Empower Your E-Commerce UX and Decisions with 71,000+ Hours of UX Research

The primary objectives of a site’s homepage, the opportunities it can provide to both new and repeat users, the homepage structure & design, carousels, personalization, and promotions.

The structural foundation of a site’s product categories, including information architecture, catalog breadth, and category naming.

The visual design of an e-commerce site’s taxonomy, including mega drop-down menus, the visual hierarchy, and courtesy navigation.

How Intermediary Category Pages can guide users toward better-defined categories and products using inspirational paths, featured products, and curated content.

How general site-wide elements should be designed and positioned, including considerations on newsletter dialogs, ad positioning, footer, and return policy links.

How to implement accessibility-compliance requirements for e-commerce sites including considerations for images, links, form fields, page setup, site structure, and overall visual design requirements.

What digital subscription service sites need to provide for users, including what types of pages are needed, how access to specific content should be provided, and what information to include in and how to lay out the plan matrix.

The prerequisites for a great search experience: understand the 12 different types of search queries that users typically submit on e-commerce sites, which your site’s search engine needs to support.

Search form design and function, both pre- and post-search, with usability considerations on the design and behavior of the search field itself, query persistence, search scope selection, etc.

How the autocomplete (also known as ‘predictive search’) should be designed, the types of suggestions it should make (products vs queries), keyboard input behavior, and more.

How to create a seamless query integration process, including how to guide users toward better paths through methods such as suggesting new queries, scopes, and ‘No results’ pages.

Layout and design of search results and how to implement filtering, dynamic list layouts, search snippets, loading more results, faceted search filters, value truncation, filter naming, dynamic sorting, and more.

How to create a list layout that bolsters product browsing experiences, with guidelines on the design and features of the overall product list layout, including grid and list layouts.

How to load items in a product list, including guidelines on how new items should be loaded, how many items should be displayed by default, how to approach novel navigation methods, and more.

Information to include in List Items, formatting and displaying information, displaying product variations as one or multiple List Items, what product thumbnails to display, and more.

Presenting and arranging information in List Items, including showcasing product features, List Item hover effects, and more.

How sites can personalize List Items to suit each unique user by inferring user interests through filtering and sorting observations, context-aware product thumbnails, and contextual compatibility notices.

Which filtering types users need to narrow down product lists, incl. thematic filters, considerations for accessory products, user-defined ranges for all numeric filtering values, and more.

Common pitfalls and optimizations such as avoiding filter attributes as category scopes, explaining industry-specific filters, and allowing users to combine multiple filter values of the same filter type.

Layout and interface styling and the discoverability of filters, incl. how to visually nest sidebar categories, when to truncate filters, and considering a horizontal unified sorting and filtering tool.

How to provide innovative and forward-thinking product selection with guidelines on the default sort type, avoiding most alphabetical sorting, sorting interface and scope, as well as the sort types needed.

When a comparison tool is appropriate and how both its selection process and comparison page should be designed, when to have a comparison feature, and how to design the compare link and comparison view.

The 4 predominant Product Details Page layouts used in e-commerce: ‘Horizontal Tabs’, ‘Sticky TOCs’, ‘Collapsed Sections’, ‘One Long Page’, how they each perform, and which layout to generally avoid.

How users rely on images on the product page, the 7 different product image types users generally need, the amount of images needed, and how large sites can approach some of the image sourcing.

How to design a high-performing imagery gallery that serves as the perfect container for the product images, incl. image navigation, how to zoom images, overlays, default image size, etc.

‘Rich visuals’ like product video and 360-views, how users utilize it, and the features each of these need in order for users to be able to reliably control the content.

The design and position of elements such as the ‘Add to Cart’ button, prices & discounts, the quantity field, ‘Out of Stock’, ‘Save to List’, etc.

The best-performing designs for displaying shipping and return info at the product page, the amount of info required, along with how to best present “Free Shipping”, handle gifting, and “Find in Store” features.

The selection interface for color and size variations, reusing content across variations, size guides, along with the interfaces required for both product customizations and personalizations.

How users engage with and rely on product information and descriptions, the type of content needed, product headlines sub-titles, along with both the text structure and styling that performs the best.

How users engage with spec sheets, and how both the spec sheet layout, spec sheet features, and post-processing of vendor data are critical for making users less prone to users misread the specs.

The user review submission form, review filtering, sorting & navigation, rating distribution summaries, and more.

A variety of auxiliary content types found on e-commerce product pages, such as Q&A, FAQs, product manuals, social media tools, and expert-generated content.

Cross-sells and cross-navigation and users’ overall success at locating their desired products, incl. cross-sell design, placement, and logic, and cross-navigation elements such as ‘Recently Viewed’, parent links, etc.

The UX benefits and inherent usability pitfalls of a multistep checkout flow, accordion checkouts, and one-step checkouts.

The shopping cart page, incl. cart design, quantity and save features, the page response when users add products to the cart on the product page (drop-down cart, etc.).

Checkout flows for signed in users, users creating an account, or checking out as a guest, incl. account-selection designs and communication,‘Delayed Account Creation’, social media accounts, password rules.

How to handle the form fields for all personal user data, incl. privacy concerns, shipping addresses, billing addresses, international addresses, phone fields, address auto-detection techniques, etc.

How the checkout flow and fields need to change when users gift-mark items, where and how users should be able to gift-mark items, and how the actual gifting features needs to be presented to avoid issues.

Shipping and store pickup, incl. the shipping method UI, shipping descriptions, order cut-off times, ‘Free Shipping’ tiers, how omni-channel sites best integrate ‘Store Pickup’ and ‘Store Availability’, and more.

The payment methods interface, how to integrate and display an array of different third-party payment methods, the gift card redemption flow, and more.

How to cause as few abandonments as possible, incl. the credit card field design, card validation logic and formatting, expiration date, security code, and cardholder name inputs, field sequence, card icons, and card type selection.

How to properly design the final ‘Review’ step before a user completes an order, including ‘Place Order’ button placement, and necessary review data, along with the editing flow for those users who need to change data.

The implementation of post-purchase confirmations, incl. the information and actions needed on the order confirmation page and order confirmation email.

How to design and position the cart link in the site wide header and primary button throughout the checkout, minimizing form intimidation, avoiding multi-column layouts, using ‘Enclosed Checkout’ designs, etc.

How to implement load indicators, when to provide feedback on user actions, where to avoid ‘Apply’ buttons, embedding content from third-parties, and much more on interactive components.

How to thoughtfully incorporate cross-sells into a checkout flow, including the use of active vs. passive cross-selling, adapting cross-sells to user context, and pitfalls of specific placements and wording.

Error recovery and address validation experiences, incl. how to improve users’ ability to locate, understand, and resolve errors, and more.

How to mark optional and required fields, appropriate label positions, inline labels, optimizing microcopy and descriptions, and marking of optional and required fields.

The proper selection and assembly of form elements, inputs, and selections, incl. choosing the right type of interface, field masking and character restrictions, and more.

Intelligent form features such as making inferred selections, prefilling form fields, browser auto-fills, and personalization of the checkout flow — smart form field features that improve checkout UX substantially.

Placement of the “My Account” drop-down menu, account features to include, how the “My Account” drop-down should be structured and styled, personalization, and what “My Account” drop-down implementations should be avoided.

Providing paths to all ‘My Account’ features, highlighting recent orders, limiting ads, and using icons; dashboard designs that use a sidebar or ‘Cards’ for navigation.

Account sign in, including password reset and account lockouts, “Soft” sign in, automatic sign out, sign in when accessing order tracking from an order status email, and where users should be sent after sign in.

Credit card updating, default addresses, editing vs. adding a new address, newsletter frequency and ‘unsubscribe’, confirmations, and ‘Apply’ buttons.

Order list item design, order tracking pages, third-party order tracking, how users get to order tracking, guest order tracking, order status emails, order cancellation, order receipts, and order status filters.

Initiating, moving through, and finalizing a return online; returns costs, shipping methods, in-store returns, shipping labels, and packaging returns.

How to layout and structure information and navigation, describe complex flows or features, and finding and understanding self-service features, and the courtesy navigation.

How to design a high performing mobile homepage, the opportunities it can provide to both new and repeat mobile users, homepage structure, carousels, personalization, promotions, etc.

How to design the main mobile navigation, incl. the visual hierarchy, the levels of nesting, how the mobile nav. needs to differ from desktop, courtesy navigation, etc.

The structural foundation of a mobile site’s product categories, including mobile information architecture, catalog breadth, and category naming.

How Mobile Category Pages can guide users toward better-defined categories and products, how to use inspirational paths, featured products, and curated content.

How the mobile autocomplete (aka ‘predictive search’) should be designed, the types of suggestions it should make, how it should align and differ to the desktop design, and more.

Understand the 10 different types of search queries that users typically submit on mobile e-commerce sites, the nuances of how users really search, and how to best support it.

The mobile search results logic and mobile search designs that perform the best with users, mobile ‘no results’ pages, field design, search submit, search iteration flows, etc.

Creating a balanced product list experience within the confines of a mobile screen, incl. how to design hit areas, information to include in list items, ‘Load More’ buttons, indicating product variations, etc.

How information to include in Mobile List Items, formatting and displaying info, what product thumbnails to display and how to design them, making products easy to compare, etc.

This topic covers how to ensure users can find the mobile filtering and sorting interfaces, how to design the interface to make it easier to locate filter types and options of interest, and how the process of applying filters and sorting options differs from the desktop process.

This topic covers which filtering and sorting types users need to organize and narrow down product lists to a manageable selection, including filtering by price, user ratings, compatibility, themes, ‘New Arrivals’, ‘Sales’ or ‘Deals’, and more.

Mobile product page UX, including the optimal layout that addresses users’ lack of page overview, how to best design product page features and content.

How mobile users rely on images and videos on the product page, the different product image types users generally need, the amount of images needed, and how large sites can approach some of the image sourcing.

How to design a high-performing mobile image gallery that serves as the perfect container for the product images, incl. how to present additional images, the overall layout of the mobile image gallery, and the required detail and size of product images within the gallery.

The best-performing designs on the product page for displaying shipping and return info, including how to present offers of “free shipping”, delivery date, as well as price and discount info, gifting options, and “Find in Store” features and quantity displays.

Products that come in multiple variations have a unique set of requirements for how variations are technically handled by the site.

This topic discusses how users engage with product descriptions and spec sheets, the best-performing designs to display product information, what information should be included, and where that information should be placed.

How to ensure that the user reviews section of product pages leverages the power of ratings and reviews, and allows users to get an accurate and quick impression of others’ assessments of products.

The vital role of cross-sells-sells and cross-navigation in users’ overall success at locating desired products, including cross-sell design, placement, and logic, and cross-navigation elements like breadcrumbs, recently viewed, parent category links, etc.

The mobile shopping cart page, incl. mobile cart design, quantity and save features, estimating order total, displaying fees, etc.

How to best optimize guest-checkout for mobile devices, incl. account sign-in and password fields, along with account createion. signing up for an account.

How the checkout flow and fields need to change when users gift-mark items, where and how users should be able to gift-mark items, and how the actual gifting features needs to be presented to avoid issues.

How to best handle the form fields for all personal user data on mobile, incl. privacy concerns, addresses, international addresses, phone fields, auto-detection techniques, etc.

The payment methods interface, how to display 3rd party payment methods, the many nuances of creating high-performing credit card form field on mobile, and more.

The shipping and store-pickup designs that perform the best on mobile, including displaying and describing shipping costs and speed, how to display store pickup, etc.

Mobile order review steps and confirmation pages, incl. how users review their order info, how they can best edit it, along with what to include on order confirmations.

All layouts and features that are used throughout the mobile checkout flow, including load indicators, primary buttons, the overall checkout design, etc.

How mobile form field nuances can either aid or hinder mobile users’ checkout completion, in particular how form fields should be labeled, marked, and placed within mobile checkouts.

How to ensure mobile users don’t get stuck when they run into a validation error, incl. writing helpful error messages, how to position error messages on mobile, how users correct info, how to design address validator alerts, etc.

How sites can greatly optimize the mobile form-filling experience for users, through field simplificaiton, smart defaults and autodetections, incl. all touch keyboard optimizations.

How to design site-wide mobile features that perform well with users, incl. ‘Install App’, ‘Save Product’, location requests, overlay dialogs, ‘live chat’, footer sections, etc.

The findings from our large-scale testing of Apparel sites with more than 500+ apparel relevant UX guidelines, 12,000+ UX performance scores and 7,300+ best practice examples from apparel sites.

The findings from our large-scale testing of Mass Merchant sites providing you with 500+ relevant UX guidelines, 11,900+ UX performance scores, and 7,300+ best practice examples from Mass Merchant sites.

The findings from our large-scale testing of electronics and office sites sites providing you with 500+ relevant UX guidelines, 7,755+ UX performance scores, and 6,000+ best practice examples from electronics and office sites.

The findings from our large-scale testing of Home Improvement & Hardware sites providing you with 500+ relevant UX guidelines, 3,500+ UX performance scores, and 2,100+ best practice examples from Home & Hardware sites.

The findings from our large-scale testing of Houseware & Furnishings sites providing you with 500+ relevant UX guidelines, 7,400+ UX performance scores, and 4,500+ best practice examples.

The findings from our large-scale testing of Health & Beauty sites providing you with 500+ relevant UX guidelines, 1,500+ UX performance scores, and 1,100+ best practice examples from Health & Beauty sites.

The findings from our large-scale testing of Sports, Toys, & Hobbies sites providing you with 500+ relevant UX guidelines, 3,500+ UX performance scores, and 2,100+ best practice examples from the industry.

270+ in-depth UX guidelines that are particularly important to B2B e-commerce sites, illustrated with 1,300+ UX performance scores and 1,090+ best practice examples from B2B sites.

380+ in-depth User Experience guidelines that are particularly important to online grocery websites, with 1,930 UX performance scores and 1,550+ best practice examples from online grocery sites like Ocado, Albertsons, FreshDirect, Peapod, Sainsbury’s.

The findings from our large-scale testing of Digital Subscription and SaaS sites. 190+ UX guidelines covering the “sales site” experience, incl. types of sales pages, plan matrix design, and signup flow.

74 guidelines that our usability testing reveals to have a high UX impact on sites with product configurators and configuration flows.

37 guidelines that our usability testing reveals to have a high UX impact on sites that also have a physical store, and offers either store pickup, store locators, or in-store availability.

400+ UX guidelines particularly important to telco and ISP sites, illustrated with 2,400+ UX performance scores and 1,625+ best practice examples from telco sites like Verizon, Xfinity, Bell, Vodafone, & Orange.

400+ UX guidelines particularly important to sites in the Luxury Goods industry, illustrated with 2,500+ UX performance scores and 1,800+ best practice examples from luxury sites like Gucci, TAG Heuer, Jimmy Choo, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Bang & Olufsen, and Van Cleef & Arpels.

The findings from our large-scale testing of Direct To Consumer sites (DTC). The 400+ DTC relevant UX guidelines cover both larger DTC brands and, especially, the nuances needed for smaller less established niche DTC brands.

A collection of 143 verified “Low Cost” guidelines, which are relatively cheap to implement for the average site, making this 143 “quick wins”.

A collection of 155 “Missed Opportunity” guidelines. These 167 guidelines have a high UX impact on end users, but a high proportion of websites also get them wrong.

A collection of 89 “Web Convention” guidelines. These UI patterns are those users are by far most accustomed to — simply because these patterns are used at 80+% of the world’s largest online retailers.

From a UX perspective, the current COVID-19 crises set special requirements for e-commerce sites. This list covers 58 guidelines on how to best address general user concerns over product availability, shipping, order tracking, returns, etc.

A collection of 183 “UX Basics” guidelines. These 183 guidelines are those we consistently observe to have the highest UX impact on end users and are each often the sole cause for direct site abandonments.