The Accessory That Wasn't Included
A product page that photographs the charger and then sells the object alone is writing a small lie in the most expensive place on the site.
A product page that photographs the charger, the filter, the extra cushion
and then sells the object alone
is not being generous. It is writing a small lie in the most expensive place on the site.
People do not only buy the thing.
They buy the scene around it.
The lamp with the bulb in.
The camera with the strap.
The sofa with the cushions that came in the campaign still.
If those objects are in the picture and not in the box, the return is already written.
We have said that every return is a design review.
This is the review that starts with I thought that was included.
The warehouse packed the SKU.
The studio packed a lifestyle.
Those are two different invoices.
The customer paid the first and expected the second.
What Baymard actually measured
In Baymard's product-page work — 60 top-grossing US and European sites — 44% of sites do not show included accessories next to the product, or they show them without making clear that they are not in the price.
That is not a caption problem.
It is a receipt problem.
The same research: 42% of testers tried to read size from the product image and could not, because there was no in-scale shot.
47% of sites failed to provide one.
Representation again.
The picture asserted a world.
The SKU was smaller.
What the page owes the box
A line that says what arrives.
A picture of that set, not the styled cousin.
A price that does not borrow glow from a cable you sell separately.
If the campaign needs the extra object, sell the extra object as a bundle, or take it out of the frame.
A bundle is allowed to be prettier.
A single SKU is not allowed to borrow a bundle's photograph.
This is the same honesty as packaging and color.
The page is a specification.
Accessories are part of the specification, or they are advertising.
How we think about it at BuonaLabs
We list the contents the way a warehouse does.
If it is not in the pick list, it is not in the hero.
A digital twin that includes a lampshade the SKU does not ship is a pretty lie.
We would rather have a lonelier photograph and a quieter warehouse.
The accessory that wasn't included is still in the picture.
That is the problem.
Take it out, or put it in the box.
Sources
https://baymard.com/learn/ux-statistics
BuonaLabs is a digital innovation studio in Lübeck, Germany, building product pages, digital twins, and commerce experiences that try to tell the truth about the object. If this is the work you are trying to do, let's talk.