3000 Product Website -Wooohoooo

Ok, I have a question (again) for those with experience in dealing with sites that have TONS of products that is offered on the internet for sale.

My latest dilemma is this. There is this site that already has 2000 products, and will probably grow to around 3000 products. We need to design the site to where it has the most efficient design flow in relation to a customer finding what they want.

We know that when users visit a site, there is ususaly a matter of about (i think) 15 seconds for the site catch the users interest and they explore the site and find what they want, or -get frustrated and move on to someone else.

It is important to reduce the number of times that the user has to drill down to find what they want - so with that in mind, it is a bit difficult ( for me anyways ) to design a site with 45 product categories and sub categories under them. It is sort of like offering thousands of computer parts for retail sale.

Do ya'll have any examples of *excellently* designed sites that easily and effectively present tons of products in a sellable manner???



Thanks,
7

Is there anyway to group the 45 categories? I just reread your post and realized that you have 45 main categories with sub categories.

45 categories is A LOT of categories to read through. buy dot com has A LOT of categories, and if you can group the categories into main categories it should help out a little.

Also, breadcrumbs on every page helps out a lot with the navigation for fast navigation.

Adding a search form on every page would help also. If the user is looking for something specific, instead of going through the website, they can just search for it right when they get to the website.

If you read the book, "Don't Make Me Think" buy Krug.... a guy who has spent lots of time watching how people use websites... He says that people will willingly tolerate navigation that takes them several clicks - if the path that they need to follow is EASY.

And.... you have SEVEN seconds to get the visitor intersted... read his book... it is well worth the time.

Also, kllrwlf is right on with the "search box"... Krug separates website users into a few different groups when it comes to finding something.... those who immediately look for the search box and those who want to click on something. For a website the size of what you are talking about - it would be best to have clear navigation and a search.

I'd start by looking at successful sites and moving from there

try amazon or newegg first

EGOL, is this the book you are referring too?

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...=books&n=507846

Just want to be sure before purchasing. Thanks!