Most shoppers who leave a store site without buying could not find the product in the first few clicks. The fix is cheaper than a new website.
What are the usual reasons shoppers can't find products?
Four problems show up on almost every retail and consumer brand site.
- Categories named for the org chart. The menu matches your buying departments or your warehouse, so the shopper has to learn how your company works before they can buy.
- Too many categories. Every product line got its own top-level slot. A shopper scanning a long menu picks the wrong door, then gives up.
- Search that does not know synonyms. You call it a "throw," they type "blanket." You call it "interior paint," they type "wall paint." Zero results reads as "they don't carry it."
- Filters that do not match how people choose. The filters list what is in the product database (SKU family, collection name) instead of what the shopper is deciding on (size, room, price, use).
How do I find out where shoppers get lost?
Test the menu with real shoppers before you redesign anything.
- Card sorting. Shoppers group your products into piles and name the piles. You learn the words they use and the groupings that make sense to them.
- Tree testing. Shoppers get a task ("find a paint for a bathroom ceiling") and click through a text-only version of your menu. You see exactly where they turn the wrong way, with no visual design in the way.
- Search logs. Pull the searches that returned zero results. That list is a free map of the words your site is missing.
A round of each takes days, and you can test with a small group. See UX research and leadership.
What does the fix look like?
Fewer categories, named in the shopper's words, with search and filters tuned to the same vocabulary.
- Cut the top-level menu down and move the rest one level deeper.
- Rename categories with the words from the card sort.
- Add synonyms to search from the zero-result list.
- Rebuild filters around the questions shoppers ask in the store.
- Test the new menu again before the developers touch it.
Has this worked for a real retailer?
Yes. For HGTV Home by Sherwin-Williams I ran taxonomy research with real shoppers. We cut the categories from twelve to seven, and shopper confidence went up 13%. The full write-up is in the HGTV Home by Sherwin-Williams case study. I have also done retail and consumer work for Kohl's, Best Buy, and OPI at Catalyst Studios.
What does it cost?
Start with a one-hour second opinion for $150: I go through your menu, search, and filters with you and tell you what I would test first. A one-page website runs $1,500, and a full website starts at $6,000 on brand and web. Research and interim UX leadership for a bigger catalog is quoted on UX research and leadership. Anything over $3,000 can be paid by the month.
Answered by Jared Lukes, Minneapolis. Twenty-five years in brand, UX, and technology, currently holding fractional AI and technology seats at three companies. About Jared.