There’s a trend among eTailers from Amazon.com to Safeway to emulate the in-store shopping experience with features such as shelf display and product carousels. Shelf shopping is visually more appealing than traditional category browsing and attempts to engage with the customer as you would in the store. Despite the cool design it will take three key ingredients to make it a hit:
- Product relevancy
- Simple, intuitive user experience.
- Compelling reason to buy.
If it takes too much time and work for the customer to make products displayed on a shelf/carousel relevant my prediction is they will B-line to search, or if they are more patient category browsing, to get what they need. It’s a tough job trying to decode your UI for what a customer is looking for when they land on the shop home. The standard most compelling information you can offer which users seek on a generic level is what’s on sale, what’s new and what’s coming. If you’re more sophisticated like Amazon.com your store can further target and segment the audience using behavioral targeting and historical data, e.g. last viewed, what others bought, stored as favorites, or wish list. It’s a constant challenge to decode the psyche of shoppers even for Amazon.com who if you watch closely is always trying new ways to approach customers and provide relevancy in what products are displayed during various stages of your visit to their store.
Here’s a look at a few eComm giants taking this new approach.
Borders “Magic Shelf”
During a recent face lift to the site Borders rolled out a new homepage feature they’ve named Magic Shelf.
Borders.com Magic Shelf
Pros:
- Has visual interest. But who can miss it, it’s huge!
- They offer a “what’s this?” call out so first time visitors can learn about Magic Shelf. On the first visit there is a link with more detailed info in customer support.
- It’s customizable, you can edit settings to make it more relevant.
Cons:
- Must register in order to edit settings.
- Takes too long to load. I would have skipped past the homepage to dig into what I was really looking for had I been shopping vs. reviewing this site.
- They have to offer a “what’s this?” in order to figure out what utility this feature offers. The name Magic Shelf in of itself is not an intuitive descriptor.
Final Rating: So, So, Maybe
It’s big, intrusive and cumbersome…but maybe it will work for displaying relevant offers…after the user has customized it and Borders has refined the functionality over time. It’s very focused on the action of browsing which is partly why it’s so cumbersome. Browsing a site of this size is a big job, try digging in several levels into the categories and you will still find your self in a sea of thousands of products. For example Books/Business and Money Management/Management/Hardcover/under $30 gives you 8,957 results last check. Other paths at best leave you with hundreds of results. The Magic Shelf helps to cut down on this and places new/featured items in the forefront which is compelling. How many customers will just use search for what they seek vs. Magic Shelf is questionable. People spend long periods of time in bookstores…browsing. But there is also a coffee shop and tables of other books (you weren’t looking for) to distract you. I suppose the table of distracting books is what this is attempting to accomplish in the online experience.
When Amazon originally launched this ummm?…twirly box…they must have thought it was a great invention because it was featured above the page fold. It now lives lower on the page buried under much more important content such as the Kindle experiment and the summer shoe sale. I’m noticing the twirly box popping up in other pages of my shopping experience so it seems that they are still testing the waters.
View Not Logged In
Amazon Product Carousel: new visitor view
View Logged In
Amazon Product Carousel: Logged In View
Pros:
- Carousels are fun.
- They attempt relevancy or otherwise hide it. Products displayed without being logged in are matched up based on your previous browsing behavior. Yes it’s sheep psychology but it’s something.
- You can edit the products displayed without logging in.
- The new visitor messaging “customers with similar searches purchased”.
- It’s small and unobtrusive.
- After logging in the relevancy meter goes up and the language changes to “get yourself a little something” which I like. I wonder if they know I’m a woman and have tailored this call out to me. (two for me, one for you that’s the shop-a-holic mentality) Products in my Wish List are kept top of mind.
- It’s widgetized.
Cons:
- Carousels are fun…and useless. There is utility in the act of display I will give it that.
- Shopping search history has a shelf life.
- No compelling reason to buy – The images alone do not provide actionable information. As my Wish List ages the carousel does too and becomes old news. The pasta bowls and perfume have been in my wish list for 7 months. If it contained a tid bit of information on prices dropping, stock levels or a coupon offer there would be a push to revisit the purchase. Wish lists contain items that have already been shopped and filed away. And, are typically created so someone else will buy it for you as a gift. It will take something (maybe not much) to provide the user a psychological rationalization for splurging on her/his self. e.g. it was on sale so I had to get it.
Final Rating: has potential
Relevancy and ease of use are present. This tool needs minor refinements in my opinion to become a more affective conversion tool.
Vons/Safeway Browse by Aisle
It’s true online grocery shopping is not dead. I was surprised to find it’s making a comeback on Vons.com but on a more organized, corporate chain scale. And even more surprised to find shopping on this site was a pleasant and easy experience. Why? It’s as intuitive as walking into the store itself. The browsing experience is organized by aisle and shelf with products categorized as they are in-store. You can add special notes to your shopping list, e.g. bananas partially green or substitute same brand different size. The search results aren’t bad either.
Vons Online Shop by Aisle and Shelf
Pros:
It’s intuitive.
You can browse aisles and shelves just as you would in the store.
Cons:
Just like the real thing, you can get lost in the store! Excuse me sir, can you tell me where to find…? The breadcrumb trail isn’t apparent or complete and there is no sub level navigation on-state.
See example: The breadcrumb is in the gray area. It seems it trying to continue the crumb through the category list but it’s disconnected and confusing. I’m on the page Campbell’s Condensd Soup, no on-state.
Vons Bread Crumb and Sub Cat On State
This structure matches the customer’s expectation from their ingrained in-store experience and translates it to an online experience. Very intuitive. My prediction is online grocery shopping will make its come back on a small scale, disco keeps coming back why not.
Post by: Melonie Gallegos
