Any website that’s focused on delivering content to users has pockets where users won’t find exactly what they are looking for. For example, if someone were searching for a rhinestone ipod case that attached to the outside of their jacket and you didn’t have any deals for that particular item, you could return a polite “Sorry, we didn’t find any deals for you” message. Or you could do better. You could construct URLs for the user using their query which would conduct a search on Amazon or another site that would be likely to return something that could keep their flow going. At Judy’s Book, we need to do a better job with this. Currently, we operate in the “we don’t have that” mode and we need to be in the “well, we don’t have that at the moment, but you might find something useful through one of our partners; let us help you get there.”

It isn’t always easy to find an appropriate transition, but then again it’s not easy for users either. Doing work so users don’t have to is generally a good lens with which to look at every page on your site.