Forum Moderators: buckworks
All products have images, so the page becomes somewhat heavy when the number of displayed products grows.
I just can't figure out which structure would perform better.
All sites out there use different approaches, so there is no real clue as to which layout is the winner.
#3 will require less clicks, but would take a while to load while #1 seems the most organized way, but it would take too many clicks for a visitor to cover the selection of a given category and it's sub-categories.
What do you guys think?
The entry page of a commerce site should focus on: 1) earning the browser's trust; 2) offering as many irresistible bargains as possible.
Even the largest sites should have a fair offering of hot selling products on the homepage.
But here's the rub. In each of these cases, you can think of examples where people might browse as well.
So the best advice I can give is that you create an initial site design, track user behaviour and then try changing one thing at a time to see what improves things and what makes things worse.
Chris
But IMO #1 is the best with #3 coming in second.
A couple things you can do. To improve traffic flow.
1) Create a site map on your home page deep linking to every sub category on your site. You can add pictures and descriptions to spice it up.
Category - sub cat 1, sub cat2, sub cat 3, sub cat 4.
Category 2 - sub cat1, sub cat2, sub cat 3, ect...
2) On Category pages have a your first link be a "View All Items" link that displays all items in that category before listing your sub categories. This way people will have the choice to browse by sub categories, or just look at all items under the main category.
Category - Widgets
View All - View all widgets in this Category
Green Widgets - View Green Widgets for you.
Blue Widgets - View Blue Widgets which make you a Blue Widget person.
3) Another thing to remember is that your images will load last. So if you are listing a lot of items on one page it is likely that users will be looking at the product images on top half of the page while the bottom images continue to load.
Create a site map on your home page deep linking to every sub category on your site. You can add pictures and descriptions to spice it up.
Check a site in my profile, go to the catalog page. I get lost there myself, not even talking abount visitors :)
If I make it more clear, it will take too many screens of scrolling down to see it all.
On Category pages have a your first link be a "View All Items" link that displays all items in that category before listing your sub categories.
Good idea, but I think most people would not understand and click either of the variations of the link.
Another thing to remember is that your images will load last. So if you are listing a lot of items on one page it is likely that users will be looking at the product images on top half of the page while the bottom images continue to load.
That's the one thing that makes me feel that #3 is the way to go.
I really like how ebay will list all items in a category, but give you the option to drill down to specifics. For example looking at the animal category you could list all items but keep a small header with the sub categories. I guess this would be a combination of #1 and #3. In fact this is what I would do. Something like your box category but list all items and have the top categories filter the items.
