On the Web: An E-Commerce Holiday Checklist, Part 1

Be sure to review your refinements as well. Due to the onslaught of guided navigation, many companies have gotten really sloppy with this. When people choose "sort by best-sellers" from your drop-down menu, for example, they should get your top-selling products, not a hodgepodge of garbage. Same goes with your new products. If someone is sorting by "new" and they get all your items from fall 2008, it diminishes your search credibility — one of the top two reasons why users abandon searches. Again, if you take your top 100 searches, you'll get a good indication of how you're measuring up in this area.