• Introduction
• Home Page
• General Layout
• Title Bar
• Search
• Top Navigation
• Left Navigation
• Right Navigation
• Footer Navigation
• Item Detail Page
  • Layout (Image, Text)
  • Product Availability
  • Cross Selling/Upselling
• Shopping Cart
• Checkout Process
• Virtual Catalog

Data Sheet

Item Detail Page

More Information or More Image?

The table below shows which item detail pages use more information (text) or image. While this is a subjective judgment, some websites are clearly overloading information (text) or images. For example, Amazon.com heavily relies on text information such as customer review, product information, look for similar items... On the other hand, Pottery Barn provides little text but lots of images. These companies seem to understand their customers' preferences well.

Also, depending on what they sell (e.g. unique products or commodities), the importance of image or text is different. Amazon.com or Walmart typically sell commodity products which customers can see somewhere else. However, products from Pottery Barn or Red Envelope are seen in their websites or catalogs. Images make a difference for them.

Product Availability

There are three types of product availability information observed. The best one is clearly stated, the second one shows availability once customers place products in basket, and the last one is no information.

Amazon.com

Amazon.com provides the most customer-friendly information regarding product availability.

Harry & David

This is not exactly product availability information, but the last date of season product order.

Hickory Farms

Very simple information. Nevertheless, it is product availability information.

Target

Walmart

It provides availability information as well as estimated arrival date.

Chadwicks

Since availability of clothes is size and color dependent, customers must select a product as well as its size. Until then, they don't know if it's available or not.

Zappos

Again, shoes are the same as clothes. Customers must select a size and color first. While this process is understandable, this is not customer-friendly. The site should come up with dynamically check availability whenever customers choose a size and color (e.g. using AJAX).

Cross Selling / Upselling

Many websites implement cross selling / upselling strategies in item detail pages, but their sophistication varies. The followings are some cross selling and upselling strategies observed.

1. Suggestion (14 websites)

This is the most popular feature. The messages are different (e.g. "May we also suggest" "You may also be interested in..." "Suggested items"...), but they share the same purpose.

2. Product View Application (Four websites)

This is not directly related to cross selling or upselling, but an interesting feature. To present better look and feel to customers, four websites provide a very similar product view application. Customers can zoom in, out, drag & drop images to see the detail images.

3. Similar Items (Four websites)

Similar items are often used for upselling. Four websites provide this feature.

4. Customer Review (Two websites)

Two websites let customers write product review.

5. Accessories (Two websites)

Accessories are similar to Suggestion, but it is mostly dedicated to cross selling. Amazon.com and Walmart provide this feature.

6. Similar Categories (Two websites)

This provides not related products but categories. Customers typically jump to different categories and look for specific items in there.

7. Customers who viewed / bought this item also viewed / bought... (One webiste)

This seems an Amazon.com specific feature. If the product lines are huge, the company has lots of customer purchasing data and has Business Intelligence, this is a very nice feature to have.