Day 3: Products That Convert

A store converts when the product page answers questions before they're asked. Not with decoration — with information. Today is about photos you can take with the phone in your pocket, words that do the selling, and prices that end in the digit that works. Yesterday you built the shell. Today you fill it. Give this a full day if you can; product pages are the only part of your store that actually sells anything. ## Photography with the phone you already own You don't need a camera. You need a window. - **Light:** shoot in daylight, next to a window, lights OFF. One light source. Mixed lighting (window plus yellow ceiling bulb) is what makes amateur photos look amateur. A phone-accessory seller I know redid his photos with nothing but a white table pushed against a window — and his "wrong color" complaints dropped almost overnight. - **Background:** one surface, repeated everywhere. White sheet, cardboard, plain tile. Every product photographed on the same background makes your catalog look like a brand instead of a flea market. - **Steady:** prop the phone or brace your elbows. Tap to focus. Wipe the lens — seriously, half of "blurry phone camera" is a greasy lens. Take four shots per product: **the front shot**, **a detail shot** (stitching, texture, ingredients), **a scale shot** (in a hand, next to something familiar — scarves folded, a spice packet next to a coffee cup), and **the pack shot** (what the box or bag actually looks like when it arrives). Four honest shots beat fifteen staged ones. Food is the one category where a little styling pays: the spice shop shoots a scoop of berbere with steam rising and a hand holding the spoon. That photo does more selling than the title and description combined. But it's still daylight, still one background. ## Titles that answer real questions Your title has two audiences: the buyer scanning a list, and search engines matching a phrase. Both want the same thing — the exact words people use. Bad: "Genuine Premium Luxury Belt — Best Quality". That answers no question and matches no search. Good: **"Men's Full-Grain Leather Belt, Brown — Sizes 30–42"**. What is it, what's it made of, what color, what sizes. The buyer's eye finds everything in one pass. Formula: **[who/what it's for] + [product] + [key material or feature] + [variant or size range]**. Front-load the search phrase. Don't spend the first five words on your brand name — nobody is searching for you yet. ## Descriptions that answer the buyer's six questions Every buyer arrives with the same six questions: 1. What exactly is this? 2. Will it fit me / work for my situation? 3. What's it made of? 4. When does it arrive? 5. What if I don't like it? 6. How do I care for it? Answer them in order. The first 100 words matter most — that's what shows before "read more," and it's what search engines weigh. A description that opens with the story of your grandmother's workshop will lose to one that opens with "Hand-woven cotton scarf, 180 x 70 cm, machine-washable cold, ships from Addis in 1 day." Story goes in the middle, after the facts. And mine your own inbox: the questions customers ask before buying are your description outline. If three people asked "does this fit over hijab?", the answer belongs in the description, not in three separate DMs. ## Pricing psychology: charm endings, honest anchors - **End prices in 9 or 7.** 999 reads meaningfully cheaper than 1,000, even though everyone knows the trick. It still works — one of the oldest, most-replicated findings in pricing research. - **Anchor honestly.** If you show a "compare at" price, it must be a price you actually charged or a real market rate. Fake anchors destroy trust the first time a customer checks. - **Price within the band** you found on Day 1. Being 20% above the marketplace band without an obvious reason (bundle, quality, story) is how stores get bookmarked and never bought from. - **Round for cash markets.** If much of your audience pays cash or mobile money, remember that endings like 487.50 create change problems for humans and awkwardness for agents. Charm ending on a clean number: 490, not 487. ## Variants and inventory honesty Set up variants properly — size, color, capacity — so each option carries its own price and stock where they differ. Two rules: - **Honest stock counts.** If you have 3 left, say 3. Fake scarcity ("only 2 left!") that never ends is a trust leak, and customers notice. Real scarcity that ends (seasonal fabrics, small-batch spice grinds) is a reason to buy now. - **Decide what zero looks like.** When a variant hits zero, does the page say "out of stock — restocking Friday" or does the variant vanish? Say "restocking Friday" and capture an email. Vanishing variants make buyers think the whole product is gone. If you sell on marketplaces too, keep inventory numbers truthful everywhere. Overselling on marketplace #4 because your spreadsheet was stale is the fastest way to collect your first angry review. ## Do this now - **Shoot 4 photos per product** by a window, one background, lens wiped - **Rewrite every title** with the formula: who + product + material + variant - **Answer the buyer's six questions** in each description, facts before story - **End every price in 7 or 9** and set honest compare-at prices only - **Build variants** with truthful stock per option - **Write a restock line** for anything sold out instead of hiding it Tomorrow is Day 4, and it's the day that makes you a real store: getting paid. We'll connect your own card, mobile money, and bank transfer accounts, set up shipping zones, and place one real test order — because a checkout you've never completed yourself is a checkout that will fail on someone else.