E-commerce websites rely on visitor traffic more than anything else. Only when there is huge visitor inflow, there can be high chances of a sale. And one of the important factors that help in sealing a deal of making sure that the visitors have a good experience on the website. And for that, it is important to have a seamless navigation system on the website.nWhen visitors are able to browse through the website more easily, they are able to view the products better and make a decision. Therefore, it is important to design a good navigation pathway and make sure they have a effortless browsing experience.nHere are 5 tips to help you design a powerful and effective navigation system for your e-commerce website.nnMake it Simple and ComprehensiblenThe navigation system of an e-commerce website should be easy to use as well as easy to understand. This is because you wouldn’t want the visitors entering your website to get overwhelmed by the navigation before anything else. There are a lot of amazing tips and tricks you can employ on your navigation system but it is highly advisable to keep it as simple as can be.nProvide clear labels for all the pages and items. Also make your links descriptive so that visitors know what to find when a particular link is clicked. Appropriate categorization is extremely important in order to make it easier for visitors to locate things that they need. Also, make sure you place your navigation system in an appropriate place, either the top or left side of the web page.nMake it AccessiblenAccessibility is a key feature of efficient websites. And it should be a key feature of your navigation system. You may not realize this but there is a huge audience base consisting of people with disabilities and if you fail to cater to them, you may be losing valuable business. These customers may use any number of devices to access your website including screen readers, Braille displays, magnifiers and so on. The navigation system of your website should be easily understandable by these devices. Try to place text-based navigation and skip links at the top of the web pages.nProvide Location InformationnIf visitors want to know where they want to go on a website, they would have to know where they presently are. This becomes all the more important for visitors who enter your website through some external links and not through the homepage. It is important to provide them with appropriate location information so that they know where they are and decide where else to go. Use breadcrumb navigation.nUse Layers and FacetsnFor large e-commerce websites i.e. the ones having a lot of product categories and several brands, it would be advisable to add navigations layers and facets. This includes defining various filters and parameters for the products and allowing visitors to refine their searches for the same. They would be able t o browse through the products by brand, price, type and so on.nInclude a Search featurenA search feature is extremely important for a e-commerce website. It allows users to search for a product instantly instead of having to browse through multiple pages of the website.nKabir Bedi is the senior web consultant at LeXolution IT Services, a reputed offshore web design company located in India. The company provides a range of web design services to its clients from across the world.
5 Tips For Effective E-Commerce Website Navigation Design
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