Want to improve usability on your e-commerce site? Psst…Pay attention to your product Taxonomy!

Product Taxonomy

Product taxonomy organizes merchandise into hierarchies and categories to help customers search and browse items using both drop-down menus and left-hand navigational bars. A well-designed taxonomy keeps the user's needs front and centre, taking into account how they typically search or browse for products.

When looking at your existing taxonomy, or when designing a new system, keep in mind that there will never be one "right" taxonomy for any set of products. Your customers are a diverse group and are likely to browse and search using their own defined sense of taxonomy. The key is to thoroughly research how shoppers search for products on your site now, then design a taxonomy that responds to those typical search requests. The aim is to get the customer to the desired product quickly, make it easy for them to buy, and ensure that the whole shopping experience is one they will want to repeat.

Designing a taxonomy takes time and shouldn't be rushed. The challenge with any taxonomy is that it usually presents a complex problem with no best solution, but rather a best compromise. Often a single product can, and should, be placed in multiple categories. For example, envelopes might fit into the "Office Supplies" category and also the "Paper Products" category; a winter sweater could easily slot into both the "Clothes by Season" and "Clothes by Fabric" categories. Define the categories and figure out which products are related to which categories.

Faceted Navigation

Facets are vital for larger e-commerce stores. Faceted navigation works on the basis of allowing the shopper to filter a category by a number of classifications, such as price, size, or colour. While facets can be costly and time consuming to develop, they offer more options to the customer. Working on the principle that you can't buy what you can't find, faceted navigation has been shown to improve product findability in general.

By relating products through their attributes and facets, your e-commerce store can cross-sell/up-sell other appropriate products to potential buyers. Interested in a laptop computer? Then how about one of these great cases to put it in? Buying a Valentine's gift? Take a look at February's red product sale items. By the way, make sure to build in a spot for gifts or promotions to highlight seasonal items or great deals.

Optimized Taxonomy

Especially important in today's world of mobile devices and smart wearables is a quick result. Whether on a smart phone or an Apple Watch, mobile users demand a minimal number of clicks to get to where they want to go. Taxonomy designed with the mobile shopper in  mind allows consumers to get there fast.

Studies have shown that there is generally an improvement in cart additions and conversion rates that coincide with the introduction, or improvement, of a taxonomy system on an e-commerce site. Customers find products quickly, are given options, and can easily compare different items, making for a pleasant and productive shopping experience.

It's definitely worth your time to pay attention to product taxonomy.

Will the Apple Watch change the e-commerce landscape? It already is!

Apple wasn't the first to launch a pairable-wearable – Pebble and Samsung beat them to the punch with smartwatches and Google introduced Google Glass in 2012 – but Apple's ability to popularize existing technology is legendary. Its introduction of the Apple Watch in early 2015 has developers and e-commerce giants scrambling to create apps focused on the very next thing that wearers are likely to desire.

Smartwatches, where touching and tapping take over from scrolling and clicking, will change the very nature of the online shopping experience. With customers able to receive a Daily Deal text notification, touch the screen to go directly to the store, and tap a button to pay, e-retailers will find ways to target the impulse buyer over the casual browser. Smartwatch app optimization is likely to be the next big opportunity for retailers.

As an example, just in time for the launch of Apple Watch, eBay introduced a new smartwatch app that allows important notifications, such as outbid alerts and warnings, to bypass your phone and go straight to your wrist. Having access to timely messages could mean the difference between winning and losing in the online auction game.

Retailers large and small, credit card companies, and social media sites are evaluating smartwatches platforms having the ability to simplify the buying process. A Samsung-PayPal partnership introduced fingerprint technology for authorizing payments on a smartwatch screen with its limited space for a PIN or password. With around 50% of consumers reportedly happy using fingerprints instead of passwords, this initiative opens the doors for shoppers to buy at any online or physical store that accepts PayPal.

Mobile payments are here to stay, especially with a younger generation already joined at the hip – soon to be the wrist – with their mobile devices. Apple, Google, and Samsung are among the forerunners recognizing that mobile payments will make their smartwatches indispensable to the wearer while supplying new insights into their consumers' buying behaviour.

In late 2014, Apple announced that Apple Wallet was partnering with Visa, MasterCard, and American Express to store credit card information on the iPhone, allowing purchases using Apple Buy simply by tapping the phone or smartwatch. Loyalty cards from retailers such as Wal-Mart and Dunkin' Donuts, and store credit cards from the likes of Kohl's and JC Penny have also been linked into Apple Pay, which will automatically present the right card to the right merchant. Already available in the U.S., Apple Pay is gearing up for a U.K. launch.

Online retailers are discovering that anything requiring multiple taps or precise placement of a cursor, including filling out forms or navigating drop down menus, are less suited to wearable technology than voice activation or the tapping of one simple button. It won't be long before apps arrive on the smartwatch that require no touching at all; a simple glance will pick the product and pay the bill.

A trend to keep your eye on.