Ecommerce Hint #8: Let Visitors Sort Products by Meaningful Criteria

Shopping for video games on the Future Shop website (www.futureshop.com) can be a very frustrating experience.

They let you pick your platform (e.g. Xbox 360), but once you’ve done that, results are displayed alphabetically only:

To find a game, you must know its full and exact title. For example, my nephew told me he wanted “End War” for his birthday. He even sent me a photo of the box, to ensure I bought the right one:

So I looked for it on the Future Shop website, and guess what? Nothing under “E”. Turns out, it’s listed only under its full title, “Tom Clancy’s End War”! Crazy stuff, no?

And what if you don’t have a particular game in mind? What if you want to browse through your favorite types of games and look for ideas? Or perhaps look for the highest-rated games? At Future Shop, you’re out of luck. All you’re given is a long, alphabetical list.

A drop-down menu does allow you to sort by Description, Brand or Price:

However, these simply aren’t the criteria I’m interested in. And regardless of which one I choose, results are still presented in within their alphabetical sub-categories. Very frustrating.

Why not let visitors sort games by the criteria they’re most likely interested in? With video games, for example, it would be helpful to be able to sort by type of game:

• Children’s games
• Driving Games
• Sports
• Fighting
• Real-Time Strategy
• Flight Simulators
• First Person Shooters
• Puzzle games
• Music / Rhythm

Then within each category, it would be great to sort by customer ratings.

Of course, the ideal sort criteria will vary depending on product type. But the concept remains the same: let your customers sort by criteria that make sense to them.