Over the last decade, Ecommerce applications have evolved into a highly competitive art form - needing more than just a simple product listing to succeed. Thankfully, years of experimentation have allowed us to analyze and distinguish the successful Ecommerce techniques from the not-so-successful ones.

This article is the first of a three part series dedicated to helping you maximize return on your Ecommerce site. This post will focus on usability and how to provide your visitors with a smooth, positive shopping experience. Part 2 will focus on search engine optimization and traffic building techniques, and Part 3 will demonstrate how bringing all of these tips together can increase customer trust in your brand.

Site Navigation

Site navigation is key to a successful Ecommerce solution - you want your visitors to be able to find what they're looking for as quickly and easily as possible, otherwise they may lose interest and leave the site entirely. The following techniques will help to keep your visitors from getting lost in the product labyrinth.

Page Headings and Breadcrumb Navigation

Clearly identify where your visitors are on the site by providing easy to read headings and subheadings. Use navigation breadcrumbs to help your visitors visually understand how deep they are within the site structure. From a search engine standpoint it also provides additional keyword references, and allows search bots to more easily crawl your site.

Include Category Headings

Adding headings to your categories makes it easier to quickly scan through the menu without having to read each item.

Show the Search Bar Above the Fold

Having your search above the fold allows visitors to always have quick access to find what they want. If the search bar is on every page, your visitor can easily locate products, without having to browse to a separate dedicated search page. If you don’t have a search (and you have enough products to justify it), you should seriously consider adding one.

Browsing the Product Catalog

Like site navigation, the way in which you organize your product results will determine the ease with which users will be able to find what they want. A well structured product catalog can also lead to increased sales margins by pointing users toward other relevant alternatives or components.

Let Me Narrow Down My Results

Give your visitors multiple ways to narrow down their results. Ecommerce shoppers have a very short attention span, so it’s critical to provide a quick and direct path to the items they are looking for. This will help the users who know what they want find it quicker, and provide the users who don’t know what they want suggestions that might help them make a purchase.

Show All Products

Provide users with the option to see all products in a category. It can be frustrating to force users to page through results unnecessarily.

Product Recommendations

List products that are similar to the product being viewed. Frequently you will see product lists with headings similar to “Customers who bought this also purchased…”, “Recommended Products” etc. If you are a customer purchasing a microphone, it could be very helpful to know that your store also provides the cable, or a discounted bundle package if you purchase them together.

The Checkout Process

The checkout process may not seem like an important Ecommerce usability concern, but if a user begins to feel confused or overwhelmed with the process - they may leave the site out of frustration or fear that their private information isn't in the safest of hands.

Break it Up

This helps the user tackle one section at a time without being overwhelmed. Typically users must enter billing details, choose a shipping method and confirm their order. Having smaller steps ensures that there is less information to enter for each step.

Where am I in the Checkout Process?

Use well defined text and imagery to provide your visitors with a clear understanding of where they are, and how many steps remain before they complete their order.

Allow Shopping Cart to be Edited During Checkout

If a user is unable to make a change to their cart during checkout, you may risk shopping cart abandonment. If it is not clear how to change their order, the visitor might become frustrated and leave your site.

A Few User Friendly Ecommerce Examples

Amazon utilizes many of the above tactics to ensure a productive shopping experience. With their sophisticated product filtering and recommendation engine, you almost never have to leave the site to research a product. Once you are ready to purchase, the checkout process is simple and intuitive. It's no surprise that they are one of most popular internet retailers.

Shoes.com provides an enjoyable and interactive shopping experience. A drop down navigation menu provides easy one click access to the stores categories. While browsing through products, you are provided many options to refine your results further. The product detail page is clean, and multiple perspectives of the product are available. The only downside we found was that the checkout process didn't identify how many steps were involved.

Shopping for clothing online can be a frustrating and ineffective process. With AE.com, we were able to easily locating clothing that matched both our style and size preference. On the product details page, we were able to zoom into the product image to see fabric detail. AE often provided images of alternate colors to match your preference. The checkout process was clear, with progress indicated at the top of each page. I would certainly shop for clothing with them again!

Conclusion

While often overlooked, Ecommerce usability can certainly make or break a sale. With so many stores to choose from, the visitor has a very low tolerance for clunky navigation, or a confusing checkout process. The longer you keep your visitors comfortably browsing your store, the more likely they are to place an order.

In the next installment of our Ultimate Ecommerce Guide, we'll show you several techniques for optimizing search engine results and increasing traffic to your site. Check back soon for Part 2, or subscribe to our RSS Feed to receive instant updates.