{"id":2240,"date":"2018-03-28T16:59:34","date_gmt":"2018-03-28T16:59:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-retailmanagement\/?post_type=chapter&#038;p=2240"},"modified":"2024-04-25T03:08:44","modified_gmt":"2024-04-25T03:08:44","slug":"designing-an-online-store","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-retailmanagement\/chapter\/designing-an-online-store\/","title":{"raw":"Online Store Design","rendered":"Online Store Design"},"content":{"raw":"<div class=\"textbox learning-objectives\">\r\n<h3>Learning Objectives<\/h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Describe how web retailers use design features to craft an online store<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\nLayout, traffic flow and environment are an important part of the online shopping experience, and a web retailer must leverage those features of a site in order to maximize conversions.\r\n<h2>An appealing landing page<\/h2>\r\nThis is like the front of the store. A good page doesn\u2019t sell the shopper anything just yet\u2014she\u2019s in the \u201ctransition zone\u201d where she\u2019s still orienting herself. There\u2019s no \u2018add to cart\u2019 here .\u00a0.\u00a0. but maybe a 25% off sign to tease her to click more.\r\n\r\n<img class=\"wp-image-3752 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2986\/2018\/03\/19195758\/Screen-Shot-2018-07-19-at-12.57.16-PM-300x150.png\" alt=\"front page of the apple website. there is a large picture of the iphone x and only a label of &quot;iphone x, say hello to the future&quot;. the page is very minimalistic\" width=\"350\" height=\"175\" \/>\r\n\r\nApple\u2019s home page is a nice example. It has a clean look, a single product highlighted using some crisp, eye-catching colors. A tag line at the top is enough of a draw to make the shopper click more, and she does so by using a very simple top navigation menu. This is a good \u201centryway\u201d for the shopper, a nice \u201ctransition zone\u201d that orients the shopper to the upcoming experience and helps her understand what she\u2019s going to find with the next click.\r\n<h2>Enticing product pages<\/h2>\r\nNow that you\u2019ve \u201centered the store\u201d and gotten a feel for the environment, it\u2019s time to get a look at the store layout.\r\n\r\n<img class=\"wp-image-3755 size-medium aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2986\/2018\/03\/19195932\/Screen-Shot-2018-07-19-at-12.59.12-PM-300x172.png\" alt=\"women's section of nordstrom's online store. there are many different categories such as shoes or accessories. \" width=\"300\" height=\"172\" \/>\r\n\r\nThe top menu will show you what the store contains, and its layout will make the product easy to find .\u00a0.\u00a0. or not. Nordstrom does an excellent job of electronically \u201claying out\u201d its ecommerce store for you. Here, we\u2019ve clicked on products for women. This is anything from clothing to accessories, and you can see all those categories in one glance. A menu to the left points out new arrivals and trends like a sales person might.\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s important to note here that the brick-and-mortar visual merchandising rule of \u201cprovide good choices but not too many\u201d doesn\u2019t necessarily apply to ecommerce platforms. Shoppers go online to shop when they\u2019re looking for more choices, knowing that they can narrow them down to find just the right thing. Part of the online experience is trying to find the right pink tee shirt while narrowing the selection down from every pink tee shirt available in the world.\r\n\r\nNow that we\u2019ve seen all the aisles and gotten the store\u2019s \u201clay of the land,\u201d let\u2019s go down an aisle and interact with the product:\r\n\r\n<img class=\"wp-image-3756 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2986\/2018\/03\/19200014\/Screen-Shot-2018-07-19-at-12.59.54-PM-300x138.png\" alt=\"backpack section on nordstrom's online store with pictures of the options all in a row\" width=\"435\" height=\"200\" \/>\r\n\r\nHere we\u2019ve decided to shop backpacks. Right now, we have all 465 items in front of us, like a great big shelf of backpacks. But we can narrow that down using the side menu to the left \u2013 breaking it down by size, material, price, color and more. Pretty soon, we\u2019ll have a clear picture of just one or two backpacks to review.\r\n\r\nCan we \u201ctouch\u201d the backpack and learn more about it?\r\n\r\n<img class=\"aligncenter wp-image-3757\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2986\/2018\/03\/19200104\/Screen-Shot-2018-07-19-at-1.00.32-PM-300x174.png\" alt=\"more detailed look at a red gucci backpack with a description and more pictures of the bag from a variety of angles on the left hand side\" width=\"350\" height=\"203\" \/>\r\n\r\nBy clicking on the photo, we can take a much closer look at the backpack, getting several different views of it in the pictures to the left. Paging down a little further, you get size, weight and other details. Further down, we can read customer reviews to understand how others enjoyed and used the product.\r\n\r\n<img class=\"aligncenter wp-image-3759\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2986\/2018\/03\/19200148\/Screen-Shot-2018-07-19-at-1.01.27-PM-300x144.png\" alt=\"details about the bag below the main image of the backpack\" width=\"335\" height=\"161\" \/>\r\n\r\nThese click-through features provide us with that in-aisle experience, where we look at, study and handle the product before we make the purchase. Here on the ecommerce platform we have to do that virtually, but the experience is mimicked well, making the shopper\u2019s experience a memorable one.\r\n\r\nWhat about other sales opportunities that go along with this Gucci bag? Can we bundle it with other items to show how it goes with the whole outfit? Nordstrom has thought of that, too, featuring this set of photos halfway down the page:\r\n\r\n<img class=\"aligncenter wp-image-3760 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2986\/2018\/03\/19200248\/Screen-Shot-2018-07-19-at-1.02.24-PM-261x300.png\" alt=\"collage of clothing items titled \u201dSummer Sweet\u201d that create an outfit with the backpack. each item has their price below the photo or is labeled \u201csold out\u201d.\" width=\"261\" height=\"300\" \/>\r\n\r\nWhat happens when you mouse over one of the items that interests you? This:\r\n\r\n<img class=\"aligncenter wp-image-3762 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2986\/2018\/03\/19200415\/Screen-Shot-2018-07-19-at-1.03.55-PM-300x171.png\" alt=\"the collage of the outfit items are on the left. When you mouse over the wallet, you see a closer look at the wallet that goes with the outfit and its price and color options on the right side of the screen.\" width=\"300\" height=\"171\" \/>\r\n\r\nBundled displays, this time electronically, are aiming for increased sales conversions.\r\n\r\nWhen you\u2019re purchasing an item on Amazon, you might notice a list of items on display when you add it to your cart. Those items are titled \u201cCustomers also bought.\u201d This is the website\u2019s way of attempting a complementary grouping. Imagine if you bought a dozen eggs on Amazon, and then you saw a picture of bacon and, written above it, \u201cCustomers also bought\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u201d\u00a0Sometimes the Amazon suggestions don\u2019t make as much sense as eggs and bacon, but it\u2019s working on an algorithm written to share the shopping habits of people just like you.\r\n\r\nVisual display techniques can definitely be leveraged when crafting a retail website, and they lead to higher sales conversions .\u00a0.\u00a0. which mean more profits for the retailer.\r\n<div class=\"textbox tryit\">\r\n<h3>Practice Questions<\/h3>\r\nhttps:\/\/assess.lumenlearning.com\/practice\/c8a1e08c-bf9b-4525-8c02-889c1f36dc27\r\n<\/div>","rendered":"<div class=\"textbox learning-objectives\">\n<h3>Learning Objectives<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Describe how web retailers use design features to craft an online store<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>Layout, traffic flow and environment are an important part of the online shopping experience, and a web retailer must leverage those features of a site in order to maximize conversions.<\/p>\n<h2>An appealing landing page<\/h2>\n<p>This is like the front of the store. A good page doesn\u2019t sell the shopper anything just yet\u2014she\u2019s in the \u201ctransition zone\u201d where she\u2019s still orienting herself. There\u2019s no \u2018add to cart\u2019 here .\u00a0.\u00a0. but maybe a 25% off sign to tease her to click more.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-3752 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2986\/2018\/03\/19195758\/Screen-Shot-2018-07-19-at-12.57.16-PM-300x150.png\" alt=\"front page of the apple website. there is a large picture of the iphone x and only a label of &quot;iphone x, say hello to the future&quot;. the page is very minimalistic\" width=\"350\" height=\"175\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Apple\u2019s home page is a nice example. It has a clean look, a single product highlighted using some crisp, eye-catching colors. A tag line at the top is enough of a draw to make the shopper click more, and she does so by using a very simple top navigation menu. This is a good \u201centryway\u201d for the shopper, a nice \u201ctransition zone\u201d that orients the shopper to the upcoming experience and helps her understand what she\u2019s going to find with the next click.<\/p>\n<h2>Enticing product pages<\/h2>\n<p>Now that you\u2019ve \u201centered the store\u201d and gotten a feel for the environment, it\u2019s time to get a look at the store layout.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-3755 size-medium aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2986\/2018\/03\/19195932\/Screen-Shot-2018-07-19-at-12.59.12-PM-300x172.png\" alt=\"women's section of nordstrom's online store. there are many different categories such as shoes or accessories.\" width=\"300\" height=\"172\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The top menu will show you what the store contains, and its layout will make the product easy to find .\u00a0.\u00a0. or not. Nordstrom does an excellent job of electronically \u201claying out\u201d its ecommerce store for you. Here, we\u2019ve clicked on products for women. This is anything from clothing to accessories, and you can see all those categories in one glance. A menu to the left points out new arrivals and trends like a sales person might.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s important to note here that the brick-and-mortar visual merchandising rule of \u201cprovide good choices but not too many\u201d doesn\u2019t necessarily apply to ecommerce platforms. Shoppers go online to shop when they\u2019re looking for more choices, knowing that they can narrow them down to find just the right thing. Part of the online experience is trying to find the right pink tee shirt while narrowing the selection down from every pink tee shirt available in the world.<\/p>\n<p>Now that we\u2019ve seen all the aisles and gotten the store\u2019s \u201clay of the land,\u201d let\u2019s go down an aisle and interact with the product:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-3756 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2986\/2018\/03\/19200014\/Screen-Shot-2018-07-19-at-12.59.54-PM-300x138.png\" alt=\"backpack section on nordstrom's online store with pictures of the options all in a row\" width=\"435\" height=\"200\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Here we\u2019ve decided to shop backpacks. Right now, we have all 465 items in front of us, like a great big shelf of backpacks. But we can narrow that down using the side menu to the left \u2013 breaking it down by size, material, price, color and more. Pretty soon, we\u2019ll have a clear picture of just one or two backpacks to review.<\/p>\n<p>Can we \u201ctouch\u201d the backpack and learn more about it?<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-3757\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2986\/2018\/03\/19200104\/Screen-Shot-2018-07-19-at-1.00.32-PM-300x174.png\" alt=\"more detailed look at a red gucci backpack with a description and more pictures of the bag from a variety of angles on the left hand side\" width=\"350\" height=\"203\" \/><\/p>\n<p>By clicking on the photo, we can take a much closer look at the backpack, getting several different views of it in the pictures to the left. Paging down a little further, you get size, weight and other details. Further down, we can read customer reviews to understand how others enjoyed and used the product.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-3759\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2986\/2018\/03\/19200148\/Screen-Shot-2018-07-19-at-1.01.27-PM-300x144.png\" alt=\"details about the bag below the main image of the backpack\" width=\"335\" height=\"161\" \/><\/p>\n<p>These click-through features provide us with that in-aisle experience, where we look at, study and handle the product before we make the purchase. Here on the ecommerce platform we have to do that virtually, but the experience is mimicked well, making the shopper\u2019s experience a memorable one.<\/p>\n<p>What about other sales opportunities that go along with this Gucci bag? Can we bundle it with other items to show how it goes with the whole outfit? Nordstrom has thought of that, too, featuring this set of photos halfway down the page:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-3760 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2986\/2018\/03\/19200248\/Screen-Shot-2018-07-19-at-1.02.24-PM-261x300.png\" alt=\"collage of clothing items titled \u201dSummer Sweet\u201d that create an outfit with the backpack. each item has their price below the photo or is labeled \u201csold out\u201d.\" width=\"261\" height=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p>What happens when you mouse over one of the items that interests you? This:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-3762 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2986\/2018\/03\/19200415\/Screen-Shot-2018-07-19-at-1.03.55-PM-300x171.png\" alt=\"the collage of the outfit items are on the left. When you mouse over the wallet, you see a closer look at the wallet that goes with the outfit and its price and color options on the right side of the screen.\" width=\"300\" height=\"171\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Bundled displays, this time electronically, are aiming for increased sales conversions.<\/p>\n<p>When you\u2019re purchasing an item on Amazon, you might notice a list of items on display when you add it to your cart. Those items are titled \u201cCustomers also bought.\u201d This is the website\u2019s way of attempting a complementary grouping. Imagine if you bought a dozen eggs on Amazon, and then you saw a picture of bacon and, written above it, \u201cCustomers also bought\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u201d\u00a0Sometimes the Amazon suggestions don\u2019t make as much sense as eggs and bacon, but it\u2019s working on an algorithm written to share the shopping habits of people just like you.<\/p>\n<p>Visual display techniques can definitely be leveraged when crafting a retail website, and they lead to higher sales conversions .\u00a0.\u00a0. which mean more profits for the retailer.<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox tryit\">\n<h3>Practice Questions<\/h3>\n<p>\t<iframe id=\"assessment_practice_c8a1e08c-bf9b-4525-8c02-889c1f36dc27\" class=\"resizable\" src=\"https:\/\/assess.lumenlearning.com\/practice\/c8a1e08c-bf9b-4525-8c02-889c1f36dc27?iframe_resize_id=assessment_practice_id_c8a1e08c-bf9b-4525-8c02-889c1f36dc27\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:none;width:100%;height:100%;min-height:300px;\"><br \/>\n\t<\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t <section class=\"citations-section\" role=\"contentinfo\">\n\t\t\t <h3>Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t <div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <div id=\"citation-list-2240\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <div class=\"licensing\"><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Original<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Online Store Design. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Freedom Learning Group. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Lumen Learning. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/\">CC BY: Attribution<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t <\/section>","protected":false},"author":62559,"menu_order":17,"template":"","meta":{"_candela_citation":"[{\"type\":\"original\",\"description\":\"Online Store Design\",\"author\":\"Freedom Learning Group\",\"organization\":\"Lumen Learning\",\"url\":\"\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by\",\"license_terms\":\"\"}]","CANDELA_OUTCOMES_GUID":"a8799a18-f850-46b3-a3e1-46d03fdbaaa1, a43c209b-dfd5-4a35-ad1c-066b74d83e4c","pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-2240","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":2203,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-retailmanagement\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/2240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-retailmanagement\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-retailmanagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-retailmanagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62559"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-retailmanagement\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/2240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6533,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-retailmanagement\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/2240\/revisions\/6533"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-retailmanagement\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/2203"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-retailmanagement\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/2240\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-retailmanagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-retailmanagement\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=2240"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-retailmanagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=2240"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-retailmanagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=2240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}