Key Takeaways
- Our 2026 benchmark shows most sites fail to provide even a “decent” Homepage and Category UX
- Mobile performed slightly worse than Desktop, and Category Taxonomy was the worst-performing topic across both platforms
- Implementing the 10 best practices discussed in this article can get you started on improving your site’s Homepage & Category Navigation UX
Key Stats
- 61% of desktop sites’ Homepage & Category Navigation performance is “mediocre” to “poor”
- 65% of mobile sites’ Homepage & Category Navigation performance is “mediocre” to “poor”
- Based on 17,000+ Homepage and Category UX performance scores from 180+ top US and European ecommerce sites
Product finding is key to any ecommerce business — after all, in order to buy a product, your customers must be able to find it first.
And while the homepage may not be the predominant entrance path it once was, it still serves a central role as an escape route and anchor for the site’s category taxonomy.
What’s more, the repercussions of a poor category taxonomy can be even more devastating than immediate site abandonments — it may lead to permanent brand damage.
Yet Baymard’s benchmark shows most sites fail to provide even a “decent” Homepage and Category UX.
Our 2026 Homepage & Category Navigation ecommerce UX benchmark contains 17,000+ Homepage and Category Navigation UX elements manually reviewed and scored by Baymard’s team of UX researchers (benchmark embedded below).
In addition, you’ll find 13,500+ best and worst practice examples (categorized and performance verified) from 180+ leading US and European ecommerce sites.
This article analyzes a portion of our large-scale Baymard research findings to provide you with the current state of Homepage and Category Navigation ecommerce UX, and outline 10 common pitfalls and corresponding best practices to implement.
The Current State of Ecommerce Homepage and Category Navigation UX
For this analysis, we’ve summarized the 17,000+ UX performance scores for 2026 across the topics in this theme and plotted the benchmarked sites’ related navigational user experience across these topics in the scatterplot above.
Each dot, therefore, represents the summarized UX score of one site across the guidelines within that respective topic of the homepage and category navigational experience.
Our 2026 UX benchmark shows that most leading US and European sites’ Homepage & Category Navigation performance is at a “mediocre” to “poor” level (61% of desktop and 65% of mobile sites).
Thus, the average site fails to deliver a “decent” Homepage and Category Navigation UX performance.
Moreover, only one desktop site performs exceptionally well for end users (i.e., has a “perfect” Homepage and Category UX), while no mobile sites perform exceptionally well.
Below we’ll discuss in more detail the results from our research by outlining 10 common Homepage and Category Navigation pitfalls and best practices based on our large-scale testing and benchmarking.
Implementing these best practices will get you started on improving your Homepage and Category UX.
1) 22% of Sites Don’t Make Product Categories the First Level of the Main Navigation on Mobile Sites
Mobile users can generally access main product categories using navigation menus in two ways:
- Directly from the main navigation menu where each category is exposed by default
- By tapping on a single navigation item like “Products” or “Departments” to display the categories
“Yeah, there’s not even like a ‘products’ page! It’s just ‘New Arrivals,’ ‘Collections,’ and ‘Accessories,’” complained a participant at Nicce when he opened the main menu (first image). He ended up selecting the “Sale” category, where he had to filter by “Gender” and “Category” in order to find pants (second image).
During testing on mobile sites with the second implementation, some participants found it challenging to simply start browsing products.
If it’s not immediately obvious where to begin viewing product categories, a subgroup of users will decide to abandon the main navigation in favor of using search or trying to navigate to desired categories using the homepage.
At Glossier, product categories are the first level of the mobile navigation, enabling users to begin browsing immediately.
To avoid having some users stall immediately as they get started looking for products, it’s key to reduce navigation friction by providing product categories as top-level mobile main navigation options.
Otherwise, as observed during testing, some users will open the main navigation only to quickly close it, overwhelmed and confused by the options provided to them.
2) 79% of Sites Use Categories When Filters Should Be Used
Product types with shared attributes can be tricky to categorize.
In short, they can be presented to users in one of two ways:
- Place the product types in separate categories
- Include them all in one product list with the types implemented as filters
For example, the jeans might be included in separate categories (i.e., “Skinny Jeans” and “Slim Jeans”).
Alternatively, differently fitting jeans might be presented in a “Jeans” product list with “Skinny” and “Slim” as options for a “Fit” filter.
“Okay, ‘Seats Six’, that’s what I want, but now I want to filter it down to [rectangular] only. So now where do I go? How do I filter again now?…Let’s say ‘Rectangular’. Okay, and then I want to do ‘Wood’. Oh, but it changes then. So I can’t do multiple [filters]. So, what do I do for ‘Wood’, ‘Rectangular’, ‘Seats Six’? How do I get all three in the same filter? Wow, this is a bad, really bad filter. Like, is it just me? I’m sure you’ve seen this a bunch of times, but am I doing something wrong? Because this is really, really terrible.” This participant at Room & Board realized he could not filter tables by “Seats Six” (first image), “Rectangular” (second image), and “Wood” (third image) all at once, as the options reset the product list whenever a new one was selected. Presenting filters as mutually exclusive categories prevents users from refining the product list by all the criteria that are important to them.
During testing, participants had significant issues with the latter implementation because they were unable to view all products with shared attributes together.
As a result, some users will never find a suitable product — simply due to overcategorization.
Not all users will understand all of the “Type” choices for TVs shown here on Currys. If each type of TV had its own category, users might avoid those that they didn’t immediately understand. Instead, when “Type” is a filter with options (such as “Frame TV”), users can explore all types by applying and deselecting filters and glean useful product details from the list item info. This means that they are more likely to find a product that they may never have seen if a category with an unfamiliar name was overlooked.
Lowe’s implements “Frame Material” and other features as filters within the “Patio Furniture” category. This allows users to apply a combination of these product type attributes — or not apply them, if they aren’t relevant for or understood by a particular user. This wouldn’t have been possible had these product attributes been implemented as subcategories.
Therefore, in general, product types with shared attributes should be implemented as filters rather than as categories.
This allows users to view all similar products in a single list, so they won’t need to visit multiple categories to get an overview of all products of a given type.
Not only is this implementation a time saver for users — in that they can see all similar products in one list — it also means that they can be exposed to a broader range of related products that may not have initially been of interest.
3) 51% Don’t Divide Categories and Subcategories into Manageable Chunks
“First I would probably start with — whoa, there’s a lot of options here!” This participant at Ashley Furniture was overwhelmed by the number of subcategories in the ”Furniture” menu.
During testing, the hierarchies of many sites were perceived by users to be “overwhelming”, “cluttered”, or “confusing”, reflecting the paradox that the benefits of drop-down menus — that they can hold an almost unlimited number of options — are also their Achilles’ heel.
Indeed, most participants began to feel overwhelmed when they were presented with more than ~10 subcategory options to choose from.
While navigating or scanning long lists of categories on desktop is difficult, on mobile the task is even harder, as users will have to scroll through the options — a time-consuming and laborious task — and will find it difficult to establish an overview of the navigation.
Furthermore, there’s minimal information scent provided on mobile, since users can’t hover over menu items to potentially learn more about the category, and there’s less space to include inline text descriptions of the items.
“So if we go back to ‘Hair, Skin & Nails’…they do break it down pretty nicely.” The fact that a manageable amount of subcategories were included under each category on The Vitamin Shoppe made it straightforward for this test participant to choose the most suitable one.
To address this issue, divide categories and subcategories into manageable chunks: subdivide when reaching around 10 categories, and aim for at least 10 products in the categories at the deepest level.
4) 96% of Sites Don’t Highlight the User’s Current Scope in the Main Navigation
“I guess I didn’t realize that this OneDrive was the ‘Personal’ one (first image), and this is the ‘Business’ one (second image). I guess that was a little confusing. The ‘Business’ one is obviously what I’d be looking for.” This test participant at Microsoft was slow to recognize that the information he was viewing wasn’t relevant to his research on “business cloud storage and sharing services” because his current location wasn’t highlighted in the main navigation.
At Anine Bing, the location of this page in the hierarchy is hard to work out because the user’s current scope isn’t clear (also note the nonstandard placement of the hierarchical breadcrumbs, “Classics Clothing”, just above the product title). As such, users arriving directly on this page hoping to see similar products will have to guess which main navigation category to click on to broaden their scope.
During testing, when the current top-level scope wasn’t highlighted in the main navigation, it made it unnecessarily difficult for participants to determine where they were in the site hierarchy.
Additionally, failing to highlight the current scope in the main navigation also makes it more difficult for users to begin to learn and internalize the site’s structure.
Even when breadcrumbs are implemented perfectly, some users still rely on the main navigation to help them quickly understand where they are, or to reassure themselves that they are where they thought they were.
At Keurig, the mobile main navigation doesn’t give users any indication of where they currently are, which will lead some users to lose their overview.
On mobile, even though it isn’t permanently displayed, users also rely on the main navigation to give them a sense of where they are on a site, especially if they arrive directly to a product details page from off-site.
Indeed, during mobile testing, when the current scope wasn’t highlighted in the main navigation, users had more difficulty figuring out where they were within the site hierarchy — putting more strain on breadcrumbs (which were often absent, inconsistently implemented, or truncated) and terminology to perform perfectly to help them learn the site hierarchy.
At Marks & Spencer, the top-level “Home” category is highlighted in bright green in the main navigation, clarifying to users that this product is placed within “Home” and not “Furniture”. Highlighting the current scope in the main navigation can be as simple as a change in the font color: the key is to make sure the “current scope” styling in the main navigation is sufficiently distinct from the other main navigation options.
Fortunately, providing information on where users are in the main navigation has a somewhat “low-cost” solution: simply highlight their current scope in the main navigation by styling it differently than the other top-level main navigation options in the permanently visible main navigation (on desktop), or within the main navigation viewport (on mobile).
Despite the importance of orientation cues to the ecommerce shopping experience, a staggering 96% of sites don’t highlight the user’s current scope in the main navigation (even worse than the 95% in 2025).
5) 31% of Sites Don’t Make Headers Clickable
“And also these things themselves aren’t linked, so I can’t click on that to the category.” A participant at Argos UK wanted to get an overview of the “Headphones & Audio” category but found that the heading was static text. For users who want to browse broad product scopes, links that only lead to individual subcategories (such as “Hi-Fi Systems” in this example) are much less useful.
During desktop testing, at many of the tested sites the headings of the drop-down categories were only text labels, not clickable parent categories.
This conflicted with the expectations of the majority of participants, who anticipated the headers would be clickable and often tried clicking them — despite the cursor indicating the item wasn’t clickable.
Some users want to click on main navigation headers to stay in a fairly broad product scope; for example, in the hope of landing on a curated intermediary category page, which could assist them in their selection of a more defined scope.
“I would first look at ‘Shoes’.” Rather than select one of the available subcategories of shoes, this participant on Allbirds opted to see all shoes by clicking the “Shoes” category within the drop-down menu.
Having parent categories be part of the actual product catalog hierarchy (and not just shallow text labels) is critical in supporting explorative product browsing.
Users who haven’t fully decided what they want, or who are looking for inspiration on what to purchase, can dip their toes in broader categories before diving into highly defined ones.
6) 62% of Sites Don’t Have a Hover Delay
Hover-based drop-down menus outperformed other main navigation menus in desktop testing because they enabled users to easily explore categories and accurately select a well-defined scope.
However, participants ran into severe usability issues with “flickering” behavior related to menus that opened and closed immediately as participants moused over the menu.
Additionally, while they were within the menu, many participants accidentally triggered sibling categories, making it difficult for them to use the main navigation menu effectively.
To avoid the “flickering” of hover-based drop-down navigation menus, there needs to be a hover delay — a minimum amount of time the user needs to hover the trigger area before the drop-down content appears.
Typically, a delay of 300–500 milliseconds will suffice in eliminating the worst of the “flickering” issues, without introducing needless friction for intentional hover interactions.
Additionally, an intelligent mouse path algorithm could be used to determine the user’s intent and prevent the accidental triggering of sibling category menus.
7) 31% of Sites That Use Carousels Implement Them Incorrectly
Carousels are appreciated by some users for their large, attractive imagery, and autorotation helps expose a variety of content without taking up too much space.
Indeed, when implemented with care, carousels are a powerful way to promote features, offers, and popular product types.
Yet, carousels can cause more harm than good if serious usability issues aren’t addressed.
In particular, carousel slides shouldn’t rotate too quickly on desktop — for instance, slides with just a header (and few tags and labels) should rotate after 5–7 seconds, while more text-heavy slides may need to be static for as much as 10 seconds.
On mobile sites, carousel slides shouldn’t autorotate at all (due to the lack of hover).
Likewise, it’s important to pause the slides on mouse hover so users don’t click just as a carousel slide is changing — causing the wrong page to load.
A generally better-performing alternative to carousels is simply displaying the slides as dedicated sections at the homepage, as seen here at Williams Sonoma.
Alternatively, using static content sections scattered throughout the homepage in combination with featured categories was observed to perform well during testing.
This instead relies on users scrolling the homepage, a vastly simpler and more ingrained web interaction.
8) 39% of Sites Are Missing or Have Hard-to-Interpret Subcategory Thumbnails
At Amazon, electronics subcategories are represented as text. This prevents users from visually scanning for their subcategory.
Having to scan a lot of text-only headings on this intermediary category page at Zalando will considerably slow down users looking for the most suitable navigation path.
During testing, when intermediary category and subcategory pages lacked thumbnails, or had thumbnails that were difficult to interpret, participants had more difficulty determining which subcategory to navigate to.
Indeed, users will hesitate more when evaluating and deciding among text-only subcategory links without an accompanying thumbnail.
In short, the purpose of the intermediary category page — as a jumping-off point to explore subcategories or products — is hindered when users aren’t offered important visual guidance.
These thumbnails on Smyth’s make it perfectly clear what product types are in each subcategory.
On the contrary, our testing showed that users more easily navigate subcategory links on intermediary category and subcategory pages that are accompanied by clear, representative thumbnails.
Therefore, clear subcategory thumbnails should always be provided on intermediary category pages on both desktop and mobile sites.
The thumbnails on Wayfair’s intermediary category page clearly represent subcategories rather than specific products. The minimized size of the subcategory thumbnails reinforces their purpose as “visual labels” that enhance information scent, as they are only large enough to recognize without needing the level of detail necessary for product listings.
Additionally, ensure the subcategory thumbnails are easy to interpret at a glance, and make it clear what product type they represent.
9) 38% of Sites Don’t Feature Subcategories as the Primary Content on Intermediary Category Pages
“I have a lot of offers, but I don’t see the categories anymore. I would expect that if I opened the page, I would see more stuff.” When subcategories aren’t easy to locate on intermediary category pages, such as on this one at Argos (UK), users have to work harder to find a way to access a relevant subcategory.
At Nike, the intermediary category page for “Men” featured a very prominent featured link that overshadowed the text-only subcategory links above it.
Some intermediary category pages performed poorly in testing because they prioritized promotional or auxiliary content above subcategory navigation.
Such implementations distract users from their original task of navigating to an appropriate subcategory and make it more difficult for users to find and choose among subsequent navigation paths.
Furthermore, without clear access to subcategories, some users will have difficulty identifying that they are on intermediary category pages at all.
“So right off the bat I want a ‘Dining Room Set’. I think that’ll save me money.” This participant at Bob’s Discount Furniture using iOS was browsing the “Dining Room” intermediate category page and was pleased to spot a link to “Dining Room Sets” right away, as he preferred to shop for a table and chairs as a set in order to save money.
Intermediary category pages perform best when they prioritize subcategory navigation, locating subcategories front and center at the top of the page.
10) 64% of Sites Don’t Provide Direct Access to Products Featured in Inspirational Imagery
At Dick’s, the intermediary category page prominently featured products in “Lifestyle” images (first image). Yet clicking on a “Lifestyle” image sent users to a general product list — and the featured products weren’t within the first 10 items in the list (second image). Users can be inspired to explore featured products on intermediary category pages, but their ability to find (and purchase) the items is hindered if they’re not immediately available.
During testing, participants on intermediary category pages often found it baffling when a site didn’t provide direct access to products featured in inspirational images.
As one participant said, “I want this — what do I do? I want this one”, as he struggled to find a product featured on an intermediary category page.
If it’s difficult to access products featured in inspirational imagery on intermediary category pages, users can quickly lose patience and may be unwilling to put in the effort required to locate the desired items manually.
On mobile sites, the consequences of not linking to products included in inspirational imagery can be even more problematic because the effort required to hunt down the desired featured product is increased.
The fact that the featured products on the intermediary category page (first image) appear at the top of the linked product list (second image) on the Argos mobile site meant that users didn’t have to scroll far to find the relevant items.
There is no hover functionality on mobile, so on West Elm’s mobile site individual product tags appeared when the image was tapped. The persistent tag icon in the lower-left corner indicated that there were 8 products linked to from the image — tapping a tag took users to the product details page for the depicted item.
Therefore, provide direct access to all the products depicted in inspirational images on intermediary category pages by linking to a page or overlay specifically listing the depicted products.
Also, to properly set expectations for what will happen upon clicking, links to inspirational images should feature explicit messaging or iconography to indicate that the resulting page will contain only those products depicted in the original image (and not lead to a broader product-listing page).
Alternatively, have links to curated pages, or directly link to individual products.
Improving Ecommerce Category Navigation & Homepage UX
Our 2026 Homepage & Category Navigation benchmark reveals that most sites have a “mediocre” to “poor” Homepage and Category performance.
Clearly, much work remains to be done to improve the performance of the average site’s homepage and category navigation UX.
Implementing the 10 best practices described in this article will go a long way toward improving the average site’s performance to “decent” (or even “good”).
This high-level analysis of the current state of ecommerce Homepage and Category Navigation UX focuses on only 10 of the 47 navigation UX best practices included in our full research catalog.
The other 37 best practices should also be reviewed to gain a complete understanding of ecommerce navigation and to identify site-specific issues not covered here.
For additional inspiration, consider exploring the 4,300+ Homepage and Category desktop and mobile Page Design Examples we’ve collected, as these showcase homepage and category navigation implementations at the leading US and European ecommerce sites and can be a good resource for navigational redesigns.
This article presents the research findings from just a few of the 700+ UX guidelines in Baymard – get full access to learn how to create a “State of the Art” ecommerce user experience.
If you want to know how your desktop site, mobile site, or app performs and compares, then learn more about getting Baymard to conduct a UX Audit of your site or app.
