Case Study: Site Search Solution Spikes Sales by 60 Percent
Once the product was in place, Watts’ team was able to view searches for particular keywords and determine if the results provided the most relevant results for consumers. Using the Web-based dashboard, Watts says he’s able to override results for a chosen keyword, placing best sellers at the top of the list, even if those best sellers would otherwise appear far down in the results or not at all. This ability proved useful this past November when an article in the Wall Street Journal mentioned an Organize.com product by an alternate name.
“We noticed people were searching for the product using the name from the article, so we tweaked the results for that keyword,” Watts remembers. “Sales went through the roof for that item, and we sold out in a day.”
Any changes Watts and his two merchandisers make to the system go live immediately. And to keep the search results current with product inventory, Organize.com updates the product data feed twice a day.
Monthly costs for the solution run between $3,000 and $5,000, but Watts says the increase in online sales allows the product to pay for itself.
Having gone live on Jan. 10, 2006, the solution increased online orders by 60 percent over January 2005. Watts credits Mercado’s site search with that increase, as well as the commensurate increase in revenue of 57 percent.
