In comparison to other metrics, ecommerce site search is often brushed aside as one of those things that you'll work on "soon." It's not an area of high importance like landing pages or personalized emails.
Making changes to improve the ecommerce search results on your website will increase conversion rates and can also result in happier customers who are more likely to return to purchase more items and are willing to share their experience with others.
How can you enhance your website's search engine to provide more than just deliver results? Look at the ways these retailers are making their search more user-focused, customizable and engaging:
1. Focusing on the Search Bar
The search bar itself is the first step of the process, but it is often a neglected part of this conversion piece. Making it an alternative color to the color scheme of your website is one way to draw the attention of users.
The inclusion of text within the box, for example "Enter keyword," lets users know in a glance what's expected (and distinguishes it from a newsletter opt-in page). Then, add an option that reads "Search" or "Find" and add some stylized arrows (indicating movement) and you're getting off to a good beginning.
Seek methods to help make the ecommerce website look more appealing and stand apart from the colors. Use best practices to ensure you have a search button and search field that makes it easy (literally) to perform a search and obtain results.
2. Filtering the Results Page - Ecommerce Filters
The page that results from a search is the primary reason for the decision of whether or not a user clicks on it and quits. If you have a great ecommerce search filters for your site it is possible to modify it a good amount, based on what the target market is looking for.
For instance, as the retailers of clothing for women and their accessories Cache illustrates through its site search engine, you can enter broad terms such as "blue" and get a variety of items that you can sort according to article or style, measurement popularity/price, as well as other aspects.
Customers can also sort items by whether they're in stock or newly released.
Customers expect their searches to yield options that can be filtered and so the ability to filter by color/size/style isn't enough anymore. Find ways to improve the user experience by allowing consumers to add (or exclude) sales/clearance items, brand-new products, and other categories that are popular.
3. Handling Long Tail Semantic Searches
Long tail semantic search engines push an engine even further in allowing it to understand the purpose behind the user's search. For instance, someone looking on the internet for "women's long sleeve black tee size M" is significantly more likely to purchase it as opposed to someone simply searching "women's tees."
According to a study conducted by Retail Integration Online, sites with semantic-based search engines have a lower 2% percentage of abandoning shopping carts which is as high as 40% for sites using simple text search.
Consumers are demanding better product search results. And when it comes to relevance, a semantically friendly site search will be superior to any plain text competitor every time.
4. Using Ecommerce Search Autocomplete
Autocomplete is another excellent site search tool that will save time for customers and is becoming more sophisticated. Printerland is one of the largest U.K. printer and accessory retailers, recently partnered with the site search company SLI Systems to add smarter search features (including autocomplete capabilities) on their website.
In the end, they have increased their conversion rate. They now have the value of each visitor which is four times higher than sales in the past. Furthermore, those who click on autocomplete pages will be six times as likely to convert than those who do not.
Autocomplete on site search results (to aid customers in finding what they are looking for visually) is particularly worth looking into when you sell a variety of products (or several products that are part of the same brand). The inclusion of product images and prices is the icing on the cake of search engine optimization!
5. Including Smarter Breadcrumbs
Nothing is more frustrating than a search engine that shows unhelpful breadcrumbs like search > Home, then Your Results. The ability to filter results with breadcrumbs lets them select and select the features they would like without having to clear their searches completely and starting with the same search.
Do not force users to go through narrow results from a search. Allow them to check the box, remove it, and then refine their results to ensure the most perfect (and therefore more effective) search.
6. Using Natural Language Processing
NLP is a method employed by big corporations such as Apple and Amazon and can allow your business to grow too.
NLP is a field of computer science that is a part of artificial intelligence. Its primary goal is to provide computers with the ability to comprehend the written word (and spoken words) exactly the way humans do. This is the reason for the word "natural" process of natural processing of language. How does this tie into search engines?
NLP in search on your site lets users enter (or speak) questions in the box for search more naturally and be understood by the filters.
Making investments in NLP technology can reduce time and improve conversion rates.
Conclusion
At present, there are few Ecommerce search providers who license their technology to owners of ecommerce stores. With users demanding more out of their site search results, it's easy to observe that the better search engine will quickly become the most effective conversion booster and therefore worthy of greater interest in the near future.
As an Ecommerce Site Search Company, Wizzy understands natural language, offers fast autocomplete search with advanced search filters, and real-time search analytics on a dashboard.
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