Ecommerce Navigation Best Practices for 2024

Ecommerce success takes much more than just selling the right product at the right price to the right audience. Many times, buyer decisions are informed by things that have nothing to do with the nature or quality of the product itself.

Service quality and website usability will often be what makes the difference.

Importance of Ecommerce Navigation

A website’s navigability is at the center of its usability. People can only buy what they can find. It’s not too different from what happens at a brick-and-mortar grocery store — products in the same category are placed on the same shelf or aisle.

Someone who has never been to the store before can readily find the product they want by going to the appropriate aisle.

A cluttered interface and other navigation pitfalls will degrade the customer experience and increase the number of visitors that opt to buy from a competitor website.

Prospective buyers are more likely to convert when they can intuitively and quickly find or discover products and product information. Good navigation makes business sense — happier users, higher sales and better search engine optimization (SEO).

Tips for Effective Ecommerce Navigation

Ecommrce stores must design the most seamless discovery experience possible. Here are some tips for creating effective ecommerce navigation:

1. Keep it Simple

The main aspect of keeping ecommerce navigation simple is sticking to convention and familiarity. For example, on most websites, the ‘Contact Us’ menu item is on the top right and bottom right of the page. So placing it on the top and bottom left will be self-defeating. Familiarity improves navigation speed and efficiency.

Think of it this way — by the time a user lands on a website, they have gone through several others and will probably visit several others after that. Their mind has already been accustomed to a near identical pattern of where particular menu items are in line with industry convention.

If a website does not follow this familiar design, users will take longer than is necessary to find what they are looking for. Given the range of ecommerce stores they can shop from, they could quickly conclude the site does not have what they want and decide to move on to a competitor.

Examples of design convention that simplifies navigation include:

Placing the website’s logo on the top left side. The logo should be clickable and return a user back to the homepage from wherever they are on the website. Left alignment is informed by two things. First, it’s the direction one would normally read in many languages. Second, eye tracking research shows people’s eyes naturally drift to the left side of the screen in an F-shaped reading/scanning pattern.
Placing the main navigation bar horizontally across the top of the page. It’s where the overwhelming majority of users will check to know where they should go next. The next best alternative is having the menu run down vertically on the left side of the page. These vertical navigation bars (also called a left rail) are best suited for large websites with numerous menu items.
The navigation bar should be sticky (or fixed) meaning it should remain in position at the top even when the user scrolls downwards. It’s easier to navigate.

2. Use Categories and Subcategories

A good navigation bar is a concise one. A mega menu with too many options can inadvertently be a distraction and make it harder for buyers to make a decision. Keep menu options short, clear and meaningful.

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One of the most effective ways of doing that while ensuring the navigation bar conveys as much information on the available options is to break it down into product categories and subcategories. Categories tell visitors what range of products are available and which category they should proceed to if they want to find a particular product.

While categories and subcategories are important, how they are organized matters too. For example, where there are numerous categories and subcategories, long vertical drop-down menus that extend ‘below the fold’ can be difficult for users to navigate.

Instead, the category hierarchy should be grouped to allow for a two-dimensional drop down list or tiered menus. That means, when a user scrolls down and hovers over or clicks on a subcategory, a submenu containing sub subcategories appears.

The number of parent categories should also be relatively few and broad-based. Anything between three and eight parent categories is ideal. The fewer the better.

3. Use Search Functionality

There is only so much information that can be packed into the navigation bar without creating an unnecessarily cluttered, chaotic feel. In case a prospective buyer cannot find what they want in the navigation bar’s menu options or anywhere on the page they are on, the opportunity to perform a site search query should be available.

The search feature would also come in handy when the user has their mind already made up. They want to quickly go to a specific page without having to spend time exploring the navigation bar and the rest of the website.

The search bar should be prominent and noticeable — somewhere along the same horizontal line as the site’s logo and just above the parent categories of the navigation bar. Some ecommerce stores have it on the right side adjacent to the last menu item on the navigation bar. This may only work where there are very few parent categories thus leaving sufficient space.

Ease the search process with autocomplete. Prospective customers can save time by quickly and accurately filling out their search queries. Autocomplete could also provide an opportunity to better direct and convert promising leads.

4. Provide Clear Product Information

Provide product information that is comprehensive enough to describe all the features the user needs to know about but in a language that is easy for prospective buyers to relate to.

Avoid difficult and technical words unless there is no other way to explain product features in simple terms. Jargon can make someone that was otherwise keen on making a purchase change their mind. They could get the impression that they do not fully understand what the product is about or can achieve.

5. Optimize for Mobile

The world has shifted decisively to the mobile device as the primary means of accessing the Internet. Mobile phones account for about three quarters of online retail traffic and two thirds of online orders. With a myriad of shopping choices at their fingertips, smartphone users are drawn to online shopping — 45 percent shop online every day.

This shift has been the catalyst for responsive design, a web development philosophy that aims to create a site that can be accessed by all major types of computing devices. That is, desktop computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones.

At the minimum, an ecommerce website should be optimized for mobile screens. Even better though is a mobile-first strategy where the website is primarily built for mobile use but is compatible with laptop and desktop screens.

For example, instead of a standard horizontal navigation bar, the hamburger menu (three short horizontal lines) is better suited for mobile devices. It keeps the menu options hidden until the user clicks to expand it. That helps maximize the visible page real estate.

Conclusion

Creating an ecommerce store with good site navigation is a statement of how much the site is committed to giving customers a pleasant shopping experience. The easier the website is to navigate, the greater the likelihood it will draw repeat customers.

FAQ

Why is navigation important in ecommerce?

Good navigation on an ecommerce store leads to more conversions, higher sales, happier customers and better search engine optimization (SEO).

What are the main ways of improving an ecommerce store’s navigation?

Keep it simple, stick to design convention, use navigation bar categories and subcategories, provide a site-wide search functionality, make the website’s interface mobile friendly and craft clear product descriptions. Find more best practices here.

Why opt for a mobile-first strategy when designing ecommerce navigation?

Mobile phones account for about three quarters of online retail traffic and two thirds of online orders. Nearly half of smartphone users shop online every day.

Why should an ecommerce store stay with design convention?

The average website visitor is already accustomed to where the navigation bar and other menu items usually are on most websites. Breaking convention will only make navigation more difficult for them.