Shorts are easy, aren’t they?

Nope.

Every brand’s shorts are different. Different fabric, different length, different idea of what a medium is. So the buyer turns up with the same questions every time. Will it fit? How long is it? Is there a liner? Is it any good? When will it arrive?

Your product page is the sales assistant in the room. Six brands, one product, six different ideas about how to sell it. We scored each page out of 10 on how well it does that job.

Darc Sport

2/10

Basic. Stripped out. Not much imagination.

To be fair, the shorts are on a model, and the model’s height and size are on the page. That’s more than some manage. Then it stops. No reviews. Shipping “calculated at checkout”. Nothing about returns. You either want the shorts or you don’t, and the page isn’t going to help you decide.

On a phone it gets worse. Before you’ve seen the shorts you’ve had a banner telling you to download the app, then a pop-up flying at you for your email.

The returns gap is the expensive one. Six in ten shoppers go looking for the returns policy on the product page. Nearly half of sites don’t put it there. Baymard’s numbers, not mine.

What I’d fix: delivery and returns in one line under the button, reviews on the page, and the app banner gone.

Ryderwear

4/10

This step earns colours on a body. The swatches are photos of the shorts being worn, not dots. Then you notice every photo is cropped differently, and it looks less considered than it should.

There’s proof, too. 4.9 stars from 94 reviews, with a summary of what people say.

Then you tap Size Guide.

It’s one chart for all men’s clothing. The inseam column runs from 82.5 to 85 centimeters. That’s a trouser. This is a short with a 5-inch leg, and nothing on the chart tells you anything about it. Not great.

Mammut swapped its size chart for a fit finder. Sales up 22%. Returns down 20%. That’s according to the company that sold it the tool, but still.

What I’d fix: a size chart for this product. Waist, hip, inseam in inches, and the same crop on every colour.

Nike

5/10

This is where Nike gets a lot right. Tap an inseam or colour and the photography changes with it. Same crop, same model, easy comparison. Fifteen sizes, including Tall.

Then it contradicts itself.

Under the sizes: “Fits large; we recommend ordering a size down.” Further down, the review summary says “True to size.” Two answers to the question most likely to decide the sale. And when I checked, M and L were sold out, so following Nike’s advice to size down could send you straight to an unavailable option.

The price is $52.97, down from $65, shown as “19% off”. That’s roughly $12. Showing the percentage makes the saving feel bigger than showing the dollar amount.

Shipping? “You’ll see our shipping options at checkout.” Third page in a row asking the shopper to wait until checkout to find out.

APL took the opposite approach to sizing: one recommendation, powered by True Fit. Among shoppers who used it, returns fell 15%. Revenue increased 2% across the site.

One question. One answer.

What I’d fix: one fit answer, said once, and the delivery cost on the page. I might try to get the 'add to cart' above the fold also.

SQUATWOLF

7/10

The Dubai brand is the first one that treats the page as a selling journey.

There’s an incentive at the top: pay later, in a reassurance strip that cycles through dispatch within 24 hours and easy returns. Colours, lengths and sizes all on the page. Length in four buttons, 3 to 9 inches. 4.8 from 55 reviews beside the price. A size guide, and “Keelan is 6’2” and wears Medium” right under the sizes. Then, just above the button, a nudge: spend AED 300 and shipping’s free.

Nice, solid page.

Rylee + Cru put a delivery date on the page. Conversion up 22.4%, say the two vendors who ran the test. A date. On the page.

What I’d fix: hold the reassurance strip still so every line is read, and add a delivery date next to the shipping nudge.

Gymshark

8/10

Everything SQUATWOLF has, and one thing more: other people.

“2.6k people viewed this in the last 24 hours”, sat on the photo. Right above the button, “Customers say it fits true to size”. Then 4.2 stars from 1,186, with the 112 one-star reviews out in the open, and filters for height, age, activity and how often people train.

Humans buy in groups. We buy what’s popular. It’s why “most bought” and “frequently bought with” work so hard on every store that uses them, and putting that tag on the image is the same job done earlier. (More on proof in six things we tell every client.)

Gymshark knows. It moved proven sellers to the top of its leggings page, and their share of the page’s revenue went from 3.9% to 15%. Algolia, which runs its search, published that one.

On a phone, though, the page opens with an app banner above the logo.

What I’d fix: drop the app banner on product pages, and pull what reviewers say about length up next to the length buttons.

Vuori

9/10

The first page in this category with Find My Size.

Here’s why that matters. A model’s height and size is good. It doesn’t cover your weight. It doesn’t cover your build. A finder takes what you put in and recommends a size, maybe two, and that’s a level of reassurance a chart can’t give you. Nobody else on this list has one.

Then the options. Inseam: 5, 7 or 9 inches. Liner: lined or unlined. Plenty of colours, plenty of sizes. The model is 6’2” in a large. Pay in four, free shipping over $75, free returns, all next to the button. 4.8 stars from 26,573 reviews and a fit score from “runs small” to “runs big”.

Under Armour added a size finder in Japan. Size-related returns fell 27%. That’s Virtusize’s case study, and Virtusize built the finder, so hold it loosely. The direction isn’t in doubt.

All in all, a very good page.

What I’d fix: put the fit score next to the sizes, where the decision is made.

Nobody gets a 10

Tens don’t exist on the e-comm internet. You’re always striving for 10, always pushing changes to get there, and a true 10 of anything doesn’t really exist. If it does, it’s the flashiest of flashes in the pan, every star lined up for that exact moment.

Don’t be discouraged by that. A nine sells a huge amount of shorts, and it puts your website in the upper echelons of product pages.

• Vuori, 9. Best: a size finder. Miss: the fit score hides below the reviews.

• Gymshark, 8. Best: other people, everywhere. Miss: an app banner before the product.

• SQUATWOLF, 7. Best: delivery and returns above the button. Miss: a reassurance strip that won’t sit still.

• Nike, 5. Best: a page that reacts. Miss: two fit answers.

• Ryderwear, 4. Best: colours on a body. Miss: a trouser size chart.

• Darc Sport, 2. Best: the model’s height and size. Miss: no reviews, no returns, no delivery.

The best page here isn’t the one with the most on it. Darc Sport has too little. Vuori asks the questions that matter, answers them, and stops.

The bit that isn’t about shorts

Six pages selling the same thing, scored 2 to 9. The shorts didn’t do that. The pages UX did.

• The buyer arrives with questions. The page answers them, or the buyer leaves with them.

• Answer each one where it’s asked. Fit next to the sizes. Delivery next to the button.

• Other people are the best proof you have. Show them, one-star reviews included.

• A phone screen is small. Everything you put in front of the product costs you.

• Simplicity and clarity are two very different things