An Inspiration Collection of 116 E-commerce Product Category Pages

This article is a full chapter from the E-commerce Collection, which contains 21 additional topics and 1,800+ design samples all focused on web applications.

Category pages are one of the many less glamorous aspects of an e-commerce site, but they play a critical role that should not be overlooked. These intermediate pages serve as a pathway to a list of products and sub-categories.

In many cases, the category pages are somewhat neglected, while in others they are highly customized for each category. What many sites fail to capitalize on is the SEO potential these pages offer up. Category pages are the perfect opportunity to inject some relevant content into your site around a specific topic. Even better, these pages are directly connected to the product they correlate to! This means that if you promote your category pages, you are bringing people a direct portal to products they are very likely to be interested in.

Not every site needs category pages, though. As such, you will find that not all of the sites in the sample set are included here. This subset is further broken down based on various patterns that we find on category pages.

Product Grids

By far the most common layout you will find at work on category list pages is the grid. In this case, a repeating row of products is displayed. Obviously, various layouts accommodate a wide range of options here. But the idea is rather simple–show the user a grid of items that fit the current category and allow them to select one. Note that in some cases, you can add an item directly to your cart from this view, while on most sites you still have to continue into the detail page to do so.

Product Lists

In an effort to find at least one subset to reduce the sheer size of the grid section I propose the list view. Granted, the lists here are nothing more then a grid with one row or one column. Regardless, I think it is good to keep in mind that you can show more detail at this level. Consider some of the cases here from sites with enormous product lists, such as Newegg. In this case, the wider list allows for far more information to find its way into the view. And this is great, as it really helps users find the product that interests them. This prevents a great deal of clicking through, backing out, and digging back in. I strongly suspect that such an approach has a very positive impact on sales.

Sub Categories

A natural part of category pages will be the listing of sub-categories! As such,  assembled here is a collection of category pages that focus on helping the user drill down into the most relevant and focused category possible. Helping users find the proper place to look is an enormously important task. As such, I hope the small collection here gets you considering how to most effectively approach this task.

Alternate Layouts

Only a few of the sites featured in this overall collection have what I would consider atypical category layouts. The two here just don’t quite fit the mold, especially the Sassy Duck site. In this case, the category page is non-existent, really. Instead, the user is only able to sift through the items on the same page they view the full blown product. In my opinion, this is a fantastic approach for a product that involves a lot of browsing. After all, it isn’t like you go to buy a purse or bag and know which one you want. Its more of a process, and this site facilitates that. In my mind, a brilliant way to put some really creative thinking into e-commerce design.

But wait, there’s more!

If you enjoyed this set of inspiration, you will love the full collection it comes from. Explore 21 more topics and 1,800 design samples to inspire your web application design work. Check out the full E-commerce Collection for more details.