His take was that utilizing the PowerReviews branded “star system” gave customers a greater sense of trust because they recognized this review feature across sites.  From a design perspective, we maintained our point of view.  However, the bigger conversation prompted the questions what is the purpose of reviews and how much does it matter that they maintain their own identity in order to provide better reassurance versus fitting well within the site design.

Fast forward to this week and Google’s announcement regarding their deal with PowerReviews and the option for users to now select Ratings and Reviews as a filter when searching for products.  Internet Retailer estimates that PowerReviews currently works with approximately 1,000 online retailers and almost 3,500 websites.  With this type of adoption and now with everyone’s favorite search engine giant jumping on board, the question becomes should retailers stick with the “star system” PowerReviews provides and maintain a slightly separate identity from their site, or continue to try and brand these product review systems as their own?

Now take this back to the client we were discussing.  Does his average customer find this review system more credible because they recognize the PowerReview system on his site from other online stores and therefore finds these reviews more credible?  How does this help or hurt the overall branding of the site?  Does the online shopper really care?

As we have seen, eCommerce remains a constantly evolving experience.  But, despite the nature of change in this business, maintaining some familiarity is the key to adoption.  Just as we would never encourage someone to change the colors of some of the top assurance badges (because users recognize them), maybe there’s an argument to setting aside brand with Product Reviews and Ratings as well.

Sounds like a great testing opportunity if you ask me…

In addition to this feature, Version 1.9 will also allow you to enjoy a handful of other new tools:

• Gift Registry module
• Advanced attribute management capabilities
• Solr Search
• Improvements to the full page caching module

Get more information or register for the Magento Enterprise 1.9 Webinar this Thursday, July 22^nd check out this link:

While Magento’s team made it clear they were doing all the right things to obtain their PA-DSS certification, it’s even more exciting to see the continued evolvement of this young platform as this is the third enterprise update of the year giving users  new features that are the result of a great ongoing g dialogue between Magento, their partner channel, and their customers.

Stay tuned to see what’s next…

For this month’s Design 1, 2, 3, let’s take a look at a popular amusement park’s eCommerce Shopping Cart and see if it makes for a spectacularly speedy checkout.

1. Visual Heirarchy: What stands out on this page the most? A quick blur test (below) might help you.

Even though the company has managed to keep this page simple without a lot of distractions, the red, top navigation is drawing all the attention. It has a nice, subtle gradient on it that adds some depth. The rest of the page is mainly blue and black on white. No gradient, no shadows, no depth. The page feels very flat and my eye isn’t getting pulled anywhere. It lazily floats around the page. This is important because as a result, the “Checkout” button gets lost.

The Checkout button is the exact same size, styling and coloring as the “update,” “apply” and “continue shopping” buttons. When a user arrives on the shopping cart, it should be very obvious what the next step is, but on this page it’s not. This could be remedied by applying a subtle gradient (like the one used in the nav) to the checkout button and making it larger. It’d still fit the color scheme, but it would stand out as the more important button that it is.

2. User Confusion: As mentioned before, during the checkout process, the user should always know what the next step is. Well, if you’re buying a season pass from this site, you might be perplexed to realize that “continue” isn’t the next step. After tapping on the button several times, I thought it must be a dead link and I reloaded the page. Click, click, click, nope I still couldn’t continue. My confusion increased. Until after a few seconds of scanning I saw in bold, red, starred text: *Enter Pass Information. Hmm… I wonder if this is what’s stopping me from proceeding.

Sure enough, when purchasing a a season pass, the user must enter in their personal information before moving from the shopping cart to the checkout. There are several ways to smoothly transition the user to this step:

1. The continue button could be grayed out, so users automatically know that something is wrong. Better yet, the button could be grayed out AND their could be an additional linked line of text (next to the button) that says, “Before continuing checkout, users buying season passes must provide their information.” While “Enter Pass Information” was a nice attempt at this, it’s location and language doesn’t tell me this is an immediate and required step before checking out.
2. The best solution? When users are adding the season pass on the previous page, why not pull up a lightbox and have them fill out the information right then as a half-way step before they arrive on the shopping cart? Then no modifications would be needed on the shopping cart at all.

3. Usability: While I was writing this, my shopping cart session timed out. Okay, no big deal, this happens all the time. However, I was not expecting to arrive at this page (below). If you can’t read it, it says “Your session has timed out.”

I had no way to get back to the amusement park site, let alone my order or shopping cart. The page didn’t automatically redirect me or even provide a link back to the homepage. The page wasn’t even branded to the company, which only heightened my frazzledness about what had just happened and the security of everything. When I clicked the back button, I got back to my cart in tact, but whatever link I clicked still took me to this session timed out page. Being web saavy that I am, I played around with the URL, cutting off the timeout.htm extension, and going back to the root domain, and nope neither of those worked at getting me back to the amusement park site.

My point is — don’t do this to your customers. Online shoppers, web saavy or not, are bound to cause errors and go off the beaten path every now and then. Your site has to be there to hold their hand and get them back on task. A session time out in the eCommerce part of the site, should have redirected me to the general, buying tickets page. Even a simply branded Error Page with the top visited links on the site would probably be enough to get someone back on track.

Amusement parks might think they have a lock on consumers because trips usually rely on location. But don’t think that means you can provide a poor experience and expect a repeat visit. Make the best impression possible by providing them with an easy way to skip the lines at the gates by buying their tickets online. If you do, those single day passes might turn into season passes.

Mentioned in this Post
Homepage :: Hersheypark
(NOTE: I can’t link to the shopping cart because of the security, but do check it out.)

Old Spice has taken the use of social media to the next level. Recently, Old Spice launched a YouTube viral video campaign, with their spokesman responding to comments left on the Old Spice Facebook and Twitter accounts. Each video included the name of the original user who made the comment or statement – most responses lasted 30-60 seconds. The Old Spice spokesperson even goes as far as smashing a pirate pinata with a freshwater fish in a video response made just for Demi Moore. The Old Spice YouTube profile has total upload views surpassing 59 million…not too shabby.

If you haven’t seen one of the Old Spice TV commercials , you probably live on another planet. If that is the case, you are probably more worried about your crazy neighbor parking his Corellian YT – 1300 freighter too close to your Naboo Royal Cruiser. Since we are on Earth, I will try and focus on what is going on with us boring Homo sapiens.

For a long time, social media represented a channel where your customers talked about your products or business, and you prayed that discussion was positive. Now, organizations continue to find and experiment with new ways to penetrate this channel and find new ways to interact with their target customer base instead of sitting on the social media sidelines.

However, before you jump into the “game,” make sure you stretch and remember these 3 things:

• Use the dialect and language your customers are using. If Old Spice sent a formal press release responding to tweets and posts, the message would’ve been lost because of the way it was delivered.
• Keep your communication short and to the point. Diatribes are meant for Shakespeare and your journal; meanwhile, your audience prefers frequency and freshness.
• Keep the conversations going. Don’t try to stop them. Your tendency will be to resolve things, but whether it’s positive or negative, showing the interaction and attention is where you score brownie points with your audience. Facilitate and encourage additional participation and you will learn that much more about your audience.

Does your social strategy stink? Reach out to me to learn more about what we’re doing to help our clients cash in on social media…

Check out The Old Spice Experiment

The Simple Desktop Background

You have undoubtedly come across some of the thousands of websites devoted to distributing desktop wallpaper images.  Visitors will find images ranging from scenic photos to unicorns in flight to abstract designs and everything in between.  After using many background images over the years I have come to find a trend among the ones that I particularly like: the simpler the better.  Backgrounds that have less visual clutter allow icons to stand out more and are easier to navigate.  They also make it easier to distinguish between layered windows and applications.  So what, you ask?  Well, the same holds true for web design.

Making Your Content Pop

When designing an interface that is meant to move the users eye from message to message, contrast is of primary importance.  Contrast can be achieved in many ways, with changes in size, line, hue, value, color intensity and so on.  To draw attention to the focal points of your design they must stand out against their background.  In keeping your site’s main background elements in the background by keeping them uncluttered and relatively subdued, you give your content a better opportunity to stand out.

Notice how elements such as the navigation, buttons, and text when placed on a subtle background stand out and draw the users eye in the eFootWear shopping cart:

On the flip side, the following site features a busy background which only serves to distract the user from the content rather than focus on it.  While this design is certainly over the top it illustrates the point well:

Of course there are exceptions to the rule here.  A busy background can serve to accentuate an uncluttered element that rests above it.  Such is the case with My Mascot where the content resides in a white container on top of a detailed wooden texture background.  This works because the contrast between the highly textured background and the flat white background makes the content rise to the foreground:

Remove the white container and the content fades into the background and the texture become the main focus.  Here you can see just how important the background can be to a design:

If you are a Designer this concept should come as no surprise, but it is helpful to see it in action outside of web design using your own desktop wallpaper as an example.  Even if you aren’t a designer you can experiment with this concept by playing around with a few desktop wallpaper images, both busy and subtle, and see how much of a difference it can make in usability.  Afterwords you might think twice before choosing that Jackson Pollock painting to “Set as background image.”

Organize.com, a company focused on selling home storage and organization products hosted a virtual party on both Facebook and Twitter as a kickoff to the national Hardware Show on May 4. According to Internet Retailer the event brought in over 1,500 registered guests. During this virtual event the hosts tweeted and posted a number of questions engaging the participants/attendees with a variety of questions that helped give them insight to the lifestyle of their guests. They were able to retain guests by awarding prizes every 10 to 15 minutes.

After the party, participants were given party favors ($5 Off coupons for orders up to $25 on Organize.com). Organize.com brought in $18,000 in sales in direct connection to a similar party they hosted in December, and have brought in$1,500 thus far in sales from customers who used the coupons.

While social marketing strategy does not come in one style fits all I believe Organize.com is a great example of the approach an organization must embrace in order to succeed and achieve an ROI on these efforts.

Here are 4 things to keep in mind when throwing a virtual party of your own:

1. Plan - You must first establish clear objectives and marketing goals. Establish the key metrics you want to measure. Keep these simple and logical, as they could get complicated over time. For example getting 500 attendees, or increasing your newsletter email list by 30%.
2. Discover & Engage - Organize.com spent a good amount of time engaging their guests, and in doing this they were able to learn about how they organized themselves. As a result of this dialogue many guests probably realized they had a new use for one or more of Organize.com’s products. It is through such dialogue that relationships are built. After all, it is called social media, so socializing is key and you only add more value by doing so!
3. Measure – Organize.com gave away coupons at the end of the party. Not only did this serve as an incentive for the guests to visit the site and make purchases, but it also served as a tracking mechanism that enabled them to measure direct sales from the event. You could measure the success of your party in other ways including:
   • Setting up a landing page to serve as a gateway to your site, allowing you to track the increased traffic/visitors driven to your site as a result of the party.
   • Asking guests to become a fan on Facebook or follow you on Twitter in exchange for a link to an online discount coupon. This not only allows you to track the increase in followers, fans and site traffic but also provides you with the opportunity to retain these fans and followers, enabling you to reach out to them in the near future.
4. Reengage - This is not a collector’s game focused simply on how many clicks, fans and followers you have! Don’t waste the opportunity to communicate with your new fans and followers.  Adopting a long-term approach on how to continuously engage your customers and followers is key. With Organize.com hosting a 2nd event of this, they stay in constant contact with their customers and followers and their ROI proves that it’s worth it. More events will surely follow.

So if you apply these 4 basic groovy moves, not only will you be the life of the party, you can expect to see me there!

For this back-to-basics adventure, we’re going to Japan (figuratively.) Morphica is a stylish, minimalist home furnishings company. For the most part, their site is completely in Japanese. No, I do not read Japanese, and yet this language barrier doesn’t hinder my ability to shop their website. Why not? Because Morphica uses eCommerce best practices, and the beautiful thing about standards is that they translate across cultures and languages to focus on user behavior and expectation.

Take a look at their “Furniture” category page (above the fold):

1. The Product
All of the products are lined up in a uniform grid making them easily approachable. The image is a link and so is the blue text. Sure enough these links continue on to that image’s product page, exactly what I would expect to happen. The price is clearly displayed. On other pages, discounts are clearly labeled with pricing done in red and/or crossed out. Granted there is a line of plain text (not-linked) in Japanese that I don’t know what it is, but that is more or less irrelevant to me. All of the necessary information is available to me – 1. I know what the product is (image), 2. I know how to find more information about the product (link), 3. I know how much the product costs (price displayed). One point for best practices.

2. The Header Links
On nearly all eCommerce sites, there are a cluster of links in the top right corner of the site of the usual suspects: Sign-up/Register/Log-in, My Account, Shopping Cart, Contact/Customer Service etc. Morphica sticks to this best practices and has all the expected links in the top right corner. After a few clicks back and forth, I can decipher how to get to my shopping cart, log-in, search and get help. Again, there is an expectation of what those links should be from a user standpoint, and it’s good to meet expectation. The one thing I think they err on is the blue button in this corner. What page do you think it would take you to? To really adhere to eCommerce best practices, this button should go to the Shopping Cart/Checkout as that is what you (the business) really want to drive the user to do. On the Morphica site, the button actually leads to an account sign-up/log-in.

3. The Purchase
The image above shows a lower section of Morphica’s product page. Again, without being able to read the Japanese, it’s still very easy for me to get a grasp on what is happening on this page. The product is available in different colors. I can see the corresponding price for each color. There is also a drop down which is surely to select the quantity of items. I know this because the numbers run from 1 to 10. Had the numbers been 100 to 1,000 then I might become confused, but because the drop down was in the range that I expected, I can keep moving along and buy this product. After all of the product colors, there is one single black button for me to click. Sure enough this adds the product to my cart which is exactly what I would expect it to do. I expect it because of 1. It’s alignment with the price and quantity and 2. because best practices say to remove all distracting buttons (clear, reset, continue shopping, delivery etc.) from the “add to cart” button.

Hopefully, this month’s Design 1, 2, 3 helped you focus in on some eCommerce best practices and more importantly, why there are such. By following best practices, you’re putting your site in the best position to convert by meeting user expectation.

Mentioned in this Post
Category Page :: Morphica
Product Page :: Morphica

As we gear up for this year’s conference where the theme has shifted from last year’s “avoiding getting you’re a** kicked in a bad economy to kicking a** in a rebounding economy,” here’s 5 key sessions that will feature great speakers discussing relevant topics that can impact your bottom line. So jump into these sessions and countless others, but make sure you take advantage of the great networking and conversations as well.

Session #1: Issues for Top E-Retail Executives
Wednesday, June 9th – 1:45 PM – 2:15 PM
Understanding the New Consumers—and creating a strategy to reach them
Gian Fulgoni, Chairman, comScore Inc.

The Groove Commerce team continues to pride ourselves on our efforts and ability to understand our clients’ customers’ buying experience. As eCommerce shopping becomes more of a regular practice for consumers, understanding and respecting the importance of how your buyers “experience” your website is critical to continued growth and success.

This session will tackle, “who’s buying online, by gender, income and other measures; how groups are changing their online spending patterns; what they’re buying and how much; where they are buying it; and how the always-connected generation will change online retailing soon. This session will provide a deep look into the data behind the statistics—and ideas on how retailers can shape their strategies to fit the shifting market.” (Internet Retailer)

Session #2: Advanced E-Marketing Strategies
Wednesday, June 9th – 2:15 PM – 3:00 PM
Using niche stores to grab opportunities
Paul Boisvert, Lead Product Manager, Yahoo Merchant Solutions
Pavel Shvartsman, Co-Founder and President, OpticsPlanet Inc.

The ability to launch smaller, more focused stores has long been a best practice for a lot of our clients. The SEO value, conversion data, and ability to focus your customer’s attention thus giving you better visibility back into their “buying experience” has allowed our clients to see a strong ROI on these efforts. In addition Groove’s partnership with the Magento Professional and Enterprise Platforms continues to makes these efforts even easier and is an opportunity we will continue to explore with our clients.

This session will discuss, “… the rationale behind such sites, how to identify opportunities, how to create such stores quickly and cost effectively, and how to market them to achieve fast, profitable sales.” (Internet Retailer)

Session #3: Small E-Retailers
Wednesday, June 9th – 1:45 PM – 2:15 PM
Lean and mean customer engagement strategies
Rob Snell, Co-Owner, Gun Dog Supply
Julie Swatek, Founder and President, Scrap Your Memories Inc.

Now it might be a little bias, but we’re really excited about the speakers in this session. Rob and Julie are both long time friends of the Groove family and so shameless plug or not, we’re excited to hear their thoughts around engagement strategies on a budget. The truth is that despite the continued evolution in offerings of reporting tools and various metrics and media for your online business the common truth across all e-tailers is that 3 elements impact your bottom line; traffic, average order value, and conversion rate. Anything else “is for the birds…”

“This session will detail customer engagement strategies that don’t require expensive technology. Our speakers will discuss how to communicate to customers in a way they can relate to, how to increase customer loyalty and order frequency with social media channels and how to use every touch point to keep customers engaged.” (Internet Retailer)

Session #4: Search Marketing
Thursday, June 10th – 11:00 AM – 11:45 AM
The search marketing see-saw: SEO vs. SEM
Jamie Smith, CEO, Engine Ready Inc.
Brandon Proctor, Vice President Marketing, Build.com

My favorite question I get asked when discussing ongoing marketing efforts with a potential clients is “How long do you anticipate I have to do paid search for?”  And my response, “As long as it makes sense.”

Across industries the number varies, but the cliché goal behind PPC is to figure out how to spend 10 cents and turn it into a dollar. And with this mindset, comes the overriding goal behind doing paid search forever. On the other side of the fence sits, SEO the proverbial golden child, which seemingly allows e-tailers to acquire customers/sales at “no cost” per click. The truth is anyone doing this correctly knows they are spending dollars in some form or another, it’s just a question of whether your checks are going to the boys at Google (excuse me while I forget other search engines for now) or your SEM & SEO partner. Where good e-tailers differentiate themselves from great e-tailers is using the analytics and data available to you from your paid search to help shape your SEO strategy. (Insert shameless plug: If you’re not taking swing by Booth 744 ☺ and we ‘ll be happy to explain this school of thought some more).

I’m excited to hear Jamie and Brandon discuss how these two elements can coincide and exponentially drive your business to the next level when managed, studied, and understood.

This session will discuss, “Almost all online retailers use pay-per-click search engine marketing while also optimizing their web sites’ pages to rank high in search engines’ natural results. But there is often debate as to which works better. The answer is both, depending on such factors as the e-retailer’s budget, the quantity of merchandise available, the season and others. This session will walk retailers through how to analyze which approach to prioritize given your own situation.” (Internet Retailer).

Session #5: Social Media
Thursday, June 10th – 2:00 PM – 2:45 PM
Putting on your best face: How to design effective brand pages on social media
Vibhav Prasad, Vice President, Web Marketing and Merchandising, 1-800-Flowers Jon Kosoff, Director of Ecommerce & Direct Marketing, Wet Seal Inc.

Come on you thought I’d pick 5 sessions and not one would talk about everyone’s favorite buzzword of the last two years? But before you plan your trip to pay homage to Mark Zuckerberg or begin a tweeting spree that will have you in rehab before the holiday shopping season, attend this session.
We are constantly looking at Social Media and how it can impact our clients. However, the key is to identify these networks and communication channels as new areas to establish a new presence and engage current and new customers in a new kind of way. How you speak to them and how you look to them will ultimately determine your ability draw your Social Media Strategy back to one of those 3 driving principles that stand to impact your business.

This session will cover, “The online retailing industry has established design standards for sites that create sales. But now retailers face new challenges in designing social media sites that engage consumers and encourage them to buy. Our speakers have created compelling social media sites. They will discuss the elements of effective social media design, the trial-and-error to create sites that consumers like and what changes they anticipate as retailers and consumers become more sophisticated in their social media usage.” (Internet Retailer)

So here’s to a great show and some great momentum as we enter the second half of 2010. While you’re in between sessions or overwhelmed from everything you heard at one, stop by Booth 744 and visit with us. We’d love to hear about your experience at the show and tell you more about the exciting things going on with Groove Commerce and our clients.

Having spent my fair share of time in the city people often ask me about the sites and sounds, well my man Frank say’s it best… It’s my kind of town, Chicago is.

So here are some of my favorite places to eat, drink and maximize you Chitown experience:

Best Steak – Gibsons:
1028 North Rush Street
Sitting right at the pinnacle of Rush St, Gibson’s is a classic Chicago steakhouse. The bar always has a great bustle and hustle while the steaks come out of the kitchen perfectly cooked. Feeling large and in charge? Then start with the ‘Spicy Lobster Cocktail’ and then go for the ‘Big Porterhouse’

Best Sushi – Japonais:
600 W. Chicago Avenue
Japonais is one of my favorite sushi joints in the country and on par with Nobu in terms of quality and creativity. From the music and modern décor to the service, it is an experience not to be missed for the sushi fan. Try the Toro sampler. Feeling frisky? Then go Omakase.

Best Dive Bars – She-Nannigans & The Lodge:
16 W. Division Street & 21 W. Division Street
They say that opposites attract right? Well She-Nannigans is the truest sense of a college dive bar complete with beer pong tables, an indoor basketball shooting range and a top 40 dj. Just stay away from the stages behind the bar.
The Lodge is directly across the street and the oldest spot on Division. True to its name, it looks like an old lodge. So after a quick game of beer pong walk across the street to one if the best jukeboxes in the city and play a little Temptations.

Best Pizza – Lou Malnati’s:
805 S. State
The debate on who has the best Chicago pizza has been going on for decades. You have folks in the Gino’s camp, the Giordanos camp and finally Lou Malnati’s camp. Go for deep dish, but don’t forget the 30ish minute baking time. The original location in Lincolnwood has been a shrine to Chicago sports since it opened in 1971, but the Loop location on South State will serve you just fine. Not feeling pizza? Then go for the to-die-for chopped beef sandwich with peppers and a little bit of au jus.

Best Drink with a View – Whiskey Sky (@ W Hotel Lakeshore):
644 N Lake Shore Dr
Looking to escape somewhere and enjoy a cocktail with a view? Well the Whiskey Sky lounge on top of the W Lakshore is it. In typical Rande Gerber fashion this sleek 1,000 square foot spot is like a intimate hideaway with some of the most amazing nighttime views of Chicago.

Best Blues Bar – Buddy Guys: Legends:
700 S. Wabash
The best thing about Buddy Guys? They just opened the doors to this new location on Wabash. The worst? After being forced to relocate to this new location it erases the smell of 20+ years of sweaty blues and stale beer. Some of the best blues musicians in the world pass through and join in for a set or two.

Chicago is home to some of the best parks, museums and attractions. Chicagoans’ are also some of the nicest, most helpful people in the country. So do yourself a favor and ask around to have your own little Chicago IRCE adventure off the beaten path.

My guess? The marketing team, because they have charts and data and “direct consumer feedback” (i.e. conversion rate) on what sells. Unfortunately, it’s an unjust world, and rarely do shoppers ever contact a company to say, “I really loved that size chart diagram. It made it very clear what size I should purchase, so I did. You have a really great designer on staff.” (Unjust, it really is.) The creative team doesn’t get to take the same credit for success that the marketing team does. And sometimes, it can lead to turf wars, and the customer is the one who suffers. Usability and common sense are sacrificed.

Let’s take a look at a few missteps of a Home Furnishing website, and make believe some conversations that went on between the designers and marketers. And let’s see if we can’t propose a better
solution.

1. Call to Action
The original reason I went to this website was because I had gift card and wanted to check the balance. After three clicks I got to the right page where I could enter the card number and pin. Three clicks, because I took an accidental turn clicking on “Gift Cards” in the header, which took me to the Buy a Gift Card page. Interestingly, “Gift Cards” in the footer, is the correct path to redeem/check balances. Same verbiage arriving at different pages? Misstep #1.

But the bigger misstep, which I can testify to in my own frustration, is the image above. After looking from the card to my keyboard repeatedly to enter 16 digits and then 8 more, I put my hand on the mouse, glanced at the screen and clicked. And sure enough, I clicked on the wrong button. I got sent to the homepage, and all my hard work to enter 24 digits correctly was gone. Back through the process I went.

And here’s how I imagine the buttons got this way:
Marketer: We want to make sure they know they can continue shopping.
Designer: They can use any of the side or top navigation to continue shopping. The button is unnecessary.
Marketer: But we need buttons to give direction.
Designer: On this page, what they should do next is check the balance.
Marketer: And then what? They’ll get their balance and not know what to do. Just add a button, you can put it to the side if you want.
Designer: Fine.

Solution: For starters, this page really doesn’t need the continue shopping button as the designer pointed out. It’s like a reset or cancel button, adding little value to the form, while adding a lot of potential frustration. The designer did everything right: the button is placed in the right position aligned with the text fields, it’s bigger than the other button. But the colors really throw it all off. If the “Check Gift Card Balance” was blue, and the “Continue Shopping” button was brown, I don’t think I would have clicked on the wrong one. Try the blur test on this one, if you don’t believe me. I understand the blue “matches” more with the site’s color scheme, but nonetheless, it’s so much more vibrant and it calls attention to itself.

2. Navigation Usability
My second frustration came once I actually started shopping on the site. This site has thousands of products as a result they have a very long side navigation with a three tier pullout menu. A very sensitive pullout menu. As I was browsing them, they’d disappear too quickly, they wouldn’t respond to my mouse, they cut off text, they don’t show what the original hover choice was, etc. And this isn’t a problem of my dexterity; the store even recognized a problem as they offer a “Turn Menus Off” link at the top. Rather than fix the problem, which would involve serious rethinking of the homepage and category page hierarchy and refinements, they just slapped a band-aid on it and said good enough.

The possible company conversation:
Marketer: We want people to see everything before they even have to click. Lots of hover action.
Designer: Well, lets talk about how to use all the real estate on the homepa—
Marketer: No. We just want some fly out menus that let people choose. And then we can use the homepage for seasonal banners.
Designer: The functionality exists to do fly out menus, but they can be troublesome from a development and customer perspective.
Marketer: If it’s possible, why are we even having this conversation? Do it.
–In the future–
Marketer: So people are complaining about the fly outs in the navigation. It’s too tricky.
Designer: Okay, let’s talk about changing up our navigation and homepage content . And the category page refinements—
Marketer: That’s going to involve too much time and money. Let’s just add a link allowing users to “turn off” the fly outs. Then everyone’s happy, right?

Solution: As mentioned before the best solution would be to rethink the homepage and category page hierarchy and refinements. Or go back into the code and rework the development so it works more smoothly—consider the benefits of click vs. hover. Or at the very least, reconsider how the products are grouped and displayed. There are some successful eCommerce sites that have multi-level navigation such as: Porsche, Mini Cooper, and The North Face.

3. Images vs. Information
While, I think this company almost got this right, it could still be approved upon. They sell three sizes of the same exact cutting board. They’ve displayed all three boards in a single product image. While this was a good start, they didn’t quite do it right. Notice the difference between the images below:

The original image shows the product, even if it’s a bit cramped with all those boards, without really conveying any information other than: there are three boards in this picture (which might mean there are three sizes.) While the image on the right (excuse my very quick rendering) clearly shows that this product has three distinct sizes, and gives the customer some perspective as to what those sizes are. The second image provides information in a way that is instantly recognizable.

Designer: Hey, I came up with this great new image to show off the product features.
Marketing: That looks good, but can it be done to all the products?
Designer: Well, not every product needs it, but we should do it for those that do.
Marketing: I’m worried this is going to make the products feel inconsistent. Plus, won’t it take a lot of time to make all those images?
Designer: Yes, but I think it’ll give the consumer the information in a more efficient and clearer way. It’s time well spent.
Marketing: Hmm… I’m not sure. No one’s ever complained about the images before… Let me get back to you on this.
:Radio silence:

Solution: I think this company’s mistake is mainly just having only one image for each product. You might think you don’t need more than one angle because your product is simple, but think again. If there are other ways to engage your customer visually, you should do so! Images greatly enhance the online shopping experience, we all know that, that’s why we have zoom features and color swatches etc. Don’t stop there. Customize those images to your company and products, and your consumers.

I apologize for the sweeping generalizations of marketing and designers teams that I’ve made. I’m just trying to poke a little fun at this. These missteps could easily be worked out if the two teams were on the same page about their end goal: increasing the conversion rate through good usability practices. No matter which side of the fence you’re on, remember that there’s always a good solution, a better solution and the best solution. Listen to both sides, and reach for that best solution every time. The time and money involved is usually worth it.

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