E-Commerce Design

There's a litany of sites out there that play one or the other side of the "design" fence when it comes to E-Commerce sites.

On one side, there's the BRAND-ing sites that feel, in order to be a Brand oriented/protected online presence, there e-commerce functionality needs to take a back-seat. For instance, these site (e.g. guess.com, ae.com, abercrombie.com) feel to be a BRAND you must have a big homepage spot, limited navigation (usually a dhtml drop-down menu) and very limited shots of products (usually either nature shots or model shots wearing little clothes). On this side of the fence, these companies feel branding is more important than sales...however, I feel they are actually hurting their brand, by not giving their current customer base (and new visitors) the controls and E-Commerce site standard usability tenents that they've come to expect.

On the other side of the fense, is the E-Commerce "IN YOUR FACE". These are sites that are typically commodity based...so this approach makes sense. Eg. Costo.com, Target.com, Zappos.com, Buy.com, etc.).

A good middle ground, who's sites are brand oriented, but adhere to the latest usability best practices are those sites that mix imagery with clear and fully functional navigation. Eg. Neiman Marcus, Lucy.com, Endless.com, Banana Republic, etc.

The middle brand is proving the best in my opinion because it gives visitors a good brand experience/essense while also not frustrating them....giving full shopping functionality that monetizes the brand rather than worrying about brand impression.