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Not sure what the technical UX term might be, but I have been using the term "bifurcation" to explain to clients what they are asking. Here's the crux:

The landing page needs to present two options: Content hub (primary goal) and Shopping experience (ultimate goal).

The content hub is where a user can consume different media types and engage with the "brand". Users eventually end up in the shopping experience at their time of need.

The shopping section of the website exists on a separate URL.

What's the best experience for this? Couple of thoughts:

  • Create an initial wall where the users make the choice. This seems jarring and unexpected. Could deter users from going further. But the choice is plain and obvious.
  • Bring the users into the content hub experience and create a way for users to "choose" to shop (utility nav link, promo on the page, etc.).

Thoughts? Thanks.

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    You can't label primary and ultimate as goals, only one option can be your primary, everything else is secondary. Your primary is the PURPOSE of your website, and if that is selling then that is your raison d'etre and what you should focus on, by not doing so you invite confusion - hence your post.
    – DarrylGodden
    Jan 18, 2019 at 9:21
  • when you say primary and ultimate, are you talking about order? Because primary and ultimate would actually be the same, kind of what @DarrylGodden says
    – Devin
    Jan 18, 2019 at 22:59

2 Answers 2

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It sounds like the interaction must flow through the content experience where the user will be exposed to enough content that they make a purchasing decision.

The ecommerce aspect needs to exist in a seamless way from the content experience which in pretty much all ecommerce models I know is the same thing, or at least very similar.

"Bring the users into the content hub experience and create a way for users to "choose" to shop (utility nav link, promo on the page, etc.)."

Yes, this sounds like the interaction.

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  • Thanks. I realize that we cannot have two goals in the experience, but needed to explain that to the client. I think we got it figured out with a focus on the content hub and allowing plenty of opportunity within the content to get to the shopping experience.
    – Hellbotica
    Feb 13, 2019 at 17:08
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Generally there are two sides to this, which you have to make work together:

SEO driven

Users will find your content or products through Search (SEO). They'll land on a page that is not your home page. If they are unsure of where to go next, or want to 'audit' the trustworthiness of the site, then they'll click home.

Your homepage should convey trust and a 'complete picture' in whatever that means for you. Give them the options to flow back the topic of the page they came from. But also fgive them other CTAs and snippets that reinfoprce the big picture of your message and mission.

Brand Discovery

Your users might get to you home page because they see an ad or some other mention of your product not-via-search. Those users will come directly to your home page to sniff you out. The page mage need to advocate your mission enough, as well as the content education options, and products, enough that thy will explore.

This is a mix of advice about the first case, but with a bit more consideration for this non-SEO sourced traffic.

Which version of the homepage you should choose to develop will be driven by how much traffic you get from each source. If first-arrival inbound traffic is predominantly the homepage, then you avae the latter case.

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