Amazon loses leadership in website design (AMZN)

Amazon (ticker: AMZN) reports earnings today after close. The stock has traded down after each of the last seven quarterly earnings reports, so perhaps sentiment is now sufficiently negative that results will meet diminished expectations. Meanwhile, however, Web usability Jakob Nielsen published an article yesterday arguing that Amazon has lost its status as the leader in good website design. His key points:

What's Bad About Amazon

• Cluttered pages.
• Internet-wide search feature.
• Advertising on product pages.
• Lousy UI for specialized product categories.
• Lack of integration with its international sites.
• Co-branding.

What's Still Good About Amazon

• Confirmation email.
• Fulfillment.
• Login screen.
• Relevant cross-sales.
• Sample content.
• Comprehensive product selection.

Jakob Nielsen concludes:

For e-commerce usability, Amazon.com used to be the model. In 2001, we evaluated the usability of twenty e-commerce sites and Amazon was the clear winner, scoring 65% higher than the average of the other nineteen sites. Having the Web's best usability served Amazon well: sales increased by 126% from 2001 to 2004.

For many years, that one thing in e-commerce design was "Do like Amazon." No more.

Amazon has recently changed so much that the average e-commerce site will reduce its usability by emulating its design too closely.

...On balance, Amazon is still the world's best e-commerce site. Many of its strengths, however, are unique to its status and would not carry over to sites that emulate its design.

Nielsen's full article, in which he explains the positives and negatives listed above, is here.

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