E-Commerce : Design It Right

Web site design for merchandising and conversion

September 2008 By Betsy Emery

multipage

Despite a challenging economy, online commerce remains a primary driver of growth for businesses. While improved Web site performance is an obvious target for most retailers, the path to achieve this goal is less clear. Online advertising, if successful, will drive qualified visitors, but traffic is only half the battle. The Web site must quickly establish high relevance to user needs, direct users to desired products and provide value and information to support the sale.

Optimizing Cross-Channel User Experience
Today's Web customer lives in a multichannel world where Web, catalog and store experiences overlap. This cross-channel experience is important to consider to ensure the Web site meets consumer needs and enhances brand experience. Leveraging cross-channel experience pays off: Online product research for expensive items can convert to large-ticket purchases offline while low-margin, everyday products can produce higher margins if sales are shifted to the Web. To the customer, it is one brand experience that is either positive or negative.

Multiple Entry Points
Web design must consider a growing number of Web site entry points, each with unique opportunities for merchandising. Growing Web page counts can lead to a reliance on non-dynamic, sometimes "generic" feeling user experiences. To promote higher conversion rates, each main entry point should be evaluated for product display, copy and promotional opportunities. Web data provides the insight needed to anticipate the user mind-set upon arriving at a page: How did they arrive at this page? Is the experience relevant, quickly engaging and encouraging the user to move further in the buying process?

The homepage is designed to be viewed by many people. Different users have different needs that must be quickly addressed with options presented through Web site navigation. In addition to helping users find their way "to" a product, navigation must make it easy to find their way back to where they came "from."

Each main entry point must meet the needs of a broad audience at varying points in the buying cycle. On these pages, ease of use will be
promoted by:

• Cearly organizing product and merchandising categories into a persistent navigational structure that allows users to go directly to a desired product or browse

multiple items.

• Offering robust search tools with the ability to sort and narrow results by important criteria. Roughly 50 percent of Web users navigate directly to products through search or utilize dynamic navigation features to continue to refine products displayed.
• Providing quick access to critical tools such as search, "my account" information and customer service, as well as saved lists.

After restructuring its Web site to meet multiple user audience needs, specialty foods seller SeaBear saw visitor-to-buyer conversion rates rise to a peak of 28 percent with an average conversion of 21.1 percent for the holiday period. The Web site caters to both new and loyal users by focusing heavily on cross-selling, guiding users to finding the right item with search, restructured product categories and lifestyle-based merchandising. "Our bottom line has directly benefited from our new Web site," noted Mike Mondello, SeaBear's president. "Users are now guided to the right item for gift-giving, entertaining or healthy dining ... "

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