How Jakob’s Law Helps Improve eCommerce Conversion Rates

Depending on where in the world you are reading this email, you will have a different answer to this question…

If you walked into your local supermarket, where would you find the condensed milk?

Sounds stupidly specific.

I have been lucky (or unlucky) enough to live in quite a few different countries.

And one of the strangest little frustrations every time you move is getting used to the supermarket layouts.

You walk in thinking it will be easy because, well, it is a supermarket.

Then you go looking for one simple thing and suddenly realise the logic is not logic’ing.

In one country, condensed milk is near the long-life milk.

In another, it is with baking.

Somewhere else, it’s with desserts.

Failing that, look in the tinned food section.

And you do not realise how much you rely on familiarity until it disappears.

This is Jakob’s Law.

People prefer things to work the way they already expect them to work.

Which is exactly why so many websites make life harder than it needs to be.

• They move things around.

• They reinvent common layouts.

• They make buttons, filters, menus, and product cards behave differently from page to page.

It might look more unique and “on brand”…

But it feels less obvious.

And when a website stops feeling obvious, it slows people down.

It makes them more frustrated.

And that is what bad UX is.

Just something being unfamiliar enough to create friction.

So when I talk about consistency.

I’m talking about making it instantly understandable.

Because customers should be focused on buying.

Not wandering around your website trying to find the condensed milk.

Chat soon,

Peter