Getting eCommerce navigation right

Most people arriving on an eCommerce site are in a rush. Often the initial objective is research. Do they sell what I want? How much is it? What are the delivery terms? Once armed with information then they will make the decision to purchase, or not. Good navigation will enable those people to find what they want easily and if they come up with nothing you’ve lost them as a customer.

Get the numbers right

There is a direct relationship between the number of categories (and subcategories) and the number of products you sell. Don’t create too many categories by grouping products unnecessarily. Similarly if you have hundreds of products in a category you might want to think about creating some subcategories.

The Iconic website below does this well.

Popular goes first

Use google analytics to determine what links are the most popular and put these in your primary navigation (usually located in the header). Move less popular links down the navigation hierarchy to the footer or smaller links at the top of the header. Don’t determine popularity based on what you think is important. Use the tools available to you. If your navigation includes sub menus sort these also based on popularity and if these stats aren’t available sort items alphabetically.

State the facts

Avoid writing vague selling points. Use specifics – Free shipping on orders over $50 vs Free shipping, 2 year product warrantee vs product warrantee, 60 day return policy vs returns available etc. Users can navigate to read more information by clicking on the text.

The ASOS website provides a good example of this with the use of 2 line buttons.

Keep it consistent

Whatever navigation you decide on it should be in both the same position and have a similar design on every page. On large eCommerce websites this prevents the user from getting lost on the site if they have navigated deep into the site. The only exception to this is by removing it completely when the user is at one of the following steps; Purchase, Login or Registration. You don’t want the user to accidently navigating away from these important steps. However, clicking on the company logo should always return the user to the Home page.

Good luck!!