customers with your store who want answers for their queries before even looking for products. Many customers check the return or shipping policy before even looking for a product. In short, a FAQ page can reduce the anxiety of customers about buying things online.
How a FAQ Page Good for an E-commerce Store – Different Scenarios to Understand
A FAQ page should be executed correctly as it can act as an asset or even distract the customers. If you want to use it as an asset, specific scenarios indicate that creating a FAQ page for your store is the right time.
- Your e-mail support team regularly receives e-mails from your customers with the same questions, so it is best to answer them on a separate, easily accessible FAQ page.
- Your SEO team wants to create content/landing pages that can be linked and continue the journey from question to conversion.
- Your offerings or business raise questions and concerns better to handle straightforwardly. This is a very important point as a FAQ page gives you a unique opportunity for directly addressing concerns and removes any roadblocks related to purchasing.
How To Find The Relevant Questions For The FAQ Page?
To find the right questions for your FAQ page, you should check the inbox and customer support tickets. You can also anticipate objections that you can turn into questions, especially if the answer can simplify the customer’s mind.
You have to educate the customers about your offerings with these questions. That’s why you have to focus on the relevancy, utility, need, and opportunities of turning the inquiry into the conversation. If there is a massive list of questions, then you can categorize the questions into categories such as “Shipping,” “Return,” or “About Product Warranty,” etc., for easy navigation.
You may not have e-mails or customer support tickets at the initial phase. In this case, you can go through your competitors’ FAQs, reviews of your products, and forums such as Quora or Reddit to know what your customers want to know or what their questions are.
How To Answer Frequently Answered Questions?
The way you answer the FAQs also plays a significant role. Even if the question is about a potential shortcoming in your product or business, put on your PR hat and put a positive spin on your answer. You can show depth in your answers but don’t make it unnecessarily long as it can turn away your customers.
Also, always write questions from the first-person perspective of the customers like “How can I ….” and give answers from your business perspective like “You should…” or “We deliver…”
The communication should be clear, and you would achieve the goal with each FAQ question. If you want to address a concern about purchasing from you, educate the customers about the return policy of products, troubleshoot a common problem with your product, then focus on providing this in your answers. You can also use images and videos in your answers (if required).
A common missed opportunity that most e-commerce retailers do is not ending an answer with a Call-to-action (CTA) button that links to other store pages to push users back into the ecommerce funnel. However, you should focus on the next step that a user can take after answering. The visitor will find the link relevant to the answer they have just read.
Why Are FAQs Good For SEO?
In many ecommerce stores, there is a standalone page for the FAQ that uses the Q & A format to communicate information. Although it fulfills the goal of the FAQ page – to remove any obstacle on the path to purchase – you can also create a FAQ section dedicated to each question, which will improve the search friendliness of your site.
Where To Put The FAQ Section?
It depends upon your business format. If your business core is customer service, you should create a fully fleshed out support center or “help desk” by using any 3rd party support service such as HelpDesk or Zendesk. It will also incorporate FAQ as part of your customer support flow (i.e., customers will go to the FAQ page).
However, if you are selling products or services in which customers can have varied queries, it is better to display a link to a simple FAQ page on your website navigation. It will also allow for incorporating FAQs into your product pages as well, and it can be your product descriptions part and placed at the bottom of the page.
FAQ Page Template
There is no fixed template for a FAQ page. You can design the template as per your wish, but there are some generic questions in every industry type. Here are a few generic questions of the ecommerce industry:
- What are the different shipping options?
- How to avail discounts/coupons?
- When will I receive the order?
- In how many days can I return the product?
- Can I cancel the order?
- What are the delivery charges?
After knowing the similar basic questions, try to find the most asked questions. Here you can use tickets and e-mail insights.
Security And Safety
Ecommerce customers are also worried about their privacy and data security. Thus to assure the customers about data security, you can address the common questions related to this topic.
Account Management
You can help the customers in managing their accounts. Sometimes the customers even have the simplest queries of How to log out of the account, or they want to add multiple addresses, payment methods, etc.
Product Features and Brand Promises
You can demonstrate how your products are different from your competitors’ products and what questions customers can have about these products. You can use FAQs to reiterate your messaging. Many cosmetic brands talk about eco-friendly products and non-preservative products.
Product Use
The FAQs are not limited to just persuading customers to buy the customers but also helping the customers who have purchased that product. If the product is something users need proper guidance to use, you can create questions regarding that.
A Few FAQ Examples To Consider
Here are a few examples of the industry’s best FAQ pages that you can take inspiration from.
1. Mahabis
Mahabis is a good example of how to organize FAQ page content. They haven’t displayed huge paragraphs of content but instead organized everything in topics, allowing customers to quickly find the relevant information without going through the unnecessary, irrelevant text.
Also, the answers are short but are very detailed. There is no beating around the bush here, and the answers are direct and can quickly resolve queries in fewer possible words. If the customers want more, they can click on the hyperlink to more detailed website sections.
2. PopChart
The FAQ page of PopChart is just the opposite of the Mahabis FAQ page, and there aren’t short answers on the page. The pop chart is quite a small company which only deals with infographic posters. That’s why it is obvious there will be a few limited questions that customers can have, and they have answered those questions in the simplest way possible.
Another essential thing to observe is the answer’s tone and language. They haven’t used formal language in either questions or answers, and instead, they have used a pure conversational approach.
3. Greats
Greats have presented the FAQ pages by overcoming the generic questions and answers format. They have used a more intuitive approach to address the queries of customers.
There are tables, images, and buttons by which customers can quickly grab the information. Customers understand visual information better & fast than text. For a better experience, there are no questions on the FAQ pages of Greats. Instead, there is a brief statement in bold at you and then outline the answers.
4. HipVan
HipVan is an impeccable example of a well-structured FAQ page. There is a massive series of questions, popular inquiries, general information, and issues of the entire shopping process, replacement process, and refunds. The FAQ has been divided into 8 different topics for managing questions.
An expand button is placed next to every question for revealing the corresponding answers so that irrelevant content can be hidden in which the customer may not be interested.
5. Bando
Bando gives you the perfect epitome of how a FAQ can help in improving the conversion rate. It tells you how to leverage even customers’ queries to drive sales. The FAQ page questions are what a potential lead can ask before purchasing “Is your website secure?” and “What is your wholesale policy?”
It also promotes itself with properly written SEO-optimized answers. Promo codes, discounts, and various assurances compel you to proceed with the checkout.
6. BlackMilkClothing
It is another example of an organized FAQ page divided into topics covering the whole buying journey. Apart from the sales and promo, it also addresses manufacturing, products, orders, payments, and shipping issues. Since the navigation is straightforward, it doesn’t require a search tool, and the customer can just expand the topic they want to go through and proceed to the relevant questions.
There is an informal conversational tone on the FAQ page. Henceforth, the customers enjoy the most this reading experience.
7. Haven
The previous FAQ pages that we discussed until now had an informal and conversational approach. But Haven is entirely different. It has adopted a formal business tone which we are used to. The business tone reflects the brand’s seriousness towards it same and can’t take the risk of being playful. Thinking of this, it is suitable for Haven’s customer base, which includes international shoppers.
8. 100PercentPure
While Haven uses a formal business tone, the FAQ page of 100PercentPure is entirely the opposite. Haven followed the straightforward approach, but 100PercentPure uses a large worded FAQ format constituting two different pages – Shipping FAQs and AfterPay FAQs.
As the name indicates, Shipping FAQs cover topics related to order fulfillment and the shipping process, and the Afterpay FAQ page provides information for the installment payment model that customers can use.
9. TaylorStitch
It is highly challenging to create a detailed knowledge base that also requires time, and it is also difficult to create a comprehensive FAQ page. Thus, TaylorStitch has built a holistic FAQ page instead of handling them individually. Therefore, the resultant knowledge base delivers information in the form of questions and answers.
10. MvmtWatches
MvmtWatches has created a FAQ page with minimalistic design but with extensive information. And Mvmt Watches have shared every technical detail related to their watches and the shopping process.
Wrapping Up
In this article, we have gone through multiple aspects of the FAQ page and its usefulness for your ecommerce store. hire the best ecommerce development company, who have expertise in developing ecommerce stores from scratch with extensive functionalities.
Frequently Asked Questions
A FAQ page is important for an online e-commerce store as it answers every question the customers would like to ask about varied categories, like shipping, delivery, orders, returns, exchange, products, services, etc. By offering replies to customers’ queries, you increase their shopping experience on your online store.
Various reasons will state that FAQ pages are essential for e-commerce websites or other solutions, such as:
• Saves customer time
• Improve user experience
• Diminish purchasing anxiety