Improving Your Web Site's Navigation - Lessons from the Supermarket

I was recently reminded of some research I'd read a few months back on a study conducted by Wharton researchers that used RFID tags to track supermarket shopping paths. The results were eye-opening for the researchers and have interesting implications for web navigation development--as well as supermarket planners(!). (If you want to read Wharton's overview or order the actual research reference: Tag Team: Tracking the Patterns of Supermarket Shoppers - Knowledge@Wharton)

Among their findings, the study authors report:

• Grocery shoppers don't weave up and down all aisles—a pattern commonly thought to dominate store travel. Instead, most shoppers 'tend only to travel select aisles, and rarely in the systematic up and down patterns most tend to consider the dominant travel pattern.'
• Once they enter an aisle, shoppers rarely make it to the other end. Instead, they 'travel by short excursions into and out of the aisle rather than traversing its entire length.'
• Shoppers prefer a counter-clockwise shopping experience. They tend to shop more quickly as they approach the checkout counters. Shoppers' behavior is driven more by their location in the store than the merchandise in front of them.
• The perimeter of the store—often called the 'racetrack'—is actually the shopper's home base, not just the space covered between aisles. 'Whereas previous folklore perpetuated the myth that the perimeter of the store was visited incidental to successive aisle traverses, we now know that it often serves as the main thoroughfare, effectively a home base from which shoppers take quick trips into the aisles,' the paper states.

Great stuff for supermarket layerouters but what are the implications for your site? Consider these...

• Your visitors don't 'weave up and down' all the links on your site. They are there on a mission and could care less about 99% of your site. They're only interest lies in finding the arugula, so to speak, that they haven't been able to find in any other 'supermarket' so far. What you need to do? Don't count on your visitor's sense of adventure and discovery to find what their looking for. Make it easy for them to know exactly what and where the stuff they need is located on your site.

• Web site visitors are 'dippers' too. They dip in and out of sections of your site looking for the answers to the needs that drove them to your site in the first place. Make sure that your navigation structure supports 'dipping'. Keep a link to your Home page prominently displayed on every page. Use breadcrumbs to allow visitors to know where they are and to easily back out of where they don't want to be.

• Where are the hot spots on your site. What are the high traffic locations and how can you 'merchandise' those areas to best advantage in persuading your site visitors to take the actions that you—and they—want them to take?

• Your Home page is the North Star of your site. Most everything on your site revolves around it. Make sure it's not perceived as a revolving door but as an invitation to delve deeper into what you have to offer as well as a welcome respite when a visitor needs to catch her breath or bearings before 'dipping' further into your site.

So next time your at the supermarket consider how you shop, the paths you take and the factors that influence the decisions you make then see how you can apply your lessons learned at the A&P to your site.

Thanks for reading,

tom.gray@gemsolv.com
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