Archive for February, 2010

To navigate in the header? Or not to navigate in the header?

826 days
by in Consultancy, E-Business, eBay

Ok, I did attempt a Shakespearian mash up but it didn’t really work.

So, Amazon and Paypal killed of their side navigation a while ago and the subject came up as one of my clients competitors has header based navigation and its doing quite well for them. They also have a ‘who are you shopping for’ style category tree.

His client base are pretty well honed web users and it was decided to free up website real estate by removing the left hand side navigation – well at least on the home page.

We all know that eye tracking studies have shown us the user is more likely in a shopping environment to view the header first, the scan the first few sections of the middle text then most likely over to the left hand side. Which does indicate that even though header navigation is best, the left hand side still has life in it.

So what advantages does having header navigation give us in a retail environment?

1. Free’s up homepage retail space for offers, promotions and the like.

2. User responsive and dynamic – header navigation would often include dropdowns and active sections – who doesn’t like a fancy drop down nav eh?

3. Horizontal navigation structures tend to have provide a more streamlined compact experience for users – more user focused.

4. Compacting the navigation limits the user to preform the task in hand – find the item/category they had in mind when they landed on your site!

5. Vertical category structures allow us to get carried away and forget the user experience.

Desktop applications have been getting us used to header based user controls for a while, the line is blurring between desktop and online. Users have come to expect the top of a website or application to provide pathways to the most important sections of the site and critical functionality like search.

Sites that use header based navigation to full effect? eBay and Apple to name a few! – But eBay still returns to add in side navigation once the user has chosen their direction from the home page. Not everything can always go in your header navigation, there is not enough room!

So draw your users initially to your header based navigation and quickly get them to where they want to be, you have roughly a second or two to get your customer to perform the desired call to action – so no time to waste getting them to read down a foot long left hand side category list!

Are we loosing a Rachel? eBay changes Powerseller support!

827 days
by in eBay

I am not going to re-type what has already been reported so read here:

http://tamebay.com/2010/02/bye-bye-personal-account-managers-hello-top-customer-care.html

You might remember this post about one of my clients hand his struggle with TRS :  http://kidsontalks.com/2009/10/07/ebay-seller-fraud-exposed-dsr-fiddling/

But eventually his account manager came though with the goods and had been a diamond ever since.

All that hard work and relationship building will now be replaced with a support line. Will TRS still get a dedicated PAM?

Lets hope this move just re-jiggles around the personal account managers and doesn’t add them to the dole-queue!

Social Media – Facebook and Twitter

827 days
by in E-Business, Social Shopping

OK, so I have decided to add a few shops to my twitter feeds and become a fan on facebook too. Mostly to monitor their tactics, do I like them? Do they tweet too much?

This is a blog post of what I hate:

- 7 tweets all in one go instead of nice regular ‘daily updates’ I only end up reading one of them anyway so it is best to deliver my content in chunks so you are always on my mind.

- Same goes for facebook, especially with the new format. I want to know about deals and things, but I don’t want it to get in the way of my social networking.

- Too many links – specially for an iphone user like myself – fat fingers make it hard to distinguish between links! One link per tweet/update please!

- Full links and not compressed links please, this should be essential – tinyurl exists for a reason!

For me facebook and twitter is very iphone based but I imagine this is the same for most smart phone users. I like to add shops and companies for updates, but when I get flooded I tend to switch off completely.

If I see one tweet or update per day the company stays in my conciousness and I think I of them when I carry out related tasks (mostly shopping….)

So keep your company/brand in your customers conciousness, but be gentle – don’t overwhelm or you will have a switch off effect.

So now being a powerseller will be as hard as a TRS…

836 days
by in eBay

Come on eBay, the hardest and most abused part of the Top rated seller system is the DSR minimums.

So to become a Powerseller in short your DSR’s need to be 4.6 or above and your DSR ‘lows’ to be as follows:

Service requirements for PowerSellers Above Standard eBay Top-rated
Max. number of low star ratings* (meet only one criteria to qualify) Rate or Count Rate or Count
Item as described Max: 1% Max: 3 Max: 0.5% Max: 2
Communication Max: 2% Max: 3 Max: 0.5% Max: 2
Dispatch time Max: 2% Max: 3 Max: 0.5% Max: 2
P&P charge Max: 2% Max: 3 Max: 0.5% Max: 2

But as the volume of sales needed to qualify has lowered creating the impression that more will qualify, it means that one transaction that goes a little wonky, can cost a seller their discount and powerseller status.

The minimum is only £170 per month to qualify or 100 transactions, so sellers with low prices and high volume should be quite safe but those who sell a lower volume of higher prices items?

Well we all know WHY eBay is putting this in place, because for the first instance, all its outlets can’t get or keep TRS as well as most other sellers, you have it one month and you loose it the next because of the snow.

The powerseller programme worked. This system of minimum ‘low’ DSR’s is the most abused and fickle condition and should be scrapped.

Hairfreax only needs 32 more transactions per 12 months to become a bronze powerseller, and only does it for fun anyway!

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