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A lot of e-commerce sites offer users a Quick View or Quick Look feature on their product listing page:
I've seen a few sites where they offer user the ability to click to the next/previous SKU from Quick View:
Is this Quick View with nav feature really useful to shoppers or is it just a gimmick that most shopper have no use for?
I think Quickview as an independent function is a necessary evil in that it loads faster than a product detail page. As a necessary step in a purchase pathway, it holds less value, likewise in all ideal cases, the product detail would carry its full weight in converting a transaction.
Your true question of whether next/previous is useful or a gimmick - it's definitely not a gimmick as it inherently doesn't add value to a site. However, if a quick-view is involved choosing the next product or previous isn't bad as a browsing experience - the possible issue would occur after closing the modal and indicating which product has been perused/browsed and which ones haven't.
Quickview is absolutely useful. It can be implemented badly (like anything else), and in fact, your samples are not exactly best-of-breed.
A well-designed QV benefits both merchant and shopper:
Faster loads: Much of the information can be preloaded in the background. Or loaded via AJAX, rather than using a full round-trip.
Smoother UX: Hitting the back button is a much more expensive interaction than closing a modal pane. Personally, I loathe the full page-load round-trip, and often doubt that the back button will bring me back to exactly where I was.
Discounts: some manufacturers don’t allow merchants to display discounted prices until you add the item to your cart. These rules don’t usually apply to the quick-view pane, so a merchant can show the actual price, rather than an apology that they can’t show it.
When done properly, they should make the shopping experience smoother and faster, which can only lead to higher conversion rates.
This really depends on the initial product listing page.
I would definitely be inclined to use this feature if it was relevant and limited to a consumable quantity of products.
As far as quickview...
Here's a great article by Barmard on quickviews.
Though quickviews may help increase conversions, there is an overall poor design on the product listing page leading users to rely on quickviews. We are simply optimizing something that is fundamentally flawed.
What details are missing on the product listing page driving users to rely on these quickviews?
Hope that helps!
I think the BACK/NEXT navigation within the quickview is only useful if the user is in a well defined category or filter where they are trying to compare similar items.
