Pagination
Pagination has been found to be slow. Moreover, a long list of pagination links often hinders people from browsing the product list. Furthermore, it has been observed that users browse lesser of the entire product list than on websites relying on “Load more” buttons or infinite scrolling. They spend more time majorly only on the first and second page of the list.
Infinite scrolling
With infinite scrolling, users can scroll the product list without any interruption, thus making for an incredibly smooth and seamless experience. There is no surprise then in the fact that users browse more products on websites with infinite scrolling than on sites with pagination or “Load more” buttons. However, one drawback of infinite scrolling is that the users are not able to have access to the footer of the website. Because results are continually loading as the users approach the bottom of the list, the footer will be seen only for a second or two before the next set of results loads, pushing the footer further down and out of the view. This can prove to be a problem for the website owner as the footer may be containing important information like help pages, customer support information, category content, shipping and returns information, and more.
“Load more”
“Load more” is a very simple design that asks the users if they would like to see more of the results related to the category. Thus, the users are not forced to see additional products as in infinite scrolling. Moreover, they have been seen to browse more products on websites with a “Load more” button than those with infinite scrolling.
Which of the three methods is the best?
One of the main benefits of infinite scrolling and “Load more” is that they show an increasing list of products while keeping the old results intact, instead of replacing the older results. This helped users to compare many products easily across the entire list.
So, which loading method out of the three should be used for your eCommerce website? Obviously there is no single method which is perfect in every situation – different situations call for different methods. But ideally, multiple variations of “Load more” are suggested to be used. But, this also calls for different combinations for different instances.
- For categories, there should be a combination of “Load more” and lazy-loading, where the threshold for the “Load more” button should be set to 50 to 100 items.
- For search, the “Load more” button should be used with a dynamic number of results based on relevancy scores. Here, the threshold should be set to 25 to 75 results only.
- For mobiles, the “Load more’ button should be used but, loading a lower number of products by default. Here, the threshold should be set to only 15 to 30 products because of scrolling and screen size issues.
SUMMARY
Out of the three loading methods for displaying products on your eCommerce site – pagination, infinite scrolling and “Load more” buttons, you must choose the right one to suit your business and product types. Learn why “Load more” beats the other two in different scenarios.