Pharmaceutical and Medical Ecommerce Tips | Salsify

As a medical device or pharma company, your ecommerce success in an increasingly competitive market hinges upon your ability to create an enticing product page. By developing a product page that is eye-catching, organized, and informative, you can establish your company as an industry expert and gain an edge over competitors selling the same medical devices or pharmaceuticals. We recently looked at the results of some top brands on our product content grader to see what elements these top-performing brands have in common. 

Below are eight steps to help you design an enticing product page for medical equipment and pharma products. 

1) Highlight the specific product name and manufacturer.

Clearly featuring the name and manufacturer of a device or a drug is essential for two reasons. First, this information is required to ensure that your company's website readily appears when prospects conduct an online search for one of your products. Second, customers often wish to sort drugs or devices on your site by their preferred manufacturer.  

2) Provide a description that is succinct and unique.

Product descriptions help educate your customers and provide details that cannot be garnered from a photo alone. As you prepare your descriptions for ecommerce, make sure you do not use the exact same product descriptions used by the product manufacturer. Search engines such as Google do not like duplicate content. Failure to heed this warning could result in your website ranking poorly with search engines.

3) Showcase the key selling points of each product.

There are over 6,500 medical device companies in the United States and thousands of competitors across the globe. Capturing the interest of prospective buyers quickly is vital to the success of your pharma or medical device company. For instance, if you are preparing website information for a hospital bed, you will need to spotlight the bed's unique features and the ways that it can make life easier for buyers. A summary of the top 5 key selling points may look like this:

• Five fully electric functions including 60-degree head section elevation
• One of the lightest weight beds on the market with a total weight of 150 pounds
• Easy to assemble with only five key components
• Made in the USA with environmentally-friendly materials
• ISO, CE, and FDA-approved to comply with most hospital requirements

4) Use bullet points to showcase product features and selling points.

Bullet points make it easier for busy medical professionals and consumers to digest information quickly. As you organize your bullet points, remember that there are some tips you can follow to create bullets that your target audience will want to read. They are as follows:

• Make sure your bullet points contain useful information
• Limit your bullet points to one line each
• Keep your bullet points symmetrical
• Prioritize your bullet points according to medical relevance 

5) Include several clear high-resolution photos of the product. 

Using high-quality original pictures of patient monitors, respiratory devices, and other medical devices will help your product pages look more attractive and rank well in search engines. As you choose images for your product pages, be sure to optimize your images to help your pages load faster and reduce your bounce rate. Additionally, avoid using generic stock imagery that is used by the majority of device and pharma companies. Stock photos are often ignored by customers and will do nothing to helpyour product page stand out.  

6) Feature client testimonials.

"A testimonial means that the person giving it is putting their reputation with their own tribe on the line. If they give a testimonial and the business doesn't live up to what they have to say, their reputation is damaged. So it is a very significant bond between the business getting the testimonial and the individual giving it." - Andrew Griffiths, Entrepreneur and Author

The power of testimonials should never be underestimated - especially in the fields of science or medicine. They can help establish your company as a legitimate force in the device or pharma market and can prompt a customer to finalize a purchase. There are many types of testimonials that you can feature on your product page, including product reviews, video testimonials, and quote testimonials. Testimonials are most effective when they are succinct and specific. With 88% of customers trusting productreviews, you can hardly afford not to include testimonials. 

7) Showcase educational materials.

Purchasing a medical device or a pharma product is more complicated than purchasing clothing, housewares, or even an automobile. Failure to understand the properties and functions of a respiratory ventilator or the side effects of a pharma product can result in complications or death. A product page that includes the following educational materials can help medical professionals and consumers gain a better understanding of medical and pharma products:

• Product specification sheets
• Whitepapers
• Instructional videos
• Operators manuals

8) Do not forget the basics.

As you prepare product descriptions, strive for consistency and uniformity with your description format. Review your product descriptions on a regular basis and strive to be prompt when introducing a new drug or device to your online product mix. Additionally, make sure that your product pages load quickly and that your website is mobile-friendly. Finally, make sure that your customers have multiple means of contacting you electronically or by phone if they have questions or inquiries.