I’m just curious to see how other people shop online… When you see an item that you like, do you then go onto the shop and browse for other items? If so, do you click on a category or just scroll through the whole collection? Some people (like me) group their products by type (ie hair accessories, earrings, adult humour etc), others by recipient (for him, for her, for teachers etc) and others by price (under £10, under £20 etc). In your opinion, which do you like best as a shopper? I wonder if it looks too cluttered if there are too many categories?
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I prefer sections as can go through a theme, then move onto another theme. If all clashed together would get bored looking through things that I did not want, give up and go to a site where sorted.
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I personally, don’t like seeing too many categories. If I have to scroll through lots of them to find what I want then I feel as though I might as well scroll through the whole shop which is what I normally do when I’m over faced by categories.
If I see something I like then I will always go and see what the seller has that is similar and a category that is easy to find is helpful.
as a seller, I have kept my categories to two rows so shoppers can scan them and choose one or scroll a short way to find my general shop items. It feels tidier and more efficient to me both as a shopper and a seller.
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When I’m shopping I dislike seeing masses of collections - by the time I’ve looked through all of the collections I’ve forgotten what the first few were so I’m no closer to deciding which one is closest to what I am looking or (especially if I’m browsing on my phone where the lines are shorter so I have more to scroll through). When shopping I wouldn’t use categories like ‘for him’, ‘for her’, ‘for kids’ etc to narrow down my selection, I’m more likely to use item type categories.
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My answer is really “it depends”… If it’s a site / seller that I’m invested in and regularly buy from, I’ll put up with all sorts of irritations! However, my preference is an awesome search engine so I can ignore all the other filters that may or may not be supplied.
So when I’m shopping on Folksy, what I’ve learned is that using the filters here is well worth the clicks as you’re much more likely to find what you want. However, if I’m searching for something specific, I know that I’m much better doing a google search starting with “site: folksy.com” then single space and my search term, rather than using the folksy search function.
Like Sasha, I don’t like to see lots of collections - 2 rows is enough for me too and I definitely do look through shops when I see something I like (via collections or not) but from my own search data from my online shops, I think that’s unusual for many shoppers - it looks like they look at the thing and that’s it.
I’ll always come back to the fact that an awesome search function is essential if you want your things to be found, whether it’s on a site or getting found on Google - and on a site like Folksy with lots of sellers, seeing pages of the same seller’s designs is the biggest turn off as a shopper ever.
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It depends on how many items are in a shop, if I see something in search I like, click on it and land in that shop I might then go to a collection to see if they have similar, usually if they have more than 2 pages of items or if the items are mixed up.
I have collections by item type, being a little OCD with organising I also have my shop items in order, all my larger bears, then signature bears, kits, etc. When I list a new item I drag it into place in ‘shopkeeping’. It works fine with my shop as I only have 2 pages but with larger shops it might work better if items are mixed so the customer sees a variation of things on the first page. My second page is usually non bears, I.e pincushions and scrap kits or destash items, my main items are on page 1.
I set up with a few categories that were quite generic then if a category seems to be getting more specific I split it off onto one of its own.
When I shop on here I much prefer if a shop has collections - as long as they make sense though! Sometimes those collections can be a bit random feeling, so I think the important thing is to think like a buyer and put yourself into the head of someone who doesn’t know your shop and imagining what they might be looking for.
I’ve got 3 lines of collections, which I don’t think is too many - I make sure there are 6 per line so that it looks tidy, and I label mine according to recipient or occasion. I think it depends entirely on what you make as to how you’d name/collate them though - if I’m looking at a jewellery shop I’d want things split down into type (eg rings, earrings, etc), colours (eg, stone colour), rather than recipient or occasion.
Collections are really help as there’s no other way of searching inside someone’s shop!
Oh, and yes: when I see something I like I often go into the shop to browse and see what else they have!
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