{"id":1790,"slug":"quarantine-vendor-faceted-search-adoption-percentages","title":"QUARANTINE — \"60% of websites do not use facets and filters\" / \"only 10% of e-commerce sites use faceted sorting\"","kind":"research-notes","scope":"business","status":"current","audiences":["kevin","candid-team"],"topics":["editorial-discipline","faceted-search"],"reference_body":"**Quarantined claims:**\n- \"60% of websites do not use facets and filters\"\n- \"only 10% of e-commerce sites use faceted sorting\"\n\n**Reason for quarantine:** Vendor (HawkSearch / Nosto) assertions; could not confirm the specific percentages. The underlying Baymard usability figures ARE sound ([[baymard-list-usability-67-90-vs-17-33-abandonment-2015]]) and should be used in place of these adoption-percentage claims.\n\n**Why we keep this note:** The \"most sites don't do this, so doing it is a differentiator\" framing is appealing in sales decks — and exactly the kind of claim that gets repeated without checking. Discipline: use Baymard's abandonment delta as the magnitude citation, not these adoption percentages.\n\n**Source-incentive note:** Both vendors sell faceted-search software — direct incentive to surface low-adoption claims that suggest the market is underserved.","rationale_body":null,"metadata":null,"links":{"outgoing":[{"slug":"baymard-list-usability-67-90-vs-17-33-abandonment-2015","title":"Baymard Institute (2015) — sites with mediocre product list usability saw 67-90% abandonment vs 17-33% for sites with even a slightly optimised toolset","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"hawksearch-few-dozen-products-static-list-fine","title":"HawkSearch (vendor — concedes against interest) — for catalogs of \"just a few dozen products,\" basic search and navigation are adequate","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"}],"incoming":[{"slug":"research-brief-searchable-structured-catalogue-working-tool-june-2026","title":"Research brief: the searchable, structured catalogue as a working tool — when records-not-prose pays off (June 2026)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"}]},"created_at":"2026-06-21T13:17:12.731Z","updated_at":"2026-06-21T13:17:12.731Z"}