Data organization challenges many e-retailers

Sarah Naasko

Directing shoppers to the right product sounds like a basic approach to successful web retailing, but many retailers face difficulty organizing their data.  Often the hang-up is a lack of proper data organization—without it, and without consistent product descriptions and image tags, a site's database will be unable to direct shoppers correctly to what they are looking for on the site.

Sarah Naasko, manager of the user experience group at Fry Inc., will address data organization for retail sites at the upcoming Internet Retailer Web Design & Usability Conference 2011.  She will speak in a session entitled “Organizing your data: A place for every byte and every byte in its place” from 1:15 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. on Feb. 14. She will speak with Dayna Bateman, director of e-commerce (Americas) for Crocs Inc.

“Participants will learn how to determine if their data needs re-organizing, how to create a plan for getting that done, the resources required, management approaches to overseeing the project and how to calculate payback on this massive undertaking,” Naasko says.

The session will include real-world examples of how retailers have reorganized their data, illustrating what proper data organization is and how to achieve it.

Internet Retailer’s editors asked Naasko to speak because of her expertise in application and web interface design, which has focused on information architecture and usability research. She has more than 10 years of experience  working with clients to establish business and functional requirements, information architecture and information layout and user flows, and has conducted extensive informal and formal usability testing. As manager of the user experience group in Fry’s Ann Arbor office, she coaches Fry staff and works with clients to establish clean, simple and positive user experiences on their sites. Clients include Apple, Intel, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett Packard, Hunter Douglas and Audi.