When Is 20 Really 3?

Some sites use lists as a way to highlight products or promotions, such as Travelzoo’s weekly “Top 20 Travel and Entertainment Deals” or the myriad of “Top 10” lists out there.  Other sites, however, really need to rethink the strategy of using lists.  Alice.com is one site that advertises “Top 20 Deals” but most of the product categories on that site display far fewer than twenty product deals.  For instance, the “Top 20 Deals” for Alice.com’s Makeup Counter category includes only three product deals:

Think about how visitors to your site are going to feel about your company and your site when you set false expectations for visitors.  You’ve had your designer create attention-grabbing “Top 20 Deals” banners, which site visitors click-thru to see the top 20 deals in a specific category, only to see three deals listed.  Do you think visitors might be disappointed?  What does that say about your brand that your site advertises something that doesn’t exist?  What are the chances visitors are going to exit your site from one of these pages?

How can you improve this site experience?  For the Alice.com example, here are some options:

• Add more products/deals to the list so there are 20 products displayed per category.
• Change the “Top 20” list to a more realistic “Top 3” list.
• Don’t use any “Top” lists.  Use space on your category landing pages to highlight a few products deals.

What strategy does your site currently use to highlight promotions?