Helping Consumers Navigate the eCommerce Forest
Nine design tips to help turn browsers into buyers.
By John Staubly, Creative Director Channel Intelligence, Inc.

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, online consumer sales in 2002 topped $45.5 billion dollars, an increase of more than 30 percent over the previous year. While many people look at those figures and be impressed, especially in this economy, I can’t help but wonder what if? What if online sellers made it easier for consumers to actually purchase products from them? 

The fact is many online sellers would do well to remember the plight of Hansel and Gretel. They were taken deep into the forest with nothing to guide them, and wandered around for days before finally finding their way home. In the meantime, they were nearly eaten by the wicked witch. 

That’s the way many consumers feel when they use the Internet to shop – lost in the woods with little to guide them. It’s no wonder that shopping cart abandonment rates are still hovering between 98 and 99 percent. 

All is not lost however. There are some simple, proven ways to help consumers find their way through the eCommerce forest. Follow these steps and you’ll have a happy ending – namely the purchase of your products. 

Create Well-Defined Buy Paths

 It’s easy for consumers to get lost in the dense information forest of eCommerce if they have to find their own way through. Maintaining a structured system of “buy paths” is critical to successfully closing the sale. 

From any starting point, there are two paths. One is the optimal path of going direct to a buy page to make the purchase. The other is a long, winding trail with many detours along the way. Set a customer on this path and more likely than not the purchase will be abandoned.

Within the optimal group, there are several possible paths. These include buying the product directly from the manufacturer, buying online from a retailer or reseller, and buying offline. Typically, consumers have an idea of which product they’re interested in and the path they’d like to take to purchase it. If that path can’t be found, the result is usually an abandoned purchase due to frustration. 

Carving these paths into a site, and marking them clearly, can often be a daunting task. The rewards, however, are worth it. You may need to include pit stops along the way where customers can find more product information, compare products, browse accessories, etc. But always there should be a link to get them back on the path to purchase quickly.

Keep Product Buttons Prominent

The easier you make it for consumers to find products from the home page, the more likely they are to complete a purchase. That’s just common sense. The products button or link should be prominently featured so it is one of the first, if not the first, thing a site visitor sees. Methods we have found that work include placement in the upper left hand quadrant of the screen; variance in size, contrast, or color from other links; and using lines or a page design that guide the eyes toward the button.

Organize Search Results Properly

Obviously, the first order of business is making sure that search engines return the proper results when queried. From there, the order in which results are displayed is critical to simplifying the purchasing process. You’ll achieve optimal results when the first link returned in a search on a product name or model/SKU number leads to a product description page. This design places consumers within easy reach of product information, data sheets, pictures, and various buy paths.

Reduce The Number of Clicks to Buy

The longer the path, the more likely consumers are to get lost, tired, hungry, or just plain disinterested. Excluding dropdown and fly-out menus, we want to provide customers with the shortest path to a buy as possible. More than four clicks from initial product description to a place where consumers are providing zip code or credit card information indicates a serious navigational problem on the Web site. Fewer than four is better.

Make Links Your Guideposts

When there are many paths and sub-paths in the forest, it’s easy to become confused and lost if they’re not clearly marked. The same goes for purchase paths on Web sites. The design, wording, placement, and appeal for the button or link are extremely important because they determine the path the customer will ultimately travel down to purchase the product. Any confusion in this area and the customer might become lost or disinterested and abandon the purchase. Wording for online purchasing such as “Buy Online” or for offline purchasing such as “Buy from a local store” greatly increase the probability the customer will go down the right path. Placing that button in the upper right quadrant of the screen enhances it further, as does size, contrast or color, or lines that guide the eyes to the button.

Make Buy Buttons Obvious

The ability for a customer using a screen resolution of 800 x 600 or 1024 x 768 to see the buy button without having to scroll down below the fold is a critical element in page composition. If it’s too hard to find, customers might get lost. When the birds ate the breadcrumbs Hansel and Gretel used to mark their path, they were unable to find their way home. Manufacturers should place buy buttons to make it easy for consumers to find them.

Show Price

The ability for customers to see a price when comparing dealers (or choosing whether to buy direct) can increase conversion rates by as much as three percent in our experience. That may not sound like a lot, but think of it this way: it will more than double the typical conversion rates retailers currently experience. When you don’t show a price, consumers are forced to click through to every dealer to see their price, violating the “reduce the number of clicks” rule.

Show Out-Of-Stock Dealers

According to BizRate, more than half of all online shoppers (57 percent) begin their product searches on a retailer site – evidence that consumers do have preferences when it comes to where to buy. Not showing a dealer in your listings because the product is out of stock could cost you the sale. Show that the dealer does carry the product, but is currently out of stock. The consumer may be willing to wait.

Limit the Number of Dealers Shown

If there are too many dealers in a listing, the customer might feel overwhelmed – especially if you’ve chosen not to show price. Limiting the listings to authorized dealers is a way to avoid the frustration while also rewarding your best dealers. In addition, it makes it easier to assure that pricing rules and return policies are being adhered to by the dealers to whom you’re referring customers.

About the Author

John Staubly is Creative Director of Channel Intelligence, Inc., a company that develops services that improve the online and offline sales process between manufacturers, dealers, and consumers. These services, which are becoming an industry standard, allow manufacturers and dealers to capture incremental sales, maintain margins, reduce shopping cart abandonment, and refine product flow through the channel, all the while improving the shopping experience for the customer.