Forum Moderators: buckworks
I have about 500 unique tangible products at any given time. I feel like if I am to expand any further, I need a well thought out and organized category structure before this happens.
Any advice appreciated...
This depends on the products that you are selling, and also the amount of information you want to show on the main category page.
In my experience the amount of products in a category is less important than making sure that they all belong there.
I find that upwards of 40 products normally dictates that an extra category is needed.
>At what point is it too many?
If you look at the category and find it even mildly confusing or too much to take in. Keep categories specific and accurate and people will trust your judgement throughout your site more.
>When is a new category or a subcategory needed?
When there is no logical place for new products, or you put them in an existing category because 'it is the closest match for them'
>Is there a practical limit to the number of branches >one can go before you lose the customer?
I find that a relatively flat structure works best. The furthest i ever go is 3 clicks from the home page, by keeping a shallow structure visitors tend to be able to remember where they have been and how they got their more easily. I find up to 10 or so branches from each category work best.
My opinion is starting with a larger number of categories in a shallow structure is better than a small number reaching 5 / 6 /7 levels, though of course this depends on the number of products.
20 categories, splitting to 5 sub categories, each containing 20 products gives scope for 2000 products and room for expansion on your site.
>Is a well organized structure better than search?
Both are important. Some people browse, others search so you need to make sure both work well to entice visitors to stay and look around.
>Do you suggest products be placed in multiple >categories at once?
Only if they should. My sentiment is that one product has a place in one category in a well structured website, but in certain cases duplicating products in multiple categoies can work well especially when you are placing them where they 'should'technically be, and also where uneducated vistitors can find them.
How many products do you think is just right for one category?
Eight.
At what point is it too many?
Infinite with good search capability.
When is a new category or a subcategory needed?
As soon as you have eight similar items in the "other stuff" category.
Is there a practical limit to the number of branches one can go before you lose the customer?
I think everything should be 3 clicks off the main menu or less.
Is a well organized structure better than search?
BOTH are NEEDED.
Do you suggest products be placed in multiple categories at once?
No. Unless your software allows you to maintain one listing for the item and call it up within multiple categories -- otherwise you'll end up with 50 copies of the same information, database record numbers, updating problems, etc... usually there is a way to work around this that is more productive, (ie- adding a notice to the checkout process along the lines of "did you remember order batteries for that cordless catbox pooper-scraper"...
?
Why eight products to a category?
That was to be taken with the next answer (how many is too many --- an infinite amount)...
Back when I wrote a BBS menu editor, we (a bunch of sysops and programmers) were talking about how many items to put on a menu... (about the same discussion as here, but we were interested in making BBS's user friendly, and didn't want to overwhelm people with too many menu choices or too many levels of menus)...
After much "expert" discussion, we decided that people could pick from 8 distinct menu items, and could traverse 3 levels of menu depth before they got lost in the system.
The exception was "lists" where, so long as people understood where they were and what they were looking at, they could navigate through hundreds or search through thousands of choices, ie-
BBS Main Menu
[E]mail Area
[F]ile Area
[M]essage Forums
[C]hat Online
[U]ser Utilities
[I]nternet Gateway
[H]elp
[G]oodbye
Then each sub menu would contain 8 or so other menu commands, but in the [F]ile Area, the user may be presented with a choice of 50 (or 100, 200 or more if alphabetic, numbered, date order or otherwise organized) categories of files, and within those 100 or more of each type of file... so long as there was sufficuent organization, they could be downloading a file, (or reading email, or reading message boards)... in 3 clicks.
1. press [F] for File area,
2. select a category (or enter search key)
3. click on a file to download
If there were 50 file area each with 100 files, that would handle 5000 files easily... Same for message forums, etc..
Translating it to eCommerce, I'd say if you don't have 7 or 8 items to put together in a category, leave them in a "Misc" or "New" or other category until you do --- I don't think people like clicking 3 levels deep to find 2 items...
I'm sure 5 or 6 would do... but don't start creating a new category for every 2-3 items that don't seem to fit somewhere else.
Just my $0.02
(near top)
"...allowed the fastest acquisition and fewest errors of the four structures...."
(then near the end of the middle of the papaer)
"Four decades ago, G. Miller [9] offered a general rule of thumb that the span of immediate memory is about 7 +/- 2 items"
Miller's work was on memory and "choosing" and searching type mental activities... his way of saying people can go through menu structures containing "between 5 and 9" menu items.
I always liked "8". Sometime, when I have the time, I'll read the middle of that paper and see why they had to write so much about "7".
Source:
WebmasterWorld Weekly
Vol 1 Issue 3.4, August 6, 2004
The Magical Number Seven
[research.microsoft.com...]
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