From shop window to launch-pad.

One of the current trends is to think of our home pages more and more as true launching-pads which will help us find the products and services we want to find, instead of simple shop-windows with offers and promotions.

Particularly on sites with a huge range of products…

- from online auction systems such as Mercadolibre or Deremate,

- through websites with job offers such as Infojobs.net or Zonajobs,

- to online stores with a huge range of products, from multi-product stores like El Corte Inglés to bookstores like Casa del libro – there is a clear need to find a new approach for the role that the search engine plays in all this. The fact is that the user – given the need he/she has to browse through product categories which are not always intuitive and a culture where we Google anything that moves - is showing more and more a tendency to use internal search engines.

Although there is no data available, any of the examples given above reveal how between 30% and 60% (in some cases 80%) of their users use their search engines as the first resource for browsing. Given this, here are a few of my thoughts:

1. Shouldn’t we think of using the search engine as a central element on the home page, offering multiple options without needing to turn to an advanced search (very few users use it the first time round)?
2. Shouldn’t we think of using browser routes to help find products by style, target, brand, shopping situations or requirements, and minimise the display of offers which are highly unlikely to interest our dear user?
3. Shouldn‘t we start to simplify our home-pages and eliminate unnecessary elements? Shouldn’t many of the offers and product recommendations live on the inside pages as category home pages or search engine response pages?
4. Shouldn’t we highlight more the products that people look for most, the ones they buy most off, the ones at the most reduced price or the ones which are about to be depleted?

It is interesting to see how the home pages of certain websites evolve over time.
Monster – the more time passes – it begins to understand how important the search engine should be and how it should go from the shop-window to being a true launch-pad.

Monster’s home page in early 2005.

Monster’s home page today.

14/6/2007