Information Architecture - Simply put, it is the science of organizing a website so that visitors can easily find what they are looking for, it is an extremely important aspect of running an online store that should not be overlooked. As pioneering information architect Jakob Nielsen put it, "If the customer can't find the product, the customer can't buy the product . "
These are some areas of your online store that you should pay close attention to when reviewing your design.
Develop a clear purpose
Even if you've been in business for a while, it's good to get back to basics every now and then. Ask yourself: What is my site for? Each site must have a clear purpose, whether it is to inform, persuade, entertain or, in the case of e-commerce, sell.
Keep the purpose of your site in the back of your mind while structuring your content and navigation. In a site where the primary goal is to get visitors to the checkout, every step a user takes should be part of a clear path to get there. You may have several other subgoals within a site (to inform your customers about a major ethical issue, for example) and that's fine, as long as you can see how each content fits into the larger purpose of your site.
Organize your products
Before adding any products to your store, consider how many products you want to sell and how to organize them . Keep in mind that while having more products can lead to more traffic, having too many products (especially if they are not well organized) can overwhelm and confuse customers.
Creating collections through your Shopify admin is a great way to help your customers find products and navigate your store.
Simplifying navigation
Navigation is crucial to the success of your online store and something to consider as soon as possible. By making it easy for customers to find what they're looking for in as few clicks as possible, they're much more likely to convert and buy from you in the future.
Since your navigation bar appears on every page in your store, this is a great place to start reducing the visual clutter that will carry over to every page of your Shopify site.
Reducing the navigation elements to the essentials can also make your site more user-friendly.
A good technique is to organize all your products under a single "Buy" menu item using a drop-down menu . It's also a good way to organize all of your store's informational content, such as your "about us" and contact page, as well as shipping terms and policies, by grouping these related items in a sub-menu under a single link on the main menu.
If this turns out to be too restrictive for you, carefully consider each item you add to the top-level navigation bar and the value it brings to helping customers locate the products they are looking for.
Find out where your customers are going and where you want them to go
Analytics provide an incredible window into how your customers behave when they visit your site. In a perfect world, they are following a clear path from their landing page or landing page to the content they are looking for, then heading straight for checkout. But is that what is really happening? Or are they stuck in a complicated navigation structure or bounce once they see the checkout process?
To create an information architecture that keeps users more focused on the end goal, imagine your customer purchasing scenarios or user flows. Remember that not all buyers will have the same motivations or behaviors.
Customers in each of these modes require different navigation features to be successful, so think about how your site looks from each of your perspectives. If someone knows exactly what they are looking for, they will most likely want to type specific terms in a search box. If they're just browsing, they may not know what they want, but your site should have some suggestions. If someone wants to go back to something they have discovered in the past, it should be easy to find.