At Varien we love critiquing ecommerce design. All it requires is some time and a screen-shot grabber. Oh, and a healthy amount of cynicism. This time around we’re comparing the buttons of the top ten internet retailers by revenue. This includes adding to cart, adding to wishlist, and anything else these massive e-retailers think is important enough to include. Order is by revenue, so without further ado…

Amazon
The biggest of the big keeps its checkout buttons where they belong, on the top right of the product page. The most important button is nicely isolated with the yellow box and image of the cart, and then surrounded with blue to make extra-double sure it draws your attention. Nice job of putting the rest of the options below while retaining their second-rate status with gray-scale.

Dell
Dell throws their buttons to the right side, and while it isn’t located in the top corner, it does reside in its own box. The blue text muddies the waters of wishlisting etc., but Dell knows where design really counts and foregrounds the add-to-cart button with eyecatching green.

Office Depot
Popping the buttons below the product description works alright for the Depot, but their color differentiation is all wrong. Why reverse the maroon/white theme for the compare button instead of add-to-cart? When trying to make sales, buying should outshine comparing.

Staples
Staples keeps it simple for Office Managers. Translucent box floats above the color scheme of the product page with button Numero Uno sitting on top. Text wishlisting button completes the package, because they’re Staples and any more buttons wouldn’t be easy.

HP
Ya HP, nice job. No one will miss your bright red money-maker button. But just because it’s noticeable doesn’t mean it’s good design. And yes, the lack of superflous buttons makes the site simple, but wishlisting isn’t superflous anymore. In fact, it is a great way to battle shopping cart abandonment.

Part II comes tomorrow. Included is the best of the ten. Hint: It is not GoTrump.com.