It depicts the importance of taxonomy for any e-commerce website and it's impact on user behavior & experience. It also exhibits key challenges for any online retailer in designing taxonomy for his/her website. The taxonomy evaluation has been done for a big online retailer from USA.

1. Understanding Website
Taxonomy

2. Storyline
• What is taxonomy?
• Primarily shelf spaces of off-line stores
• Left-nav attributes
• Different elements of taxonomy
• Why do we need taxonomy?
• People who reach products by searching vs. finding
• Key considerations in designing taxonomy
• When do you break sub-categories? Potentially look at category conversion rates to
determine
• Nomenclature
• How deep and how extensive?
• Sort order options - alphabetically or by popularity
• Recommendations for furniture category

3. Taxonomy is your (online) store layout…

4. Taxonomy is User Experience

5. By definition
Taxonomy is…
• a hierarchical topic structure where items are assigned through dual basis of
classification and categorization
• Facilitates retrieval & find-ability in both browsing and searching
• Supports tagging/meta-data/indexing of content
• In a off-line stores it is called “shelf space”, where in online stores it is called as
“Left navigation attributes” or “Facets”

6. Or Simply this . . .
Labelling
content &
assets
Enhances
find-ability
Something
IA’s do
Organizing &
classifying
stuff
A practice
centered
around data
Behind the
scenes work
Facet / filter
creation

7. Typical characteristics of an Ecommerce
Taxonomy
• Separate hierarchy for each department or broad product category
o Typically 5 – 20 top categories/hierarchies
o Typical hierarchy depth of 3-4 levels
o Typically 3 – 20 terms/subcategories per level
• Ordering/arrangement is not always alphabetical, rather popular or
logical
• May also have metadata or facets, typically at deeper hierarchy levels

8. Few Samples
29+
18+
Top Level
Categories
14+
15+
14+

9. Sub-categories in hierarchies

10. Metadata/Facets

11. Why do we need taxonomy ?
Taxonomy and Facets enables
• Find-ability
 To lead a consumer to the right area and help him/her to find the product s/he is looking for”
 Good taxonomy facilitates assisted navigation across the website
• Expedites decision making
 Structured product information  Cleaner and distinct facets  More options
 Better facets  Better left hand navigation  Ease of filtering & selection

12. Key considerations while designing taxonomy
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Correct classification structure ?
When do you break sub-categories?
Nomenclature
How deep and how extensive ?
Sort order options - alphabetically or by popularity

13. Classification structure

14. Category classification influences Shopping
behavior
“A sofa” or “a sofa for
living room”
Bedroom
Sofas
Kitchen
Chairs
Furniture
Furniture
Living Room
Beds
Bathroom
Tables
Classify categories the way your shoppers like to shop

15. When do you break sub-categories?

16. Sales
Category conversion
rate
Low category - conversion rate indicates:
Conversion Rate
Look at the conversion rates
Need for more subcategories
• Large number of assortments under the category
• Possible need to re-categorize or break the category into more logical subcategories
Re-categorization will aid more appropriate performance insights for the
category

17. Nomenclature

18. Name is the game
Unorthodox naming convention can leave
your customers confused
Result = Lost customer

19. Category names should be consistent with your
physical store
Offline
Online
Will help Migrators
Why ?
Homogeneous nomenclature will assist “loyal offline shoppers” to adapt to
online shopping easily

20. Industry standard naming convention will
comfort new customers
Your Website
Competitors
Why ?
New Customers will adapt easily to your online store

21. Depth and Extensiveness

22. Extensive category hierarchy enhances
navigation as well as user experience
Level of hierarchies
2
3
4
Category insights
Poor
Moderate
Highly detailed & accurate
Website Navigation
Manual – Highly Dependent
on search
Moderate find-abilty
Assisted navigation
Facet Count
Very High
High
Low
Customer Attrition Risk
Very High
High
Low
Chances of poly-hierarchy
Low
High
High

23. Deeper does not always mean better
Extra deep category structure will lead to:
Too many clicks for
customers
Complex categorization
of products
Mazy Navigation
High Risk of
Customer
Attrition
Poor User Experience
Poor category insights
Long breadcrumb trails
How do you know if the category structure is too deep ?
Category conversion rate
Very low
Assortment size
Small
Look at
Last level sub categories need
to be consolidated

24. Sort Order

25. Left to Right & Top to Bottom. . .
Discovery
• Eyes follow a general left to right and top to
bottom while surfing through a webpage
I take interest
• Category arrangement is a key influencer of user
behavior and navigation on a website
• Should be aligned directly with your business
objective/strategy
I scan
• Sub-category expansion should ideally be
arranged left to right
Search
• Top level categories can be arranged from top to
bottom

26. Sorting Options
You can sort either by:
• Popularity: Top selling categories can be presented headmost
• Assortment Size: Categories are positioned in the descending order
of their assortment size from top to bottom
• Alphabetical: Categories can be listed in plain alphabetical order

27. Lets evaluate taxonomy of one of the largest
multi-brand online retailer (US based)
Count
Top Level Categories
11
Level 2
63
Level 3
276
Level 3 - Visible on homepage
190
86 level-3 subcategories
are not visible on
homepage

28. Lets look specifically at furniture category
Key Observations:
 3 Level hierarchy
 Category nomenclature in compliance to industry standards
 12 L2 categories  No unanimity in categorization methodology
 Around 86 L3 categories  Visible to customers only if they click through one of the L2s
 Alphabetical sort order  Does not really enchant customers

29. Categorization methodology is a concern
Categorized by Rooms
 Ideal Categorization methodology
Categorized by Utility
 These should ideally be classified as L3s
Categorized by Service offers
 Can be included as a L3 under each of the
rooms
 Already included on the homepage under
clearance section
 Increases polyhierarchism

30. Ideal categorization for furniture category

31. Questions
Salman Shaikh
Business Analyst – Marketing Operations
salman.shaikh@iksula.com