Though yesterday’s webinar was niche – we focused on the telco industry specifically – a number of best practices presented in the session are applicable to any online store. This post is a summary of the Phone and Plan Discovery portion of the webinar, highlighting what telcos are doing to help customers find the right wireless handset amongst a sea of options.
Filtered Navigation
Most telco sites do take advantage of filtered navigation options to help customers find the best phone for them. This is so important when there are as many as 180 products to choose from, and features play an important role in the purchase decision.
All retailers can benefit from adding more relevant filters based on important product attributes. This can improve conversion rates as you help customers hone in on and compare only products relevant to their purchase criteria. It also helps customers understand products better when they can see major attributes at a glance – “Oh, some phones have FM radio and speakerphone? Yeah, I want that.”
Filters limited to Category / Manufacturer were not as helpful:
Think about your current filter options (commonly price, brand, style) and think of how you can filter further by attribute like color, size, feature, battery length, star rating etc.
Product Results
Some ideas on improving category, filter and search results pages:
1. Don’t waste pixels in screen resolution
Often there is opportunity to grab more screen real estate to display more product information:
2. Allow customer to toggle between list and grid view
3. Add badges for feature highlights
4. Put model and color variations on one product page
Instead of listing a separate sku for each color / version (like 8GB vs. 16GB), show one product page with available options:
5. Customer AND expert reviews
Allowing customers to sort by and filter by customer and 3rd party review ratings is helpful for humanistic and methodical shoppers, respectively.
6. Consider slide tools
Horizontal sliders replicate the in-store experience of scanning a display shelf and gives your site a modern feel. It can help the customer compare the looks of the product (very important for phones that are now fashion accessories) without scrolling up and down and may work well for books, music, fashion and jewelry categories.
7. Give them a quick look
Mouseover/hover features are a great way to expose more product detail that a customer is interested in.
Sometimes this is done with a “lightbox” feature like Adobe Scene7’s Quick View feature.
Comparison Matrix
The comparison matrix is very helpful for side-by-side comparisons – and it warrants a blog post of its own (yes this is a hint that I’m going to blog about this soon on Get Elastic.)
Best Buy is a nice example, it shows the number of phones you can select at a time and allows you to launch the compare tool from the product you just selected. (Some sites require you to scroll to the top of the page to find that hidden “Compare” button).
From the matrix, you can remove selections, print the page or highlight the differences between the models being compared:
Product Discovery
One of the most challenging things about online retail is the fact that the customer must rely on 2 dimensional images to experience the product. Anything that shows off a product helps reduce fears, uncertainties, doubts and dealbreakers about products.
It’s now common to find image zoom, color switching and multiple product views — and more and more e-stores are adding video, 360 degree views and size comparisons.
Some products, like mobile phones, software, appliances and electronics benefit from additional tools like:
Tutorials
Very helpful for new and existing customers:
Product simulators
The above is by Sony Ericsson, we haven’t found other handset manufacturers providing this.
What‘s in the box
Showing visually the accessories that come with a product is more effective than a bullet point list. It can also be a value proposition – look how much stuff is included with {insert product name here}.
Icons
When your product has a lot of features and specs, icons can help customers scan the page and hone in on what they care about – especially for those who process information visually better than textually.
The full one-hour webinar covered many more tactics including navigation, guided selling, cart/checkout and service upgrades. Why not check out the replay of Ecommerce Best Practices for the Telco Industry?
Next Webinar
Every Second Counts: How Website Performance Impacts Shopper Behavior
Is your website keeping up with the competition when it comes to web page response times? Today’s shoppers have high expectations when it comes to buying online. Websites which take too long to load can result in negative brand perception, diminished goodwill and a significant loss in overall sales.
Join us on November 4th to learn about the impact of site speed on shopper behavior. In this one hour webinar, Marketing Manager Margaret Rivera of Akamai will present findings from a new study which has identified two seconds as the new threshold for acceptable web page response times.
Webinar Takeaways:
• How poor site performance leads to shopper dissatisfaction and site abandonment
• How website performance reaches beyond the site into the physical store
• The consequences for an online retailer whose website underperforms
Sign up today!
Coremetrics has released some benchmark data in its 
Unless you can afford free overnight shipping to holiday shoppers, you need a plan for merchandising your e-store for that period between the shipping cutoff date and Christmas Day. Consider applying the following ideas to your website and email campaigns to keep the register ringing like sleigh bells:
