The Importance of Site Search for Ecommerce

Accurate and Effective site search functionality on a eCommerce website is an important functionality towards customer acquisition

 

With changing user behavior, organization now are keeping more focus on site search , as per studies site search contributes to 60-70 % of e-commerce shopping sites revenue and user intent towards conversion is observed to be on the higher side.

Search terms that consumers type into a site search box can provide huge insight into the users’ behavior and provide many invaluable data to be learned from.

Based on insights from industry, I will be summing up 4 major reasons to have dedicated support for site search.

• High Purchase Intent of User using Site Search
• Best Search Experience for High User Engagement
• Autocomplete can boost a company’s conversion rates
• Zero Results Searches are cradle of business insights

Used successfully, this information can increase conversions and improve customer retention.

Let go though them one by one

High Purchase intent for Search User

People who use site search are more likely to purchase compared to those who use standard navigation, as they are shopping with intent.

They are often in late-stage buying mode as information gathering is completed, and they want to view product content to satisfy other buying motivators such as price, availability and delivery charges.

These consumers have found the website and are attempting to find something specific. The search box comes with the expectation of delivering relevant results, and consequently promotes the search option as a preferred choice.

The expected result is a frictionless journey to a product detail page.

Conversion rates through site search can be up to 50% higher than the average. According to a recent our blog on site search, search performs very well when put into place on a site.

As per our study on an popular ecommerce sites Visitors converted over at 4.5 % the websites’ average of 2.3% which is over 2 times more effective. Consequently, visitors using search contributed 13.8% of the revenues.

Industry tip:

Site search needs to be data driven. It can only work if the site has been tested time and time again.  Every little change to the site needs to be tested before implementation to ensure conversions.

Best Search Experience for High User Engagement

Site search is a key interaction point for customers, and can make or break a shopping experience for them. Customers who can’t find the information they’re looking for leave the site unsatisfied.

Site search can provide data and content services, customer analytics data and merchandising functionalities such as promotions.

When used by shoppers intent on finding the right product, search punches above its weight in terms of sales and conversions. Typcially, up to 30% of visitors will use the site search box, and each of these users is showing a possible intent to purchase by entering product names or codes.

By offering a user-friendly site search experience, businesses can help customers find items they’re looking for in a more streamlined way. This places visitors in control of their own shopping experience which helps increase customer loyalty and makes then more likely to convert and return to the site for more purchases.

Industry tip:

If you know what speed connection the user is on, you can tailor the homepage accordingly. Make the experience a friendly one by omitting videos and images that may take too long to load. Have the search box centrally located, especially on mobile. It’s all about encouraging them to make that sale.

Displaying search suggestions on the search results page can give visitors more ideas for what to search for. These suggestions can encourage visitors to view more products.

A post written earlier in the year on site search choice states that about 25% of site visitors will click on a search suggestion.

Grid views are useful for product searches that generate many results. By allowing visitors to choose which format they prefer, they will enjoy having the flexibility in how results are displayed.

An easy journey for a customer can ensure:

• Improved customer retention and loyalty, which comes as customers know they can find products more easily.
• Improved branding, as improving user experience means more customer satisfaction, and a better customer journey compared to competitor websites.
• Increased site usage, as a better user experience means that customers are more likely to spend more time on the site, and can boost the number of registrations and return visits.

Autocomplete can boost a company’s conversion rates

Some retailers use an auto-complete tool which begins to offer suggestions when users have entered a few characters into the search box.

This has a number of advantages: it speeds up the search process for users, it helps them to avoid misspellings, and it also ensures that customers’ searches will return a product result.

Autosuggest provides a real boost to search conversion rates. Repeat users begin to rely on site search autosuggest and autocorrect to know the correct spelling of words for them. When it is well implemented, auto-complete can save customers a lot of effort, in addition to speeding up the search process.

In this example from Sanpdeal, shoppers who can’t remember the spelling of a popular brand only need to get the first four or five letters right.

Industry tip:

We find that 50-70% of our site search users convert through site search. We know that if they have a bad experience with our site, they’ll go straight to our competitors so we offer them the best experience possible. We actually found that by attaching predictive text and thumbnail images to the search, we can convert two to three times more.

Effective site search means better usability, so customers can find things more quickly. This can translate into higher sales, as customers who find what they are looking for easily are more likely to make a purchase, while site search also offers opportunities for merchandising.

Higher conversion rates can also be attributed to autocomplete. More intuitive search and navigation means higher conversion rates. According to a Screen Pages study, use of the search box results in an average conversion rate of 5.2%, against a site average of 2.1%.

Zero Results Searches are cradle of business insights

If customers have searched for a product that the retailer just doesn’t stock, it doesn’t have to end with a ‘no results found’ page. However, zero results pages can be a valuable source of information for retailers.

Tracking these pages via analytics can help retailers to fix problems with site search, and it can also inform them of the products customers are looking for that they don’t currently stock.

Industry tip:

Use the zero results page to discover new trends and then stock what is needed. Before onsies became popular, we noticed a few people searching for them on our site. We used social media to (firstly) discover what they were, and then added them to our stock. We ended up making over 1 Million over year, just from watching our keyword search results.

Conversely, another definition of a poor result is returning hundreds or even thousands of results. This can also have a detrimental effect on the site especially if they have poor filtered navigation options to assist the user with filtering the results.

A specific example of how site search data can help improve both the site search tool and merchandising involves synonyms. Site search data provides insight into the synonyms that matter for your business.

For example, a clothes retailer may see searches for ‘jumper’, ‘pullover’, ‘sweater’ etc. which may not all yield any or the right set of results. Any decent site search tool will cater for synonyms, such as with synonym lists. By mining older search data to understand the specific terms the audience are using to find products, adjustments can be made to drive better results.

As per a popular study, on an average just 50% of site searches were successful and 40% of responding companies were not even aware of the success rates, 

• 7% of companies are sure they are efficiently learning from site search and distributing these insights across the business. Just under half (46%) are “partially” doing this, but 47% are not learning from site search at all.
• Agency respondents had a slightly different take on this, with 31% saying their clients are not using site search data, but just 8% say their clients are doing this well.

 

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