Does product sorting on a product web page influence decision-making? ….. The answer is "Yes!"

As a Certified Usability Analyst from Human Factors, Int’l, I get an inside look at the latest scientific and behavioral research on website, web app, and interface designs. I came across a really great article today that’s very relevant to those of you who have an ecommerce site….or are looking into it.

This research seems to be most relevant for big ticket items or high-tech products. It really relates to the convention among UI designers and marketing pros that our buyers don’t want to be perceived as “cheap” by going with the lowest priced, lowest quality item and they don’t always necessarily want to choose the highest-priced item with all the bells and whistles either, for fear of being “had”. This study takes a deeper look at this concept and shows that maybe you can improve sales of those upper-middle tier and higher end items by sorting top down by default in your online store.

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In this research study the question was: Will decisions about which camera to buy on a website be influenced by the way the cameras were sorted on the web page?

Specifically, the researchers Cai and Xu (2008, reference below) considered the perception of quality and price points, and whether presenting the product information in descending order, ascending order, or random order made a difference to the users’ decision making processes….

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Read the full scoop at:
http://www.humanfactors.com/downloads/apr09.asp#research