Follow the Standard E-Commerce Pattern

If you’re selling items online—physical goods or digital items—then, like it or not, you’re in the world of e-commerce. The word e-commerce already seems hopelessly outdated, but it’s the best word we’ve got to mean “selling things online through a website or app.”

Now, because e-commerce generates revenue for businesses in a very direct way, it was one of the first areas of online experience to really get deep focus and attention from UX professionals. Even marginal gains could increase revenue by significant volumes, so it was worth putting in the effort of user testing and A/B trials.

The e-commerce pattern we’ve arrived at from the past 25 years of the consumer web is both well-refined and well-understood by users. Getting a customer through a purchase funnel is difficult, with many opportunities for “cart abandonment,” which means that it has to be as frictionless...