Displaying Products Online...

What is most effective? Most popular first? Listed by price?...

[eugenebarnes]

When deciding how to arrange products on e-commerce pages, are there any tried and true rules to follow? Should the most popular products get top billing? Should products be listed with lowest price first?

And just to make it more interesting... is it better to list shipping charges separately or roll them into the sale price? (i.e. $95 plus $7 s&h or $102, shipping included).

[TallTroll]

>> are there any tried and true rules to follow?

Not really, not for general application. Certain sectors are (slowly) evolving guidlines, but even they don't always apply. My feeling is that products should be grouped logically, which may mean 1 per page in some cases, and by manufacturers range in another, or some other categorisation.

>> Should the most popular products get top billing?

Yes, they should have a space on your home page, with a link straight to a ready populated basket, with marketing copy indicating their *SPECIAL OFFER* price of £x (reduced from your recently implemented x + y, across-the-board "price rise" ;))

>> is it better to list shipping charges separately or roll them into the sale price?

Depends on product, IMO. If you are expecting people to buy just 1 or 2 low priced products at a time, roll it into the sale price (then advertise as offering FREE SHIPPPING! _{Geographic restrictions may apply}

For lots of products per order, or high ticket items, make shipping an "extra" and offer multiple levels of service, if possible. People will tend to understand why you ar echarging it separately in these cases, and be more willing to accept it. Offering a choice of shipping options then becomes seen as an added value service, not you screwing a few more pence from the customer. Wierd, but true

[pmac]

I have played around alot with this. I really don't think that there is any hard and fast rule and that every situation is unique. For example, I have my site divided into sections, and some parts of the site are very price sensitive and others are not.

In the price sensitive areas, I display the product from the lowest price to the highest, but in an area that is not as price sensitive, I do the exact opposite.

I think that if you are trying to sell a high end product, it makes sense to display your flagship product first. In the area that is not so price sensitive, I have 6 items ranging in price from $600 - $1500 and the most expensive skew is my best seller. I want to show that item off.

For the price sensitive items, I am careful not to scare customers off with sticker shock. Ease them into it.

I also like to price shipping included (for a limited time of course), but also offer an option to speed up delivery for an extra fee.

My 2 beer caps. :)

[pshea]

Yes, flagship product first, most interesting/unusual/unique product next, least expensive product after that, then after that, your most profitable, after that the rest.