Sub Category and Product Detail Pages of Six Functional Parts

Online stores use the following six basic component webpages in their store design:

• Home page
• Category pages
• Sub-category pages
• Product detail pages
• Informational content pages
• Checkout page

Sub-category Pages—"The Shelf"

Because most online stores carry hundreds or thousands of products, it is important to break up the information into manageable chunks. Products are displayed on a shelf—whether it is physical shelving in a brick-and-mortar store, a catalog page, a TV infomercial, or an e-commerce website product page. The product shelf is any web page on which a product is merchandised and sold. It can be a category page featuring many products, or it can be a specific product page with a single product.

In this example, there are many varieties of all-in-one printers. The subcategory page helps to narrow down the offering. A thorough understanding of customer needs is necessary to structure these pages. Depending on product complexities, informational content can provide customers with "why to buy" information that helps them select the right product to meet their needs. Emerging online tools—such as the shopping wizard—can help narrow choices.

Product Detail Pages—"The Package or SKU"

Because customers can't pick up virtual merchandise and read labels, the product detail page represents the product or behaves like the product package. It must clearly communicate what the product is and what the customer will receive as a result of its purchase. Anytime a page offers a product for sale, it must provide the following information for each of the products offered:

• What it is—the description, picture, uses
• Relevant and complete compatibility, sizing, color, or other information
• What's contained in the package—what the customer will receive
• Other items needed for immediate operation (batteries, cables, assembly, UL specifications)
• Spare or complementary items (extra batteries, film, or a carrying case)
• "Care and feeding" of the product (special polish, cleaning instructions)
• The price and any hidden charges (extra shipping or handling)
• The manufacturer's or designer's name
• Sample content (for example, sample book pages)

The customer must know clearly what the product is and what it looks like. And for customers who know exactly what they are looking for, accurate descriptions and specific product numbers or models must be included so they may easily recognize the correct product. Our research across more than 25 major elcommerce websites identified incomplete or inadequate information. In many cases, the web stores did not provide complete compatibility information.

Shoppers will not purchase from a site that cannot confirm their choice or be specific about what the product is that they are purchasing.

Product detail pages let customers know what they're getting and what else they may need or want. In this example, product features—the "speeds and feeds"—are listed. This includes products they may need to purchase in order to use the product. It also features other products the customer may want. Good clothing stores recommend coordinated accessories to give customers ideas to complete ensembles for a variety of social occasions.

The product detail page also needs to let people know how to buy the product. As simple as that sounds, customers who participated in website evaluation research had difficulty adding a product to the shopping cart. This function varies from website to website. Button labels can also vary. Some say "add to cart," "buy," or "add." The buttons also have different locations on these sites. Some are next to the products and some are far enough away to disassociate them from the product.

Also, some websites force customers to go to the shopping cart or checkout page every time they add an item to the shopping cart. This then forces them to start over or go back and forth if they are shopping for multiple items. It adds an unnecessary extra step.

Make it easy for the customer to know what they're getting and how to get it. Customers will leave tedious websites.

Make Customers Feel at Home on the Home Page, the Successful Websites Rule

The home page serves as an entry point to the navigation scheme and user choices for the rest of the website. It also sets the tone for the customer's visit. It must be inviting and informative It should answer the question, "What can I do with this website'?"

Customer Insight

Customers verbally and physically reacted strongly to home pages. The following customer comments are representative of their reactions:

• My first reaction when I see this screen is 'Wow!' There are lots of things to read. I want to find what I'm looking for and get it:'
• I hate it Websites are supposed to make your life easier:'
• The home page had so much stuff on it, I didn't see the search box, So I didn't use it. I felt stupid trying to find it."
• "It's as busy as heck:"
• This has lots of advertising on it, and I find it kind of distracting. It takes me a while to figure out how I can get where I need to go:'
• Boy, there are lots to look at laughs nervously. It's a very busy website. I really hate looking at that much advertising:'
• They have too much information. When I'm looking for something specific. I want to find it easy and fast. If I go to a site and don't see it readily available, I don't stay on the site I go somewhere else."

People had physical reactions to the home pages through body language. Especially in their facial expressions. Some people became nervous or agitated just looking at busy websites, and they physically withdrew. They sat back in their chairs and folded their arms trying to avoid proceeding with the tasks.

Invite customers to shop and feel at home on the home page by applying the following recommendations:

• Inform the customer clearly what the website does, what she can do with it and why she should care.
• Use simple and direct language to clearly state what your company does and why visitors should work with or purchase from your company.
• Structure the home page clearly.
• Detail any available resources on your site.
• Ensure that navigational areas are recognizable at first glance.
• Enable customers to link back to the home page from any interior page in one click (company logo, bread-crumbing).

Home pages should factor in clarity and accessibility for the customer.

Recommendations for Successful Websites

The following recommendations will help you meet the requirements and demands of a successful website.

• Plan: Always have the capacity for twice your current volume.
• Realize: Traffic can grow by several hundred percent after a big campaign.
• Remember: Anybody you turn away will not return.
• Start Out Right: Don't run a big campaign with a bad web design. Fix the site first.

The above rules are minimum standards, requirements, and current customer expectations. Periodic reviews and affirmations keep these rules in the forefront. Share these rules with others in the organization as business online basics.

The rules are fundamentals in guiding decisions or features of a website. Content of a page is a major contributor to the customer experience.

Speed Rules Successful Websites

Internet users do not like to wait. The taster your WebPages respond and the easier it is for the buyer to understand the page and take the next step the more successful the site.

a) Customer Insight

Customers made the following comments about website performance when they were asked to describe their experience with the website:

• Horrible. It was kind of slow, and you had to go looking for things:'
• Pictures take too long to load, and I don't have time to wait:'
• Nothing happened. Oh, there it is. I'm just impatient."

Some websites performed slower than others, and customers became impatient. Some labels and buttons took too long to render. On one website, the add-to-cart buttons were so slow to appear that customers couldn't figure out how to add an item into the shopping cart, even though they had found the product.

b) Recommendations

The following are recommendations to improve website performance and speed:

• Keep response time to 10 seconds maximum. Less for high-speed connections.
• Utilize a fast server and a high-end Internet connection.
• Minimize download times. Too often, WebPages load slowly, links are broken, and debugging messages pop-up on the site.
• Use few graphics, small graphics, and cached graphics
• Use task-sized product photos people want to see what they are buying. Use a small photo on the initial page. Link to larger photos with more details, and include several shots from different angles.
• Don't use photos in long lists of products on category pages unless they help to clearly differentiate products.
• Provide visual feedback to the customer if a transaction is going to take more than a second or two.
• Test page downloads using Internet connection speeds representative of typical website visitors.

All pages accessed during navigation should download in less than 10 seconds. Download speeds can be affected by Internet usage cycles. Internet traffic and usage can be heavier on certain days, peak hours, and special seasons like holidays. Testing during different days of the week and at different times gives you a more complete snapshot of speeds and performance.

Even with high-speed Internet connections, many customers still access the web over telephone lines. If a first-time customer encounters extremely slow performance on the home page, she may transfer the perception to the rest of the site and may not continue.

Simple text loads much quicker than graphics. If performance trade-offs are being made, use simple text links instead of fancy font graphics on web pages.