Online Category Management

As we study the navigation patterns and behavior of site visitors, we notice a consistent 3:1 ratio of browsers to searchers. Since finding items on web sites is typically the #1 reason for visit failure, it is essential that a site’s information architecture support the needs of this browsing majority. Recently we analyzed a number of e-Commerce sites.

Here is what we found:

1. Visit success (based on intent) is directly related to efficient content structure. People who reported high success reached product pages more directly than those who reported low success. The ratio of sub-categories entered to product pages viewed was consistently higher for successful visitors vs. visitors reporting low success. For example, in one e-tailer the successful visitors had a sub-catagory:product ratio of .52 (roughly 1 product page viewed for every 2 sub-category pages) while unsuccessful visitors had a sub-catagory:product ratio of .31.
2. A second finding was that successful visitors consistently browsed more subcategories than unsuccessful visitors. This surprised us, because we thought that a 1:1:1 ratio (which is dept to catagory to sub-catagory to product) perfect. Not so. Apparently, shoppers don’t mind looking through a few extra sub-categories as long as they find the product they’re looking for. (The additional browsing of sub-categories may enhance the feeling of success as visitors confirm or amend their original decision.)
3. Now here’s the clincher - people who purchased on the sites had much higher sub-category: category ratios and product:sub-category ratios than any other group. This confirmed our hypothesis that the higher ratios are indicative of the ultimate success for the e-tailer: conversion.

So what can you do with this information? How should this information be applied? Look at the traffic on your site and measure category pages loaded vs. sub-categories loaded vs. product pages loaded in each category. You may be able to get this information from your analytics package or we can get it for you from WebIQ data. Calculate the median sub-category:category ratios and product:sub-category ratios for your site. Then compare categories across your site and see which ones are underperforming (i.e. have low ratios).

• All ShoppersShoppers who bought
• Product page:
• Product page:# shoppers
• Sub-category Ratio
• Sub-category Ratio
• women’s22340.560.77
• men’s12450.520.76
• children’s15670.480.68
• electronics9870.470.62
• jewelry4330.410.63
• home14650.390.55
• toys9880.380.59
• sports6790.330.50
• appliances16830.320.45
• gifts12890.290.51
• bargains22760.220.33
• etail.com medianN/A0.390.59

Those categories need to be investigated and improved. They have could be suffering from terminology problems, architecture problems or hierarchy problems. Give us a call if you’re interested in this line of thinking.