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Online Shop Navigation that Increase Sales

If your online sales are down, your bounce rates high or your page views are low – what can you do to fix these problems? Well one important aspect of sales completions is navigation. The more user-friendly your navigation, the better your sales conversions.

Here are some suggestions to optimise your product categories and promote upselling and cross-selling, on your online shop.

Optimising product categories

• Clickable section headers: Research has shown that quite often, viewers want a broad overview of products within a certain category. They have no specifics in mind and just want to browse and see what is available. So they click on a section category and are presented with a drop down box that lists all the sub-categories. But the section category is not clickable. So they have no choice but to choose a sub-category. To remove this frustration, make the parent category part your website’s page structure and make it clickable. This gives your customers the option of viewing all of the products in that category or selecting a subcategory.
• Duplicate subcategories: If a customer cannot find an item on your website, where they think it should be, they will decide you do not sell that item. So if a customer searches for children’s chairs’ it should be found in the ‘Chairs’, ‘Bedroom furniture’, and ‘Children’s furniture’ subcategories. If an item can be listed in multiple sub-categories, then for easier product findability, it needs to be listed as such. However, talk to your SEO expert to set this up correctly – because Google can penalise you for duplicate content.
• New arrivals category: This helps existing customers’ source new products on your website. And it also assists both existing and new customers find seasonal or popular, newly released products. You can add a new subcategory for ‘New Arrivals’ or add a filter to your navigation.

• Suggest similar items: Whether or not a customer finds what they are searching for on your product page, offering similar items that match their search criteria is beneficial. It means that they do not have to search again or backtrack to another subcategory and keeps them engaged.
• Recently viewed items: Customers can become frustrated if they cannot easily find an item they recently viewed on your website. So having a ‘Recently viewed items’ button on every page of your website, in the footer or sidebar makes it easy for customers to compare products or simply go back to an earlier choice and complete the sale.
• Compatible items: When you have a lot of items that are compatible – a dedicated page makes it much easier to find the right product. For example, a page for a Dell New Inspirion 17R laptop can include additional batteries, travel case, adapters etc. And even if you do not sell Dell laptops, a page selling products compatible to Dell laptops helps customers find these accessories easily.
• Linked images: Always link product images to the product page. Even images used as ‘window dressing’ in a contextual photograph should be linked to their product page. And if an item in a contextual image is not for sale, then when a customer clicks on it provide an explanatory text, such as ‘Discontinued’ or ‘Available in-store’.

If your navigation is inadequate, it not only loses you sales, it can also harm your brand image. Talk to us to ensure that your navigation is optimised and user-friendly.

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Michael Lam

Co-founder of Cornerstone and web junkie, Michael knows just how to diagnose your online problems and remedy the issue. An online enthusiast who believes in technology as an enabler of growth, Michael worries about all the details so you don't have to.