Ecommerce User Experience

Improving the usability of your ecommerce site builds a competitive advantage - today’s consumers are not satisfied with sites that simply allow them to shop. These reports outline detailed recommendations for improving the online shopping experience.

This series includes 13 reports on specific topics and presents 837 design guidelines based on our usability research. Discussions and more than 1500 screenshot illustrations supplement the findings.

Article on research findings: The New Ecommerce User Experience: Changes in Users' Expectations

Buy individual reports, or save 58% when you purchase all 13 volumes together.

Individual Reports

• Vol. 01: Ecommerce User Behavior and Executive Summary for the Series

  Get insights into people’s online shopping behavior. This 108-page report presents the key usability findings that all ecommerce organizations should know.

• Vol. 02: Homepages, Category Pages, Listing Pages, and Product Comparisons

  Ecommerce usability research featuring 69 guidelines for gaining customer interest and encouraging them to browse your offerings.

• Vol. 03: Product Pages

  Give ecommerce customers the product information they want, at the right time, and at the appropriate level of detail. Get 85 guidelines for producing engaging product pages.

• Vol. 04: Shopping Carts, Checkout and Registration

  Increase ecommerce transactions; 80 guidelines for creating a smooth checkout experience.

• Vol. 05: Search

  Most ecommerce customers go directly to a site’s search tool to find products. Get 80 tips for designing search to increase profitability.

• Vol. 06: Customer Service

  Good ecommerce customer service leads to more loyal customers. Get 50 tips for designing websites that support customers when they need it.

• Vol. 07: Selling Strategies

  Users expect ecommerce websites to anticipate and meet their needs throughout the entire online sales process. Get 85 guidelines for improving your ecommerce marketing, merchandising and selling techniques.

• Vol. 08: Wishlists, Gift Cards, and Gift Giving

  Gift-giving features can introduce new customer to your ecommerce site. Get 80 tips for helping shoppers create registries and redeem gift cards online.

• Vol. 09: Trust and Credibility

  Trust is hard to build and easy to lose on ecommerce websites. Get 50 guidelines for helping visitors feel confident enough in your organization to take desirable actions.

• Vol. 10: International Purchasers

  Discover the nuances of selling to customers in different countries. Get 57 tips for appealing to a global audience.

• Vol. 11: Store Finders and Locators

  Get people to your stores by making yourself easy to find. Get 56 tips for designing locators on desktop and mobile websites and applications.

• Vol. 12: Transactional Email and Confirmation Messages

  Reduce customer service costs with well-written automated email messages. 112 design guidelines for improving customer satisfaction while saving you money.

• Vol. 13: Ecommerce User Research Methodology

  Get inspiration for conducting your own studies. Learn how we collected the data so you can apply the suggestions appropriately.

What’s new in the fourth edition?

The fourth edition includes new and updated guidelines, including revisions and clarifications. For the fourth edition of this report series we conducted one large-scale lab-based usability study. In addition to this large study, researchers also conducted smaller, more targeted research studies to update and evolve each of the 11 topical ecommerce reports included in this report series. New findings and discussions include: mobile usability, live chat best practices, omnichannel strategies, streamlined shopping cart and checkout, expectations for product pages and product information, changes in customer behaviors and expectations, and much more.

Research Method

The information in these reports is based on three separate rounds of ecommerce studies, including:

• One-on-one usability testing
• Diary-based longitudinal study, for which people recorded their online experiences
• Eyetracking

Representative users tested 255 ecommerce websites. The studies took place in the United States, United Kingdom, Denmark, and China (Hong Kong).

Three reports in this series are based on additional research studies (Wishlists, Gift Cards and Gift Giving, Store Finders and Locators, and Transactional Email and Confirmation Messages). Each of these three reports includes its own methodology section.