It is extremely important to create a good navigation on your WooCommerce store so that the buyers on your site are able to find the desired products and categories quickly. Once the visitors are on your web store there is hardly few seconds to grab their attention and persuade their purchase decision. Whether a customer is able to find the preferred product quickly on your website plays the decisive role in determining your business success. Creating an easy and effective navigation on your eCommerce store helps your buyers to find a product quickly, improve sales records, and reduce the bounce rate.
Navigation Menu Design and Characteristics
When your visitors reach the homepage of your web store, there are only a few seconds to catch their attention. An easy to understand website navigation helps to keep them on the site and click through the product pages.
Simple and Clutter-free Design
View of the website at the first instance is one of the prime aspects that can retain your customers for long on your website. If the website appears clumsy and disorganized, it can be difficult to understand. Use of pastel shades on the web pages with solid color buttons is useful for creating a lasting impression on the audiences.
Choose Standard Positions for Navigation
Menu Bar and Homepage
According to the research on eyetracking by Eyequant, the ‘eye path’ starts from the top left corner of the website gradually moving through the other parts of the webpage. This is why most of the times, website menu is placed on the top with important pages including the homepage tab on the left side of the menu bar.
Footer and Sidebar
Most visitors tend to search for more items in the footer and sidebar sections. As a general rule, the footer is ideal place for terms and conditions, privacy policy, and FAQs. It is good to place additional links to product category and related information on the sidebar on the category or product description page.
Mobile vs. Desktop Navigation
While the hidden menu with three small lines icon bestows a clutter-free look to your website on the mobile interface, it may not be suited for using on a webpage optimized for desktop viewing. Your audiences may not find the small icon or just ignore it. The hesitation to take another step to find the information on the hidden menu may also influence bounce rate the website.
Clear, Contextual, and Meaningful Labels
Language and labels used to define the navigation menu is important to persuade the visitors to click on the link to see the categories under each menu. Each item should be clear and easy to understand. This helps the audiences to find the appropriate product or category they are looking for. Arrange the drop-down menu under each label properly. The buyer can quickly find the particular label on the menu bar quickly and click to get the product link on the drop-down menu.
Items on the Main Menu Should be Clickable
Many websites place the category names on the main menu bar without any link to a new page. They only allow the audiences to click on the products on the drop down menu of the respective category. Sometimes, it may not be possible to click through the drop-down menu to reach the appropriate product page. To make your website user-friendly, it is good to link each category on the main menu bar to a category page while placing the products or other subcategories on the drop-down menu.
Use Drop-Down Indicator on the Main Menu
Some websites additionally place a down arrow icon (˅) for each item with drop down menu. The drop-down indicator shows the audiences that there are additional items under the specific menu. You can get this feature from the theme settings or use a ‘menu icon’ plugin.
Use Breadcrumbs Menu
Do you remember Hansel and Gretel spreading breadcrumbs on their way to the woods? They used the idea to locate their way back home. The same concept is also applicable for your website navigation.
What are Breadcrumbs?
Similar to the story, the breadcrumbs are the hyperlinked texts path generally placed on the top of your webpage content. This helps the audiences to locate the path through which they have reached the current page and how to get back to the original page again.
Consider the following example:
Home > Products > Categories > Books
You can see that every part of the hyperlinked text path is clickable allowing you to reach other locations on the website as well. On an online store, they help the buyers to compare products in the different categories.
Use Mega Menu to Display Large Product Catalogs
Do you have a large WooCommerce store with plethora of categories, subcategories, and products? If so, consider using mega menu to arrange the navigation to your product pages. The mega menu is useful to show products finely organized into categories and subcategories visible at a glance. You need to divide the products into appropriate categories and subcategories. This will help your customers to find the necessary products quickly an essential step to provide the best buying experience.
How to Create an Effective Footer Navigation
Making your footer navigation effective is a part of website success strategy. Appearing on all pages of your website, this is also a prime location to place links to the most important pages of your website. Before placing the links or information at the footer, consider what information is suitable for this portion of your website.
Many websites also place the links similar to the main menu at the top of the page. This is also a good idea so that the visitor does not have to scroll back to the top of the page again to find the navigation. In general, the audiences expect to fine the following information at the footer:
- About Us
- Contact Information
- Customer Support
- Link to the blog
- Shipping Policy
- Return Policy
- Refund Policy
- Terms and Conditions
- Privacy Policy
- Social media links
Conclusion
Amid the strict market competition, it is extremely important to explore every bit of scope to influence the purchase decision of your potential customer. To create a good navigation on your WooCommerce shop, consider the following aspects:
- What are the most important elements on your website for your target audience
- What information do you think will address their problems and requirements
- How to make it superbly easy for the customers to browse and find the categories, products, and offers?
- Do you have a large product menu? Is there a need to use mega menu under specific product categories?
The navigation on your website is one of the prime factors to provide a good buyers’ experience every time. If your customers find the navigation and purchasing process easy for the first time, they are sure to come back again and again. If your web store is too difficult to browse through and find the products, there are chances of losing buyers to the competitors. To find out the best version to organize the menu on your website, take the navigation A/B test for your website.