Redesigning an ecommerce site can be a huge undertaking, especially if, like Amazon.com, you are one of the largest online retailers in the world.
With the growing popularity of tablets, the Amazon.com site is undergoing a redesign to make it more accessible and easier to navigate through a tablet’s Web browser. According to the Wall Street Journal, the new site will be “less cluttered than the old one” (shown below) with “fewer buttons, more white space, and a bigger search box.” Other changes in store include a stronger emphasis on digital rather than physical products. The new site will include a single column of buttons on the home page focused on digital goods.
Currently the new Amazon.com home page is available to a limited number of Web users, and no date has been set for when it will be available to everyone.
Because of Amazon.com’s long track record of retail innovation, including the success of their now ubiquitous product-recommendation tools, the new design will be closely watched by other retailers. We believe they are on the right track, though. As former Amazon manager David Selinger told the Wall Street Journal, “as shoppers migrate to smaller, more interactive screens such as tablets, making the content dynamic and personalized to each individual consumer becomes overwhelmingly important.” He believes this redesign will do just that. It also doesn’t hurt that Amazon is expected to release its own tablet in the coming weeks.
