The homepage and upselling with microsites

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Entry pages as homepages
We now come to what might seem like cross purposes: the function of the microsite is to promote a single product or product line while existing within the greater site system.

I've taken part in discussions about microsites existing completely outside the macrobrand's site system. To me that's not a microsite: it's just another website that's not very deep and is highly product- or service-specific.

A design consideration for a microsite promoting a microbrand is to dual brand the website visitor: first with what they came for and second with the traditional brand.

The goal is to create an association that what they came for is encompassed in the more traditional brand. You want the visitor to appreciate that they can’t get one without the other. This is visually accomplished via the use of perspective, something the Old Masters -- and modern designers -- are quite familiar with.

Upselling with microsites
NextStage's European researchers may be the first to document a real world buying behavior manifesting on the web. Many existing ecommerce sites suggest additional items -- upselling -- during the checkout process. These items are gathered in a shopping cart until the person checks out.

The problem is that the existing process is parallel in nature. Several items can go into the shopping cart simultaneously. What was observed was serial shopping: people would select an item, then get a self-suggested item, then get another self-suggested item. The end result is the same; a shopping cart full of purchases. The methodology is entirely different.

Serial shopping becomes a series of microsite traverses when applied to the web. Put differently; presenting several upsells on a single page is too distracting and can result in abandonment.

Instead present a single upsell followed by another upsell followed by another upsell, ad infinitum. The shopping cart fills because the shopper -- no longer distracted -- follows the logic of the upsells and recognizes their value to the final transaction.

Summary
Websites need to be increasingly aware of two things when dealing with micro and macrobranding:

1. Every search or offer based page is a potential homepage
2. It's easier to fill a shopping cart (upsell) when you lead the consumer through the buying process than when you ask them to fill their cart all at once.

Regular readers know that the latter has to do with distractions. Each page becomes a product/query/offering specific homepage; each microsite becomes one to two pages deep. Fewer pages equates to a lesser chance that the visitor will be distracted and pulled away from what they came to do. Fewer screen elements equate to being able to guide the visitor through the buying process more easily.

Additional resources:

• Joseph Carrabis on AllBusiness.com 
• Keep It Simple to Maximize Market Share 
• Intrusive Little Windows or "DeBranding Made Easy" 
• DeBranding blog posts 
• Branding blog posts 
• Branding and Online Ad Placement 
• Branding in Online Video 
• Moving Your Brand into New Markets 
• A New Branding Paradigm, Online and Off 
• Usability Studies 101: Brand Loyalty 
• Shared Traits of Great Web Design 
• Learning to Listen, Learning to See 

Upcoming conferences where Joseph will be:

• XChange 
• DC Emetrics Summit '07 
• Society for New Communications Research Annual Research Symposium & Awards Gala

Joseph Carrabis is CRO and founder of NextStage Evolution and NextStage Global and founder of KnowledgeNH and NH Business Development Network. He was recently selected as a senior research fellow and board advisor for the Society for New Communications Research. Read full bio.