...
- The shop logo. A click on the logo brings the customer back to the front page, from anywhere in the shop.
- The currency block. The customer can choose the currency in which the shop should display prices. This is great in order to compare prices with other international shopssearch engine. Many customers prefer to look for a specific item through the search engine rather than browsing through categories after categories of products. On some online shop, this is even the only way to browser the site's content for most customers.
- Contact and Sitemap. These two links take the customer to specific pages, out of the shopping context: contacting the shop administrators, or viewing a complete list of all the pages that are publicly accessible.
- Bookmark. This is not a link per se, but a JavaScript action: when clicked, it will trigger the customer browser to add the shop as a bookmark. The customer can then choose to complete the action or not.
- The search engine. Many customers prefer to look for a specific item through the search engine rather than browsing through categories after categories of products. On some online shop, this is even the only way to browser the site's content for most customers.Welcome, XXXcurrency selector. The customer can choose the currency in which the shop should display prices. This is great in order to compare prices with other international shops.
- Cart: (empty). A quick reminder of the current status of the customer's cart. Sometimes customers select items while browsing and forget about them after a few pages. It is therefore essential to give them a way to keep these products in mind.
- Welcome. An invitation for the customer to connect to the shop by entering their credentials. If connected, this will display "Welcome, (firstname)".
- "Your account". A link to the user's account, or if not connected, to the authentication/registration page.
- "Cart: (empty)*. A quick reminder of the current status of the customer's cart. Sometimes customers select items while browsing and forget about them after a few pages. It is therefore essential to give them a way to keep these products in mind.
The header hardly ever changes throughout the whole buying experience.
...
The footer gives access to some of the interesting pages that could be useful to a user who haven't found anything interesting to him, and thus has scrolled to the bottom of the screen. Depending on whether the user is connected or not, there can be 4 to 5 blocks of content.
- A list of the shop's categories
- (if connected) Links the main pages of the user's profile.
- The "Informations" block, containing:
**Three links to products lists:- Specials: all the current promotions.
- New products: recently added items.
- Top sellers: most popular items.
- Four links to informational pages:
- Our stores
- Contact us
- Terms and Conditions
- About us
- The "Follow Us" block, containing links to your shop's Facebook and Twitter accounts, and a link to your CMS's RSS feed.
- The "Contact Us" block, containing the address, phone number and e-mail address of the shop.
Note that all these links this content can be changed by the shop owner.
...