Edgecase Analysis: Health And Beauty, Apparel And Home Furnishings Retailers Offer Lowest Number Of Online Shopping Navigation Options For Shoppers

New Edgecase report shows vastly different navigation standards across the board; electronics and office supply retailers provide the largest number of navigation options

Edgecase, the platform behind today’s most inspiring shopping experiences, recently announced the results of a recent study based on an audit of 220 websites across 10 retail segments to identify benchmarks for how online shoppers are able to navigate in the digital realm. The study compared those results to existing attribute categories of current Edgecase retailers in the same categories to show the current disconnects in navigation standards.

Highlights of the report include:

• The retail segment with the lowest average of categories was health and beauty, with only brand, price and features as the three most common attributes. Edgecase clients in the same segment offer online shoppers 17 different navigation filters including skin color, ingredients, texture and customer rating.
• Other low performing retail segments include home furnishings, apparel and accessories with an average of only three attribute categories.
• Online retail websites in the electronics segment offer the highest number of attribute options with an average of seven categories that, aside from price and brand, include mega-pixels, condition and features. Edgecase clients in the electronics segment, however, offer online shoppers with 28 different attribute categories that range from frames per second to storage media and image stabilization.

As a leader in adaptive navigation, the Edgecase team has found that much of the critical data that shoppers desire already exists, but it is dispersed “here and there” across a retailer’s site in the form of product pages, user guides, customer reviews, social media and videos. A “scatter-shot” approach can leave shoppers going in circles or back and forth between grid walls and product pages to get the critical information they need. The study from Edgecase shows that the rich context of the human language and how we use it to make decisions is vastly under-represented.

“The typical online shopping experience is shockingly poor, where a 5% conversion rate is considered fantastic and less than 60% cart abandonment is seen as a breakthrough. What’s missing in the online store is humanity,” said Garrett Eastham, CEO, Edgecase. “In order to facilitate greater online sales conversions, retailers need to identify the gaps in shopper communication and work to create a common language between merchandisers and the individual.”

Click here (http://info.edgecase.io/lost-in-translation) to download the full report from Edgecase.

About Edgecase
Edgecase is the platform behind today’s most inspiring shopping experiences. By allowing shoppers to communicate their unique preferences, context and shopping style, we empower them to discover products on their own terms. Using a proprietary combination of machine learning and human content curation, the Edgecase platform enables shopping experiences as unique as the brands we work with. Our solutions integrate new and evolving layers of merchandising data to fuel product discovery, omni-channel engagement and online experiences that today's shoppers crave.

Edgecase was founded in 2012 and is based in Austin, Texas. Our team is made up of experts in retail technology, machine learning and natural language processing. Together, we’re committed to creating memorable shopping experiences and propelling what's next in retail. Forward-thinking retailers using Edgecase include Crate & Barrel, Golfsmith, Kate Somerville, Rebecca Minkoff, Urban Decay and The Wasserstrom Company.