E-Commerce Site Search Isn’t Sexy, But it Sells
"Learning" Search in Action
The beauty of learning search is that it learns from visitors’ site search activity and clicks to deliver the most relevant results and then ranks these results in order of popularity so that shoppers can quickly find the products they want to buy. On the occasions that learning search does detect shoppers using longer, more "natural" search terms, it "learns" and tweaks its results to reflect that behavior. Learning search continuously analyzes the terms and phrases that prove most popular and boost conversions.
While the reports above are telling, perhaps the best case for learning search is to let e-commerce results speak for themselves. Here are some of the results retailers around the world have experienced using learning search:
- Lakeshore Learning: 30 percent increase in online sales;
- Paul Smith (fashion designer and retailer): 11 percent increase in overall site revenue;
- e.l.f. Cosmetics (international cosmetics brand): 21 percent higher per-visit value using search;
- Boden (British clothing retailer): 177 percent increase in site search conversions; and
- SurfStitch (Australia's No. 1 surf retailer): 30 percent improvement in page position for organic search.
Some say "sex sells," but in e-commerce learning search sells more. It increases conversions, boosts search engine optimization and scores loads of sales. It's time we gave that little search box the celebrity status it deserves.
Tim Callan is the chief marketing officer of SLI Systems, a provider of on-demand site search software.
