I did a lot of online browsing over the holidays and though I didn’t end up buying much, my aimless scrolling at least revealed some user frustrations that I can share with you on the Econsultancy blog. Here are 10 that annoyed me.
These frustrations are not unique to sale shopping, but can be exacerbated at this time of year, when stock is changing rapidly and shoppers are determined to score a bargain ahead of others.
Note, most of my list is focused on faceted navigation, but I know there are plenty more UX issues in other areas, so if you’re a frustrated sales shopper, feel free to add to my list in the comments.
1. Page refresh every time I click a filter
Faceted navigation is essential when sales shopping, otherwise you may get served lots of products that look great until you discover they are available only in extra small or neon yellow.
As useful as filters are, they can be annoying, too. For example, when I want to narrow down by brand on John Lewis’s website, every time I select a brand, the page refreshes and I have to scroll back down to the right part of the nav in order to select another filter.
If I want to choose five brands, this takes time.
This UX is common on many ecommerce sites, but others have solved this problem. Take ASOS, where although there is a brief load when I select a brand filter, my cursor and the brand filter remain in the same position, meaning everything feels much smoother (and is quicker).
For department stores with big product catalogues, it would be nice to have such a seamless faceted navigation.
2. Product listings that don’t open in a new tab
Most sane shoppers want to right click on a product listing and open in a new tab. Some ecommerce websites do not allow this, simply allowing you to open the product image in a new tab. Pointless.
Granted, this is getting rarer. But it can still be found – for example on organic cotton brand Pact’s website (a brand that is stocked in Target).
3. Items out of stock but still showing in product listings
This is a classic issue and is most annoying when there is no indication in product listings that an item is no longer available. The Levi’s website had this problem when I browsed it (up until today, 2 Jan). I would search jackets and find attractive listings, only to click through and find the following….
This destroys confidence in browsing.
4. Inconspicuous ‘out of stock’ messages in product listings
John Lewis is marginally better than Levi’s in that it displays an ‘out of stock’ message in the product listings, but it must be said that this message is somewhat inconspicuous.
From a user’s perspective, it would be better if these listings were greyed out, and any options for updates on availability could be highlighted (admittedly rare functionality).
5. Confusing faceted navigation
I’m rounding on Levi’s again. I did buy some jeans in the sale, but the retailer is lucky it has a relatively small product catalogue, because the faceted navigation is slightly strange.
Filters for ‘male’ and ‘men’…
…plus ‘color’ and ‘colour’. Again, it doesn’t inspire confidence.
6. Irrelevance in Google ‘Shopping’ ads
The particular instance I have in mind is searching for a particular brand or model of shoe in my size and being returned Google CSS ads for infants shoes. What a waste of ad spend from Foot Asylum in this instance.
7. Inaccurate size filters
Again, this may be down to the fact that stock sells out, and this doesn’t update quickly enough in navigation, but it’s mighty annoying to think you’ve found the right shoe, and then discover if you really love it, you’ll have to squeeze into a 10 instead of an 11.
Dr Martens is one offender here.
8. No ‘view all’
I went on the Paul Smith website. A bit out of my price range, but I wanted to view all sale items, sort from low to high price, and see if there was anything reasonably priced I might like.
But I couldn’t view ‘all sale’, only by category. Not a big problem for those who know what they want, but more browsing (and chance of abandonment) for me.
9. No price sort
Paul Smith was the culprit again. Some categories did not allow me to sort by price. In this case, ‘accessories’.
In general, I’m not a fan of designer retail declining to offer a price sort, even if in this case it is likely unintentional.
10. Endless, tiresome scroll
Made.com shows me 1,000 sale products on one page. Even when I use a filter and narrow this down to, say, 218 wooden products, this is still overwhelming.
I like scrolling but there’s a point at which you’ve done so much scrolling you lose track of whether it’s 2018 or 2019. Plus, if I want to save my place, any reloading of the webpage would scupper where I was up to in my browsing.
Pagination with an option for how many products to display tends to suit user habits best in my opinion.
That’s your lot. Disparage my opinions or add your own in the comments.