If you have ever managed your own ecommerce website, you know that the task can be quite daunting. Less than five products, maybe not so much; but what happens when you start to reach ten, or twenty or more products? Lets not forget the different variation options such as size and color. Variations of one product could almost count as another product in itself when you consider the information and relative images that you will need to input.
As a busy business owner, the thought alone of having to organize products is a headache. You want your focus to be on sales, not on uploading product information. However, you can’t just slap the product on the site and call it a day because you run the risk of compromising the quality of your site. There’s also the risk that your site visitors won’t be able to locate the item easily. You want to maintain consistency in your product layout: images (angles, quality and variations), the information provided, and the design. You also need to have a logical structure to classify your products into categories and subcategories if necessary; doing this allows customers to locate specific products easily.
How do you make your site structure a lot less overwhelming for both you and your customer? The answer is to simply keep it simple. The key to reducing the chaos of organizing your e-commerce website is consistency and structure.
Consistency helps your website look tidy and professional but it also helps your site visitors. Having consistency in your product layout and navigation will help to eliminate confusion and answer common questions. Customers will know where to look and what information to expect to find for each item as they browse the site. What colors are available? What are the ingredients? Is it dry clean only? If you provide information for one item, then the same information should be available for another item of the sort. The same holds true for images. If you display the front and back of one shirt, visitors expect you display the front and back of them all. I also can’t stress enough how important the quality of the photo matters, but even then, there should be consistency in the quality, lighting, and background of your product images. Check out my article on web picture quality: A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words, for more information about photos on the web.
Having a logical classification structure or taxonomy for your products is the most important rule for maintaining an organized e-commerce website. The taxonomy is created through categories and sub-categories. The number of products you have will determine the number of categories and subcategories needed. If you only have a few products, subcategories and even categories may not be necessary. Group relative products together and make their major commonality the category, but only if there are enough products to do so. You don’t want to overwhelm your customers with too many options, so don’t just place items in categories for the sake of categorizing. Group your products logically.
If a customer can’t find a product they are looking for, they will most likely abandon the website altogether. To make their search experience a lot easier, you will need consistency and structure. To determine the best structure, you will need to take time to understand how your site viewers will be using your site and organize the products accordingly. What makes sense to you may not make sense to your audience, so it is important to understand how they think. Also, as your business and number of products grow, your catalog structure may need to change. It is important to do website audits to check your website taxonomy and its effectiveness.
If you need help structuring or maintaining your e-commerce site, give me a call. I’d be happy to help you evaluate and organize your website.
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943-239-9480
stephanie@smaysdesigns.com
PO Box 1793 Conyers , GA 30012
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