Methods To Simplify Navigation In Online Stores

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗰𝗿𝘂𝗺𝗯 𝗘𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁: 𝗔𝗻 𝗢𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝗨𝗜/𝗨𝗫 𝗚𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿 Here’s a little UX anecdote to chew on: Back in the early 2000s, a major e-commerce website noticed something strange. Customers were abandoning their carts midway, not because of pricing or product issues but because they couldn’t remember how they got there. The solution? Breadcrumb navigation. A simple trail showing users their path—like “Home > Electronics > Smartphones > Accessories”—reduced drop-offs by 15%. 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗼𝗱𝗮𝘆? In the rush to design sleek, minimalist interfaces, many designers overlook breadcrumbs. But here’s the thing: breadcrumbs aren’t just for large websites. They’re essential for any interface where users move through multiple levels of content or steps. 🔑 The overlooked power of breadcrumbs: 1️⃣ 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗳𝗼𝗿𝘁: They give users a sense of place, reducing cognitive load. 2️⃣ 𝗘𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗽𝗲 𝗥𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗲: Users can jump back without hunting for the menu, improving navigation. 3️⃣ 𝗦𝗘𝗢 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝘀𝘁: On websites, they improve crawlability and search rankings. 𝗣𝗿𝗼 𝗧𝗶𝗽: Design breadcrumbs that are clean and clickable. For mobile, consider collapsible breadcrumbs to save screen space while retaining functionality. Remember, even the most experienced designers sometimes undervalue simple tools. But in UX, it’s often the simplest solutions that create the biggest impact. 💬 Have you used breadcrumbs in a unique way recently? Or maybe you’ve encountered a design where they saved the day? Share your thoughts below! 🖍✨ #UXDesign #BreadcrumbNavigation #UIUXTips #WebDesign #UserExperience #MinimalistUI #NavigationDesign #CognitiveLoad #SEOBoost #UXStrategy #DesignInnovation #UserJourney #UXInspiration #WebsiteDesign #DesignForMobile #EcommerceDesign

Do you cater to multiple customer personas? Guiding them to the right products from the get-go can significantly enhance their shopping experience. One effective strategy is to implement a "Choose Your Own Adventure" approach on your ecommerce homepage. Why This Approach Works: → Personalization: By allowing customers to select their persona or interests, you can tailor the shopping experience to their specific needs and preferences. → Improved Navigation: This method helps visitors quickly find the products that are most relevant to them, reducing the time they spend searching and increasing the likelihood of a purchase. → Enhanced Engagement: A personalized experience keeps customers engaged and encourages them to explore more of your catalog and return in the future. How to Implement It: → Identify Key Personas: Start by identifying the main customer personas you serve. For example, if you're a skincare brand, your personas might include "Teens," "Adults," and "Mature." → Create Clear Pathways: Design your homepage to feature clear, clickable options for each persona. For instance, you could have buttons or images labeled "Teen Skin," "Adult Skin," and "Mature Skin." → Tailor Content: Once a visitor selects their persona, direct them to a customized landing page that features products, testimonials, and content relevant to their needs. Show product recommendations tagged for each persona. Bonus points: Setup a personalization campaign that adapts each page of your site with language and imagery to match each persona. e.g. A teen would see imagery of other teens and copy on the page follows suite. By implementing a "Choose Your Own Adventure" approach, you can create a more personalized and joyful shopping experience for your customers, ultimately driving higher conversions and revenue.

DTC brands, listen up. You need to be using a mega menu on your site--ESPECIALLY if you have a big catalog or want more control over what your consumers see. Let’s be real—nothing kills conversions faster than a frustrating user experience. You’ve got a ton of products, and you want your customers to explore them. But no one’s going to buy if your menu is a maze. 3 reasons why I'm a huge fan of mega menus: 1) Consumers are lazy It's blunt, but it's true. So don't make your consumers think more than they need to. Guide them through the shopping journey. Here's how. Skip the extra clicks—take users straight to what they want. Do the research and organize your products into top-searched categories. For example, if you sell soap bars, nest your collections within popular categories like scent, main ingredients, or purpose (e.g., skin vs. hair). Don’t hesitate to place your SKUs in multiple relevant spots. Over-exposure is the key to higher order value. 2) People are visual If you've got a huge catalog, a dropdown menu is going to be a nightmare for potential buyers. Mega menus on the other hand are a super effective way to guide consumers to what they're looking for with imagery. TileCloud nails this by using images and color patterns in their mega menu. This makes it extraordinarily easy for even first-time shoppers to understand the curtain jargon and distinguish between styles like Hamptons and Japandi. 3) You can highlight certain products or collections     If you have collections you want to feature, mega menus are perfect to make them front and center. You can spotlight different collections with more control than a typical dropdown menu gives you. And if you've got best-sellers you want to drive more traffic to, why bury them in hard-to-find places? Just take a look at how Kaley Cuoco’s shop, Oh Norman! does it. They highlight their hero products with images right in the menu. They also offer “Shop All” and “Create Bundles” options, which, seriously, are the perfect AOV-booster for niche brands with smaller catalogs. 4) Mobile is an untapped goldmine for conversions Mastering simplicity on mobile is a whole new challenge. Space is just so limited. That's why nesting options are your best bet for a quick and smooth shopping journey. Take Freewill Haircare as an example: When you tap on "Shop By" (marked with a plus sign because again, people are visual), it expands to let you filter by hair type, category, or collection. This is what I mean when I say give customers exactly what they need with minimal effort. One more thing they do super well? Using color. Freewill categorizes its collections by color which makes it easy for people to distinguish what they're looking for. At Platter, we’re experts at simplifying storefronts and creating mega menus. And I'm happy to help you with yours. Shoot me a DM if you're interested. 

Poor navigation will KILL your conversions. We revamped a client’s menu, resulting in a 46% jump in purchases from users who engaged with it. Here’s what we did: The Challenge: 🚩 The original menu listed 30+ options under “Shop.” 🚩 Users couldn’t access products directly; everyone was routed through collection pages. What We Found: 🔎 Users bypassing collections converted at 7.2%. 🔎 Users going through collections converted at just 3.6%. Our Solution: 💡 Reduced the menu to four main categories plus a “Sale” section. The Results: 📈 Product views went up by 17%, with an 18.5% boost for mobile users. 📈 Click-to-view rate increased by 65%. 📈 Click-to-purchase rate rose by 46%. 📈 Adding “Shop by Category” led to double-digit product view growth. Not bad for a simple tweak. P.S. Our research shows 1 in 4 sessions include menu interaction. You wouldn’t block 25% of customers in a physical store—so don’t do it online.

A single navigation change generated $905,000 in additional revenue. Here's the psychological principle that made it work. Our client had great products and solid traffic. But customers kept abandoning their carts after adding multiple items. We discovered something fascinating in the user behavior data. Once customers applied filters on mobile, those filters disappeared from view. Customers forgot what they were originally looking for. They'd start over. Get frustrated. Leave entirely. This is called the "doorway effect" in psychology. When people move between pages or contexts, they literally forget what they were doing. It's hardwired into how our brains work. The solution was deceptively simple. We added the selected filters to the top of the product page. Always visible. Always reminding customers what they came to find. Revenue jumped $905,000. Same products. Same inventory. Same checkout process. The only difference was removing a psychological friction point that customers couldn't even articulate. Most enterprise teams focus on building new features while ignoring basic psychological barriers that cost millions. Your customers aren't asking for more complexity. They're asking for less confusion. The biggest conversion opportunities often hide in the smallest psychological details.