We are very excited about this year’s Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition (IRCE 2012), which will be the biggest ever. The exhibit hall has sold out and the number of expected attendees will exceed 9,000. IRCE has grown over the years to become the biggest show for retailers not only in the US, but from […]
When you begin to design your site search experience, one of the first questions you face is how many columns of items do you want to display. More columns means more product results will be seen above the fold but fewer columns makes for larger product images and room for more product information. How do […]
In stock or not? In the old days, shoppers had to add an item to their cart to answer this question. As e-commerce technology evolved, the stock status of a product became readily available on the product detail page and in many cases even migrated up to category pages. Now, retailers are discovering ways to […]
What do you see when you look at your top search terms report? I typically see brand terms and product category terms in many of the top spots. I also see a great opportunity to create a more customized experience on the search results pages for those terms. Since these are high volume terms, the […]
Behind every great site search experience sits a rich set of information that describes every possible search result. For retailers, this product information is in the form of attribute labels or tags that have been assigned to each product. With these tags in place, search engines can more accurately match products with search keywords as […]
Now that many retailers have made video a key component in their merchandising strategy, we are seeing more studies about the impact that video is having. According to a recent study by e-commerce video provider Invodo, 52% of consumers say that watching product videos makes them more confident in their online purchase decisions. For some, […]
While Henry Ford was great at making cars, he clearly missed a key opportunity to delight his customers when he said, “People can have the Model T in any color – so long as it’s black.” Fortunately, today’s consumers have an endless array of color options when they shop for everything from cars to handbags. […]
One tip usability experts give for improving the shopping experience online is to include product information in the search results that will speed up identification and selection. Well, following the old adage that “A picture is worth a thousand words” we should be taking a good look at our product images. Some products can be […]
In light of all the transformations we’re seeing on the web, one aspect must be kept top of mind: speed. Consumers’ expectations for pages to load quickly – whether on traditional or mobile sites – are increasing all the time. If your site performs too slowly, you risk losing visitors to your competitors, possibly for […]
Basic search refinements make it easy for customers to find what they are looking, but dynamic search refinements can supercharge your site search experience and provide a host of other usability benefits. They can help customers find exactly what they are looking for more quickly, make it easier to compare products, and reduce the risk […]