One of the most important components of a successful eCommerce website is a meaningful FAQ Section.
Let’s assume you have found a platform to optimize an eCommerce store that sells physical products. If those products contain enough information to help a customer decide, then you have already started on the right path to optimizing your eCommerce FAQ.
While we are focusing on content for this article, there are many UX considerations for a successful FAQ page. For more information on UX tips for Frequently Asked Pages, dive into our User Experience section.
For the sake of this article, we will be discussing the details required after your store is optimized, contains relevant content about your products, and has SEO checked off all the boxes for search performance.
Building an eCommerce website that is designed without user accessibility compliance can be an expensive mistake. This includes AODA policies if you live in Ontario. Outside of Ontario, the website should always consider auditory, vision, mobility, cognitive and neurological impairments to meet accessibility guidelines within your eCommerce web design scope.
Building FAQ for eCommerce
Considerations for customer pain points, return policies, customer support, and the entire company building should be consulted about what to include in the FAQ section of an eCommerce website. Businesses acquire plenty of technical debt when hosting inefficient FAQ sections. A good example is when a company performs decent keyword research, builds a page, adds links from the website, and concludes that it was enough. The truth is that every business selling a product online is taking inevitably support calls, answering frequently asked questions every day that require human wait times, and distracting from performance across bigger priorities when running an online store. This is why employees and internal teams are sometimes the best sources for your initial FAQ page.
The essential pieces of an eCommerce FAQ Page in no particular order
- Product Questions
- Organizational Questions
- Hiring & Job Seeking Questions
- Return / Customer Service Questions
- Account Management & Settings (if Applicable)
- Troubleshooting Instructions (if Applicable, usually reserved for SaaS or Web Apps)
- Privacy Policy, Safety & Copyright Questions
Ecommerce sales in the U.S. alone gross $130 billion per quarter, while in Canada eCommerce sales have grown 18 percent during the pandemic. While no one knows exactly what the future holds, the trend indicates that the growth of online products and services is not slowing down any time soon.
When building an eCommerce business you will definitely need technical SEO. Beyond that, expect to design some unique product offering or experience, great content to support that experience, site architecture to easily navigate the elements of that experience, and product mapping to convert users into customers.
Product FAQ Sample Questions
These questions are designed to streamline intent when a user is in the “informational” stage of the customer journey. A really good product will have most of the information on the page, but some questions will still need to be addressed from a search perspective.
Some good questions for Product FAQ include:
- How much does it weigh?
- Where are the materials sourced from?
- What are the ingredients used?
Organizational FAQ Sample Questions
We like to follow the rule, “the bigger the company the larger the interest”. When it comes to how users discover a company or investigate how it is organized, it is critical to use internal data to inform what keywords are presenting opportunities to communicate with organic search.
Some good questions for Organization FAQ include:
- Who is the CEO of the Company?
- Where is the Company based?
- Where is the nearest office?
- What is the mailing address or phone number?
Hiring & Job Seeking FAQ Sample Questions
When people are looking for a job one of the easiest ways to help them is to provide a clear, organized, job advertisement FAQ page. FAQ Sections for Jobs work best when there is accurate information outlining the application process, eligibility, whether or not Veterans are welcome to apply, or any other special considerations for the position.
Some good Hiring & Job Seeking questions include:
- Are all Job listings available on the website?
- When are new job listings posted?
- How do I know if I am eligible for a position?
- Do you accept Veteran applicants?
Return Policy & Customer Service FAQ Sample Questions
When it comes to Customer Service FAQ ideas, a good place to start is refund/exchange policy. Another key element of all Customer Service FAQs is including the shipping details or any common questions that people have during the shipping process.
Some good Return Policy & Customer Service questions include:
- What is your store Refund Policy?
- How much is shipping & handling for the Return/Exchange process?
- Are there any exceptions to the Refund Policy?
- What should I do if my product arrives defective?
Account Management & Settings FAQ Sample Questions
When building an Account Manage & Setting questions, it requires considerations for all types of customers and user levels, from experienced to basic settings, how you address your customers through the FAQ can be the difference between happy customers and overwhelming phone calls for support tickets.
Some good Account Management & Settings questions include:
- How do I set up an Account?
- Where do I manage Account Preferences?
- Help, what can I do to troubleshoot issues with logging in?
- Where can I retrieve my login information?
Troubleshooting Instructions for SaaS/Web Application FAQ Sample Questions
Similar to Account Management & Settings, SaaS/Web Applications require details around browser compatibility, troubleshooting issues, and escalating account problems to the proper customer service representatives. How you support your customers using an FAQ can save hours of time processing redundant support ticket requests.
Some good Troubleshooting & Web Application questions include:
- Where can I log into my Account?
- Where can I update my Billing Information?
- Who can I contact for Technical Support?
- I found a bug, is there somewhere I can report it?
Privacy Policy, Safety & Copyright FAQ Sample Questions
Privacy Policies are critical for operating eCommerce websites on the web. Depending on the jurisdiction, there are considerations for how a website collects data, for how long, and whether or not someone can opt out of having their personal data collected and tracked.
Some good Privacy Policy questions include:
- What is defined as personal data?
- What are the types of personal data you collect?
- How long is my data collected?
- What analytics services do you use?
- What will my personal data be used for?
Basic eCommerce FAQ Sample Questions
The choice of questions for any FAQ section will evolve with data and engagement. As companies evolve, so must the content that assists the users interacting with that company. Using organic keyword research we can identify opportunities to help reduce the support load for new customers. Using publicly available tools like Reddit/Quora can also provide insights into what your audience is looking for. These mediums can be especially helpful for brand questions, negative reviews, etc.
Some good questions to include in the eCommerce FAQ section are:
- What is your Warranty/Return Policy on Products/Services
- Where can I contact Customer Support
- How do I return a Product that is Defective?
- When are the store opening hours for Customer Support?
- Why should I buy Services/Products from your company vs. a competitor?
- Who is the founder of your company?
- Which physical store location is closest to me?