Why More B2B Sites Need Mega Menus

For business to business (B2B) sites with a lot of categories and options, an expandable menu offers an opportunity for structure and easy navigation.

However, some business owners shy away from mega menus because they worry drop downs turn off customers or that users won’t fully understand how they work.

E-commerce sites frequently use mega menus, with 88 percent of sites surveyed featuring an expandable menu of some sort. Businesses have been slower to jump on the same bandwagon. However, if you are a business with a wide range of options, a mega menu might be just what you need to guide users through your site smoothly and enhance the overall user experience (UX).

If you’re on the fence about whether or not to add a mega menu to your site, here are seven reasons you should consider doing so today:

1. Educate Your Users

When you serve businesses, part of your task is educating business owners on how your services help their company. You may have a wide range of content and tools on your site to help your clients. However, presenting the tools in a way that is easy to navigate isn’t as simple. A mega menu breaks the help into categories and allows you to expand on a variety of topics.

The North Manchester, Indiana H&R Block office does a good job of creating a mega menu for business owners that educates. Information is broken down into three main categories titled “Ways to File,” “Tax Questions and Tools,” and “Tax Reform.”

Hover over any of those choices and an expanded menu drops down which offers options such as a tax prep checklist. The mega menu is smaller than summer but quite effective for the target audience.

2. Reduce Bounce Rate

Have you ever landed on a B2B website and grown so confused that you just left? You aren’t alone. It takes time, effort and money to drive traffic to your page, so the last thing you want once they land there is for them to bounce away. A solid navigation structure improves the user experience and keeps visitors on your site browsing through the different features you offer.

3. Highlight Specific Product Lines

If you offer a wide range of products, then a mega menu allows you to list out specific categories that match another product or type of business. Users don’t have to poke around your site for countless hours or phone you to figure out what they need. It’s all laid out in the expanded menu and easily found.

Advantage Outfitters offers a variety of add-ons for commercial vans. You’ll find shelving, dividers, wall liners, ladder racks, and floor mats. Because the add-ons are highly specific to each vehicle model, their mega menu breaks down the type of van and then lists out the different categories of accessories. This makes navigation simple for users.

4. Add Visuals

People process visual elements much more quickly than words alone. A mega menu gives you an opportunity to utilize icons for navigation in addition to words. You’ll have more space with which to work, so you can add photos, illustrations or any other element you’d like. Adding visuals makes your site more interesting and keeps users more engaged.

5. Offer Better Filtering Options

An expanded menu also gives you an opportunity to offer better filtering options to your site visitors. Separate products out by size, color, purpose or any other categorization you can think of. A good way to decide how best to filter down your offerings is by looking at your data on how customers already shop.

For example, if a business owner calls up asking for one of your products, what is the information they provide and how do they describe what they are looking for?

Best Access Doors breaks their business product offerings into categories such as door type or door size. If you know the type of door you’re looking for, you click on “type of door” and a mega menu drops down which offers options such as fire rated access doors, security access doors, and roof hatches. On the other hand, if you know the size of the door but are still determining the type, you can simply search by size in a similar mega menu.

6. Speed Up Site Response Time

Searching through countless options or waiting for an onsite search feature to activate is time-consuming. Consumers today are impatient and won’t wait around too long to find what they want. A mega menu makes browsing faster because all categories are a hover or click away. There is no wait time for a search feature involved when all the categories are a click away.

7. Dig Down as Many Levels as Needed

Another feature of the mega menu that works well for businesses is the ability to use categories, subcategories, and even sub-subcategories. You can break down the mega menu into as many headers and subheaders as needed to highlight your products and services. Your mega menu can be simple with only a few options or expansive such as sites like Amazon and Walmart, offering dozens of categories and thousands of options.

WebstaurantStore offers a wide selection of equipment for restaurants. Their mega menu drops down from the top categories and offers additional options. For example, under “Furniture,” which is a fairly broad category, you’ll find more specific offerings such as outdoor restaurant furniture, folding tables and chairs, and restaurant seating.

Is a Mega Menu Right for You?

If you offer more than a few products or services, a mega menu gives you the full-width of the screen to highlight what your company offers other businesses. If you still aren’t certain if a mega menu would resonate well with your audience, test out a simple one and conduct split testing to see how your site visitors respond. A well-designed landing page pulls in users and makes them want to stick around. How well is your menu performing?