Ecommerce Articles & Videos

  • Celebrating Holidays and Special Occasions on Websites

    Even small holiday decorations can increase joy of use and make websites feel more current and more connected to users' lives and physical environment. The key is to commemorate without detracting from your users' main reasons for visiting the site.

  • Is Poor Usability Killing E-Commerce?

    User success rates on e-commerce sites are only 56%, and most sites comply with only a third of documented usability guidelines. Given this, improving a site's usability can substantially increase both sales and a site's odds of survival.

  • Helping Users Find Physical Locations

    When we asked users to find a nearby store, office, dealership, or other outlet based on information provided at a parent company's website, users succeeded only 63% of the time. On average, the 10 sites we studied complied with less than half of our 21 usability guidelines for locator design.

  • Profit Maximization vs. User Loyalty

    Instead of maximizing the profits from an individual visit it is better to encourage loyal users and establish non-monetary differentiation and frequent-user programs.

  • Web Research: Believe the Data

    Much is known about Web user behavior, yet research findings are often ignored in actual projects. Examples: up-front customer registration doesn't work; frequency of use and effectiveness of Web marketing methods are negatively correlated.

  • Why People Shop on the Web

    A survey of 1,780 people who have bought something on the Web found that convenience and ease of use are the main reasons to shop on the Web. Non-buying visits (product research) are important to shoppers.

  • Companies on Social Media: 6 Interaction Types

    Our user research discovered 6 distinct types of interactions users/customers have with companies on social media. Recognize each type, and support each one with different design approaches.

  • Social Commerce vs. Social Selling

    There are two ways to facilitate e-commerce social media: you can sell directly on the social platform, or simply promote on social media with a link to a traditional e-commerce site for the actual purchase.

  • 5 Types of E-commerce Shoppers

    Extensive user research with people shopping online identified 5 main types of behavior: product-focused, browsing, researchers, bargain-hunters, and one-time shoppers. Each user type benefits from different UX elements.

  • Don't A/B Test Yourself Off a Cliff

    A/B testing often focuses on incremental improvements to isolated parts of the user experience, leading to the risk of cumulatively poor experience that's worse than the sum of its parts.

  • What Is a Conversion Rate, and What Does It Mean for UX?

    Conversions measure whether users take a desired action on your website, so they are a great metric for tracking design improvements (or lack of same). But non-UX factors can impact conversion rates, so beware.

  • Ecommerce Selling Strategies from Brick and Mortar Stores

    The user experience of shopping online can be enhanced by employing proven selling strategies from physical stores in the design of ecommerce websites.

  • Designing Search Suggestions

    Useful search suggestions lead to relevant results and are visually distinct from the query text. (This is about how to design the search feature on your own website, whether it's an ecommerce site or not.)

  • Mobile-Checkout Experience: Tips

    Remember these essential experience elements that are often overlooked or easily forgotten during the mobile-checkout design process.

  • 5 Tips for Effective Online Advertising

    How to include ads on websites and interactive environments without undermining the user experience.

  • Pitfalls of Conversion-Rate-Only Concern

    Numbers don't paint the full UX picture, so in the quest for conversion rate optimization, don’t lose sight of the fact that we’re designing for humans.

  • 3 Rules for Better Comparison Tables

    Successful comparison tables help people make decisions quickly. Simplicity, consistency, and informational are qualities of good comparison tables.