Web shop layout

[Guest lightnix]

I've been rearranging the web shop this evening, pending the arrival of a new toy or two ;)

 

I always put new products at the very top of each product category, but what to do with the rest...? :huh:

 

My first thought was to put things in descending price order, that way the "flagship" products are seen first and people may be more likely to scroll further through a given range. Then I started to worry that being greeted by the most expensive items first might put people off from looking any further.

 

So I tried ascending price order, but then wondered whether that would leave the most expensive items unviewed.

 

"Price Is King", or so they say, but putting things purely in price order splits up the manufacturers and makes the pages look a bit disorganised IMHO

 

At the moment I'm putting manufacturers in alphabetical order. I reckon that way, the pages will remain tidier and people will quickly get an idea of the range of prices by just viewing a few items. I'm still a bit stuck about whether the prices within each manufacturer should run in ascending or descending order, though and then there's the problem of manufacturers who only have one item in a category - they look a bit lonely in the middle of it all (hence the "Aesthetically" option). I'm getting all confused now :blink: so I thought I'd throw the question open to the Blue Room :)

 

So come on, you webmasters, internet shopping junkies and marketing psychologists, what do you all think: one of the above, or something else ?

 

Thanks in advance for the input :(

[James]

I get irritated by sites where I'm presented by unsortable lists.

 

Sometimes I'm looking for something and I want to view by price assending or descending and sometimes I want to view by manafacturer.

 

Sorry if this is not the answer you want

 

James

[TomLyall]

Its only my opinion, but I'd but the different manufacturers in catagories, and as James says, lists of products should be sortable really. I like to be able to sort by item code, name and price.

 

What I also like from an online shop is the ability to view prices either with or without VAT.

[Piers Shepperd]

I'm for sortable lists - I'm usually looking for something on a fixed budget, or by manufacturer.

 

Sorry - but its the least I expect if I'm having to sort through lots of products.

 

Cheers,

 

Piers

[kalmatthew]

I agree, alow people to sort lists by price or manufacture. Also alow for a search with either.

[JCoster]

I agree with James, also. I like searching through manufacturers and then products. However, if you have a search box and possibly giving visitors the option of which way to display products, then you're giving everyone the best of both worlds.

[Bryson]

Add me to the list for a choice of viewing options. I can see how it'll be more work, but I reckon you'd do yourself a favour to put the work in.

 

Also, sorted by "types" might be useful, like a hand-held flashlight, or a penlight, or a key-chain light etc etc.

[JCoster]

Yeah, that's also a good idea. You could do a series of three or so drop-down boxes, for example:

 

DD B1:

Type of product

 

DD B2:

Manufacturer

 

DD B3:

Model number

 

 

This would also give an ease of service, but again, it may be a fair bit of work.

[Guest lightnix]

Thanks for the input so far, please keep it coming :blink:

 

I know our set up isn't the most state of the art, but then again we don't have hundreds upon hundreds of products as yet. I've looked at a number of other e-commerce solutions and will certainly upgrade the site at some point in the future, although some proper office space is a greater priority at the moment. However, one thing I will do in the near future is re-do the pricing to show VAT separately.

 

I know what you mean about being able to sort lists by price, type and manufacturer, though. I'm always on the lookout for alternative and easily manageable webstore solutions and am open to any suggestions that offer the features you all desire. I don't mind doing the work setting up and debugging it, but it has to easy to run; some of the professional solutions out there are a nightmare and don't even get me started on OS Commerce :huh: If anything, in the short term we're going to start making greater use of Ebay, it seems to be working for a lot of other people.

 

The other thing I'm worried about is the damage that any major upgrades may do to our search engine rankings. At the moment pretty well all searches for "our" keywords bring up something from the site / shop in the first 3-5 pages of Google. When I did a big revamp last Spring, the rankings took a major knock and didn't recover fully for a month or two, while the spiders figured out what was going on.

 

Thanks again, looking forward to reading more :)

[JCoster]

Can I ask what the website is selling, what the URL is and whether it has been uploaded yet? This would allow us to greaten our import and make it more 'your website based'.

[Bryson]

At the risk of Nick falling fould of advertising regs: He sells LED torches, and his URL is the first of the two in his signature.

[JCoster]

Oh ok, I should keep my eyes more open!

[andy_s]

people seem a bit "brand" orientated - I go with Bryson - I like to look at products and compare between manufacturers if there are more than one. Generally I'm looking for "a screwdriver" not necessarily a "stanley"...for example.

 

however, I see that this might not work for a highly specialized supplier such as yourself, so I would probably want to look at the best one first, then go down the list if I couldn't afford it. I don't think a high price at the top of the list would put me off if it was immediately clear that there were lower-priced alternatives, and conversely, if I had the budget, seeing lower prices would not necessarily stop me buying the top of the range just to save a couple of quid. Theold saw "you gets what you pays for" does usually apply, after all. Always get the best you can afford (apart from adjustable spanners - in this instance, assume it will be lost within 4 days of first use.....and buy the cheapest!)

[Modge]

I've always liked descending order of price for every thing (I went by manufacter first,then dec order of price). I do have to 'me to' (offtern an utterly valueless post I admit) the I like them sortable comments made above. Also more or less a me to but I'd say we go for category rather than manifacter as well.

[MikeR]

If youre able to get hold of page impressions / referrer links and determine what your users are looking for might it be worth giving more weight to the more sought after items and drawing attention to the other items (possibly more expensive) in other ways - announcements / technology articles on the front page etc?