Hi Paul, I have reviewed web analytics and interviewed customers for a number of top e-commerce sites. Their data is proprietary, but I can relate some high level findings that may help your design decision-making.
The use of product sub-categories to navigate is highly category dependent. For example, a high percentage of customers click through categories for products that are primarily evaluated through their features, like appliances and electronics. On the other hand, customers prefer images for products where style issues are the chief decision criteria, like clothes and patio furniture. For clothes, customers typically first look for a visual that represents the general category of clothing they are interested in, which is a semantic approach to wayfinding even though it involves images, because the images are merely representatives of the taxonomy category. Beyond that level they are usually scanning visuals rather than using sub-category navigation. For patio furniture, customers often ignore text altogether and start clicking on pictures that they think will give them an idea of the available assortment that matches their style filter. I've seen reports that over 50% of users will use search instead of clicking through categories. This may be true in qualitative studies, but I don't see anywhere near that percentage in the e-commerce analytics I've reviewed, for sites receiving upwards of a million visitors per month. It's usually under 20% at the category level. So what's the point? The number of categories that customers are willing to scan through to find what they're looking for depends on the category of merchandise your site carries. For products that are evaluated on the basis of features and that have unambiguous taxonomies, like electronics and appliances, I've seen very high click through rates even at the bottom of a 25-category list, and category navigation is used deep into the catalog. For products that are scanned primarily by appearance, a top level cut of 6 - 12 general product types, followed by pages that guide primarily through visuals or in-context scenes that can be rapidly scanned. For products where customers call the same thing by different names, a dozen or so sub-categories, with intensive search term mapping effort behind the scenes. I hope that helps. Paul Bryan %u2028 Usography ( http://www.usography.com ) %u2028 Linked In: http://www.linkedin.com/in/uxexperts %u2028 Blog: bryania ( http://www.bryania.com ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=48303 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
