On-site Search: Four Tips for Site Search Excellence

A good site search function lets shoppers drill down through your product categories and find what they’re looking for, but poor site search can cause potential customers to languish in an endless sea of category pages. With 20 percent of Lillian Vernon’s customers first turning to on-site search upon visiting the site, a robust site search function is crucial to conversion, said Kristen Montella, director of merchandise marketing for the general merchandise cataloger during a panel session last week at eTail 2006, held in Philadelphia. Montella and other panelists offered their thoughts on improving on-site search: