As an experienced webmaster, I can tell you that showcasing your best-selling products is one of the most powerful ways to increase conversions and revenue. But many store owners aren‘t taking full advantage of this opportunity.
In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll explain two proven methods to effectively highlight your top-selling products across your WooCommerce website.
Contents
Why Displaying Popular Products is Critical For Your Store
Let me share some compelling statistics that showcase why you need to feature popular products prominently:
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According to BigCommerce, 95% of a store‘s revenue comes from just 5% of its product catalog. Your bestsellers make up most of your sales!
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A Shopify study found that popular products are 3 times more likely to be purchased than other items.
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Displays of social proof like "most popular" or "best-selling" can boost conversions by up to 15% according to Convince&Convert.
Over my 15+ years of managing ecommerce stores, I‘ve seen first-hand how showcasing popular products directly translates to higher revenues.
Here are some of the main reasons why it works so well:
Social Proof Drives More Sales
We are heavily influenced by what others are buying. By showing visitors what your existing customers love, you tap into powerful psychological triggers.
Seeing a "Most Popular" label convinces shoppers that a product is worth buying. This social proof builds trust and confidence in your recommendations.
Get More Eyeballs on High Converting Items
Your top selling products already have excellent conversion rates. Featuring them prominently results in more purchases of these proven winners.
Think about it — you have items that you know convert well. It makes sense to put them front and center whenever possible!
Create Urgency and Scarcity
When you showcase a limited number of bestsellers, it creates a feeling of exclusivity. Shoppers get a fear of missing out, driving impulse purchases.
You can take this further with calls-to-action like "Only 2 left in stock!". Time-limited discounts also work well.
Step-by-Step: How To Create a Popular Products Landing Page
Now let me walk you through building a dedicated popular products page to highlight your top-selling items:
1. Install the Elementor Plugin
Elementor is my page builder of choice for WooCommerce stores because its intuitive drag-and-drop interface makes it easy for anyone to create conversion-optimized pages quickly.
To install it:
- Go to Plugins » Add New in your WP dashboard.
- Search for "Elementor" and click "Install Now".
- After installation, click "Activate".
Next, navigate to the Elementor settings and copy your unique API key to link your site. This will enable all features and templates.
2. Create a New Page
Under Pages » Add New in your WP dashboard, add a new page. Give it an attractive title like "Our Most Popular Products".
Then select "Edit with Elementor" to launch the page builder on this page.
3. Add a Products Widget
One of the reasons I recommend Elementor is that it has dedicated ecommerce modules and widgets to help you build high converting WooCommerce pages faster.
Drag the WooCommerce Products widget from the left panel onto your page. The settings panel will appear on the right.
Under Content, set it to show your:
- Top rated products: This will dynamically display your best reviewed items.
- Number of products: I recommend 8-12 products per page.
- Columns: Set this to 2-4 depending on how wide your site layout is.
This will add a visually appealing product grid showcasing your top-rated sellers.
4. Customize the Look and Feel
Some customizations I would suggest:
- Add a dynamic headline like "Our Most Popular Products – Updated Weekly".
- Change fonts, colors, spacing etc to match your brand.
- Insert trust symbols, testimonials, guarantees to build credibility.
- Add Calls to Action like "See why our customers love these".
Elementor lets you customize every element visually using its intuitive panel.
Finally, don‘t forget to hit Publish once you are done!
Now you have a shoppable landing page that dynamically displays your best-rated, popular products!
Show Top Selling Items Across Your Store with Shortcodes
In addition to dedicated pages, I recommend highlighting popular products across your existing content using WooCommerce shortcodes.
This allows you to showcase relevant bestsellers on category pages, product pages, posts, etc.
Find Your Top Selling Products
First, you need to find your highest selling items. The best way is to use the MonsterInsights plugin which shows you actionable analytics:
- Install and activate MonsterInsights
- Go to Insights > Ecommerce > Overview
- You‘ll see your top products by revenue and number of sales
Alternatively, under WooCommerce > Products you can see the SKUs of each product.
Insert a Shortcode on Relevant Pages
Now you can add top products anywhere with the following shortcode:
[products limit="4" columns="4" skus="prod-1, prod-2, prod-3, prod-4"]
Customize the SKUs, limit, columns etc.
To show best sellers automatically based on sales data, use:
[monsterinsights_popular_products]
See the WooCommerce shortcode documentation for more details.
Suggested Placements
Based on my experience, here are great places to add your shortcodes:
- On product category pages so visitors also view popular items from that category.
- On individual product pages to show shoppers what else is trending.
- On your blog posts to dynamically recommend relevant products.
- On your Homepage, About Us, Contact etc to maximize visibility.
The key is capturing shoppers‘ attention when they are most engaged.
For example, someone browsing shirts would appreciate seeing your top-selling shirts as well. This increases conversion potential.
Pro Tip: Make Your Shortcodes Convert Better
Here are some best practices I‘ve learned for optimizing shortcode performance:
- Give the products area a headline like "Frequently Bought Together" for clarity.
- Make sure popular products relate to the page content.
- Limit to 3-5 products max – avoid overloading shoppers.
- Use "orderby=rating" to show highest rated first.
- Add "Show more" links if you have more products to display.
- A/B test different variations to see what converts best.
With the right placement and optimization, shortcodes are an easy but powerful technique to boost your popular products.
Conclusion
I hope this post helped you better understand the importance of showcasing your best-selling items prominently across your WooCommerce store.
To summarize, we covered:
- Why displaying popular products results in higher conversions
- How to create dedicated landing pages with Elementor
- Using shortcodes to add relevant bestsellers dynamically
- Extra pro tips and best practices
Prioritizing your top-selling products is a proven but often overlooked tactic for increasing revenue. I highly recommend A/B testing it against other approaches on your store.
Over my 15+ years as a webmaster, I‘ve found this strategy consistently works to drive more sales. Feel free to reach out if you have any other questions!
