Advanced Store-Navigation Options and Ideas

Store-navigation features are designed to help your customers navigate your site quickly and efficiently. They help customers find the exact product they are looking for and create a user-friendly buying experience:

• Breadcrumbs Breadcrumbs are a great way let your customers know where they are in your site (see Figure 6.9). They provide an easy way to backtrack to parent sections when viewing products. Breadcrumbs also help them remember which section they found that particular product in.

  Figure 6.9. Breadcrumbs let customers know where they are in your store.

  

• Multiple breadcrumbs Multiple breadcrumbs show multiple product paths (see Figure 6.10). These are useful especially if your product belongs in multiple categories.

  Figure 6.10. Multiple breadcrumbs let customers know if products are located in other sections.

  

• Dynamic pagination For faster loading time and to eliminate constant scrolling, you can dynamically break up the number of products displayed into multiple pages (see Figure 6.11). Customers can skip between pages or have an option to view all products in one page.

  Figure 6.11. Dynamic pagination separates products into multiple pages to speed page-load time and reduce constant scrolling.

  

• Dynamic cascading menu A dynamic sliding submenu appears if the customer hovers over the main navigation link or button (see Figure 6.12). Customers do not have to click on the parent category to go to a subcategory.

  Figure 6.12. A dynamic cascading menu enables customers to drill down to subcategories without having to click on the parent category.

  

• Advanced search An advanced search can help customers search for or narrow their product search (see Figure 6.13). You can allow customers to search by brand, date, price, or even color.

  Figure 6.13. An advanced search helps narrow results.

  

• Related items Displaying related items helps customers consider other similar products they might be interested in (see Figure 6.14). It's a great way to get customers to purchase other products.

  Figure 6.14. Related items show other products similar or complimentary to a product customers are interested in.