Excellent point. What I was trying to point to with my analogy was the fact that places like supermarkets have turned their customer shopping behavior into a science. Too often, ecommerce sites are behind in that respect.

I do have one comment however about your grocery store analogy. Your local store can afford to put the milk in the back because you’re already in the store and you need milk. Who is really going to say, “Shoot, the milk is in the back. Let me get back in my car and drive to the next store”? What you grab on the way up to the register is a bonus for them because you’re not going to leave.

If an online store tried to put “the milk in the back”, they would lose countless visitors to the next store that had the milk up front! This is why we have adopted recommended products and companion products into ecommerce engines. This is our “milk in the back” solution! If we don’t give users exactly what they’re looking for right up front we lose them. Internet behavior right?

The solution to increasing conversion rates comes from adding features that remove the desire/ reason to leave your site. If they are comparing prices, show other prices. If your prices are higher, compare benefits. If your benefits are weak, rework your products to be more competitive.

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