Ecommerce User Experience Vol. 11: Store Finders and Locators

5th Edition

Mobile & Tablet,Search
• Topics:
Mobile & Tablet
• Mobile & Tablet
• Search

Part of Series: Ecommerce User Experience

Customers often need to visit physical locations of companies to complete transactions. Your website, and any mobile apps, should help them find the most convenient location that offers the services they need. This report features locators that find stores, offices, dealers, branches and ATMs, on desktop and mobile websites and applications.

This 175-page report offers 50 design guidelines based on our user research. Discussions and 162 screenshot illustrations supplement our findings.

Topics covered

• How to present location information to reduce customer calls and to get people in your stores
  • Placement and naming of locator links
  • Global and utility navigation bar link
  • Parameters based on available services and products
• Behavioral patterns for finding locations
  • Search engine usage to find stores
  • Specific information people seek
  • Mobile and desktop considerations
• Directions and maps
  • Interactive locator tool versus location list
  • Integrating maps and directions
  • Forms for location information
  • The importance of third-party mapping maps
• Location listings that are easy to scan
  • Critical information people need to make decisions
  • International considerations
  • Layout of location listings
  • Visual design of location listings

Research Method

The information in this report is based on five separate rounds of ecommerce studies for this and the previous four editions of this report. These studies included a mix of the following methodologies.

• One-on-one usability testing
• Diary-based longitudinal studies
• Eyetracking
• Expert review

Representative users tested 350+ ecommerce websites. The studies took place in the United States, the United Kingdom, Denmark, India, and China