This week’s featured Magento website is Zumiez.com. Zumiez offers apparel aimed at young skiers and snowboarders. If you look at their website it is clear that they know who their target market is and they take full advantage of it in their design. Let’s take a look at what makes this site work and what you can take from it.
The Design
Zumiez offers a design that perfectly explains who they are and what they are all about; outdoor life and standing out from the crowd. They make it very obvious, just by browsing any page and viewing it for a few seconds, who their target market is and they use their product images (as seen in the ‘skate’ section) and content in the ‘Street League‘ section to provide a feeling of community for those who are in the skating/snowboarding world.
The background image and the almost all white design also give you the feel that you are back out on the slopes instead of your living room. I would say that while the design is ‘busy’ with what feels like one million purchase options it certainly does a great job in inviting their target market.
The Shopping Experience
One of the nice things about this website is it offers you an option to shop by multiple categories, and sub categories, without you having to click on any part of the navigation. This feature is on display on the left side of the navigation when you visit any of the pages that are listed on the top navigation menu such as ‘guys’. If you click on that link, or just click here to view the page in a new tab/window, you will see that you can shop by clothing sub categories, clothing on sale and even by the ‘deals’ they are offering based on different price rules such as ‘4 for $90 outfit’.
One of the smartest things you can do with magento is take advantage of its built in ability to create navigation options for your customers that are targeted to their needs by offering sub categories. Another great idea that this website offers, and it is likely due to a custom module developed or purchased, is the ability to shop by reviews. This is a terrific idea because it allows people to see what people have purchased and see why they liked the product. A testimonial from another purchaser will have more credibility with visitors than praise that comes from the owner of the website who gushes over their own products.
Interactivity
I prefer an interactive site over a static one but I do not believe in overwhelming the visitor. What makes this website work so well, in my opinion, is how intuitive the buying experience is for the visitor. If you visit a product page it makes it very clear, using javascript, that you have made a purchase attempt by offering a ‘loading’ icon while it adds the product to the shopping cart and, at the top of the page, you will notice a white box appear that confirms your addition to the shopping cart. This is a terrific idea because it doesn’t force the user to refresh when they place an order.
The rest of the site allows you to view more information about a product, as well as navigate the website, without any complicated interactivity which is nice because, for the most part, people just want to learn about a product, buy it and leave.
If you are going to focus on the user experience and offer interactivity do it during the ‘buy now’ phase because that is when you want to make sure that they are 100% clear on how the process works. For instance, if you try to order a product without choosing a size, it makes it very clear that you are missing an option. If you place an order, it notifies you via a small window at the top right of your screen. If you are viewing a product that is low on stock it uses easy to read green font to show you how much of that product is left in inventory.
Summary
If you are looking for inspiration for a website that gets to the point, is not going to overwhelm the user with a million different functions and knows how to address the target market then I suggest you take the time to study this site because I think it does everything it needs to do.
It offers content with videos, it makes it easy to navigate, it offers an easy to view and quick loading design that fits the theme of who they are, as a company, and it makes the process of placing an order relatively easy. Best of all it uses Magento’s power to offer an intuitive browsing experience that lets users learn more about the website’s most popular products all while being able to shop for deals without having to waste a few clicks in the process because the entire process is available to them upon page view. While this is a simple website to look at it is also a perfect example of how to sell online.
Hopefully the K.I.S.S approach that this website uses will influence you going forward should you be looking to build a new e-commerce website or even if you are looking to improve the one you already have.
Magento Development Lead
