๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐บ๐ฎ๐๐ผ๐ป ๐ต๐ผ๐บ๐ฒ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ด๐ฒ ๐๐ฎ๐ ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป๐ฎ๐น๐น๐ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ฎ๐บ๐ฒ ๐ถ๐ป ๐ญ๐ต๐ต๐ต.
People weren’t as sophisticated in online shopping, but the underlying strategy was similar.
Comparing the two homepage versions 24 years on is enlightening. The usual homepage ecommerce pattern is that people don’t scroll below the fold. They click on navigation or search to get directly to their product. So what happens above the fold is the most important thing. I wanted to put my magnifying glass on this to understand what has changed.
๐ง๐ต๐ถ๐ป๐ด๐ ๐๐ต๐ฎ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ณ๐ณ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ป๐ ๐ถ๐ป ๐ญ๐ต๐ต๐ต:
– Written content on the homepage, no product images
– prominent “how to order”, “site guide” and “our guarantee” and additional in-page reassurances. We don’t need that any more.
– Search is huge today, not as big then (but then it had a nice yellow box and a round button with weird orientation)
– A lot more deals in 2023. I’m not sure if that’s because it’s just past Black Friday, if people are poor, or if Amazon has more purchasing power- but in 1999 there was no mention of deals
– no personalisation in the olden days means that if I wasn’t in to or had read Harry Potter, I was still going to be recommended it
-the date is on the page in 1999
– all the unimportant stuff: help, recommendations etc is on the page and not in the footer in 1999
๐ง๐ต๐ถ๐ป๐ด๐ ๐๐ต๐ฎ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ฎ๐บ๐ฒ ๐ถ๐ป ๐ญ๐ต๐ต๐ต:
– an outline of categories and sub-categories (but in text rather than in images in 1999). This is a best practise so visitors can understand the breadth and depth of range.
– Bestsellers and recommendations are outlined.
๐๐ถ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฎ๐ป๐ด๐ฒ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ผ๐๐ป๐ฑ:
– images vs copy
– people know how to shop so all that stuff can be removed (and the date ๐ )
– Deals
– Personalisation
The 1995 version was a lot more archaic, some big movements in those four years. It’s interesting to know which principles stand the test of time so we know what is important and we should keep using.
Brendan McNulty 