Traditionally, the ecommerce purchase was completed in one place on a brand’s site — the product detail page, or PDP. After searching through product grids and category pages, shoppers would eventually direct themselves here to make the final purchase decision. But now, it’s safe to say that the PDP is fading toward irrelevance. It’s stale, uninspiring, and oftentimes boring. Why? Nothing about the standard PDP inspires shoppers to take the next step and add a product to their cart.

That’s why brands need to enable commerce on the most exciting and interactive parts of their site. That means that brands need to emulate some of what makes brick and mortar shopping attractive, like interactivity. The new, modern customer journey is commerce-enabled every step of the way. Digital marketers can deliver this by going beyond simple product grids on their websites, and investing in online content like buying guides, blogs, quizzes, and more.

Once you’ve inspired shoppers with rich content, you’ve got to make it simple for them to purchase. Whether it’s a homepage banner, a blog post, a lookbook, or a digital quiz, shoppers need to be able to instantly add the products they see to their cart. There’s simply nothing more frustrating to an online shopper than finding the perfect item but having to jump through hoops to actually purchase it. The more steps they have to take to purchase, the more likely they will give up. This is particularly true for mobile.

One of the easiest and most efficient ways to integrate commerce anywhere in the customer journey is through quickviews. Quickview buttons can be added to any image or experience to add shoppability; with a single click, an ecommerce-enabled lightbox is activated, allowing shoppers to add an item to their cart. Quickviews streamline the purchase process and makes every stage of the customer journey shoppable.

Live examples of purchasing inspiration

Product discovery is most impactful when it’s rooted in true inspiration. Ethan Allen delivers this through their shop-the-room series. As shoppers explore perfectly styled rooms, they can click to add an item to their cart in an instant. Quickviews allow shoppers to add to cart without interrupting the shopping experience by reverting shoppers to a PDP. A shop-the-room experience is the ultimate example of commerce at every stage of the customer journey.

Anywhere there is imagery and inspiration on your site, there should also be a purchase opportunity. Luxury confectioner Godiva Chocolatiers accomplishes this by integrating shoppability throughout their rich visual buying guides. For instance, in their Holiday Top 10 Gift Guide, every featured chocolate collection can be instantly added to the cart with a single click. By integrating this shoppability into their digital experiences, Godiva’s web content inspires while simultaneously converting customers.

One of the newest — and most effective — additions to the modern customer journey is the online quiz. Quizzes enable easy, streamlined, and fun product discovery, without forcing customers to search through pages of product grids. Clarins’ Let’s Talk Cleansing experience is a perfect example. Through a series of questions in a simple logic tree format, Clarins guides shoppers to the facial cleanser that’s perfect for them, much as a sales rep would do at a cosmetics counter. This provides the perfect motivation for shoppers to buy, and they can easily do so from the quiz experience. Online quizzes can also be a powerful tool for data collection, enabling a brand to subsequently personalize product offers.

This holiday, make all your content shoppable

Providing purchasing ability throughout your website encourages conversion at every stage of the customer journey. This, of course, is crucial during the holiday season, when customers are looking for gift-giving inspiration. Give them as many purchasing opportunities as possible to make the shopping process easy and fast.

Whether you’re creating a holiday lookbook, a stocking-stuffer buying guide, or just adding new imagery to your site, make sure to give consumers the ability to buy.