Blog Design: Lessons from Amazon

In a televised lecture titled “Amazon.com: A Data-Driven Enterprise” presented to Computer Science students at the University of Washington, Dennis Lee of Amazon opened the kimono a bit and revealed some essential layout/positioning facts that their research has revealed. Some of the more actionable conclusions included:

Position matters: At the most basic level, Lee reinforced what experienced Internet marketers already know about positioning of elements: “little changes in where things are can affect conversion significantly”.

Simplicity may not sell. After repeated testing it was surprisingly clear that 3 column layouts sold product better than 2 column layouts. On the 2 column pages, orders were “significantly” compromised. Abandonment went up and adds to cart went down.

Top center rules. Lee confided that at the regular meetings of the category VPs, the main turf battle was over who would receive top center position on the home page.

We’ll be covering this topic in depth at the next Blog Business Summit. Let us know where we should host it.