Have you ever visited an eCommerce website and struggled to find a product because the search box did not work? Did you continue shopping on that online store or look for a more convenient one? We believe the latter is true.
Your customers are sailing in the same boat. Most eCommerce websites solely focus on increasing sales via advanced sales tactics but fail to understand that a smooth search experience, checkout process, and more contribute to building a smooth website experience. And, thus increasing customer engagement and maximizing product sales. You must make it easier for your customers to find the products they wish to purchase. This makes having a user-friendly and intelligent eCommerce site search an essential tool for your eCommerce store.
An advanced site search keeps your customers hooked on to your website allowing them to navigate through different product catalogs without any hassles. But, which eCommerce site search engines should you choose?
This post shares a comprehensive guide on selecting the right search in eCommerce. It helps you understand what features your site search must have and the best recommendations of search software available in the market today.
What Is E-commerce Search & Why It Is Important?
ECommerce site search is an integrated search engine present in your online store that helps your customers and website visitors find the products they are looking for easily and quickly. This advanced search solution matches the shopper's search queries with the right products, regardless of the keywords they type to perform the search.
The better configured and intelligent your site search engine is, the faster it is for shoppers to discover desired products in a self-serve fashion.
Here is an example of a site search on an eCommerce website.
Importance of Ecommerce Site Search for Your Online Store
Did you know that over 43% of customers head directly to the site search bar as soon as they visit an eCommerce website? Besides, 68% of shoppers prefer not to return to a website if it offers a poor search experience.
Further, a study by Econsultancy revealed that site visitors who utilize site search functionality and 2 to 4 times more likely to buy something as compared to the ones who don't.
These are just a few statistics. ECommerce site search helps you improve the overall customer experience thereby increasing the likelihood of conversions and sales. Here are some reasons why a site search engine is important for your online store.
- It helps customers find products without any difficulties and improves user experience.
- It enhances customer satisfaction and loyalty and boosts retention.
- By keeping site visitors engaged on your shopping website, it helps reduce bounce rates.
- It offers valuable data and insights into customer preferences and their behavior on your website. Thus, helping you build personalized marketing initiatives.
ROI of Using a Good Search Engine
The ROI of using a good search engine includes -
- Increased sales from higher conversion rates
- Reduced customer acquisition costs
- Improved customer retention
For example, The Unreality Store, a leading online comic book store observed a stark increase in their ROI once they upgraded their search engine. The default search engine on its website was not able to deliver accurate results to shoppers. The search results were displayed in a random sequence which made it difficult for comic enthusiasts to discover the comics they were looking for. It also portrayed the brand as unprofessional.
Upon implementation of an advanced search engine, The Unreality Store was able to transform its search operations, resulting in a fast response time of just 16 milliseconds. Here is a graphical representation of the search experience before and after search engine implementation.
Benefits of Using an eCommerce Search Engine on your eCommerce Store
A site search directs customers to what they are looking for by reducing the friction in the search experience.
- Increased Conversion Rates
The ultimate goal of any eCommerce store is to drive product sales and increase conversion rates. An eCommerce site search engine helps increase conversion rates by helping customers find the products they want without any hassles. The site search engine helps you achieve this with its powerful features like auto-complete suggestions, advanced search filters, personalized recommendations, and much more. This eliminates any potential shopping friction and helps you meet your customer's intent with more accuracy, ultimately increasing the chances of successful sales. - Enhanced Customer Experience
ECommerce search engine eliminates the need for customers to manually browse through numerous product catalogs or website pages to find the product they desire. Shoppers can simply enter the keywords and get instant product suggestions delivered to them in no time. This makes shopping more enjoyable and convenient for the customers. It introduces a level of convenience to the shopping process and encourages customers to further explore your offerings and make additional purchases. - Improved Product Discoverability
Ecommerce site search enhances product discovery by helping customers find what they want right away. They no longer have to navigate through large product inventories as this site search with the help of its advanced capabilities delivers relevant results to shoppers in no time. This significantly reduces the effort needed to find the items and improves product visibility. - Higher Average Order Value
ECommerce site search is designed to offer personalized product recommendations to shoppers based on their browsing history, past purchases, and more. The search functionality can also display targeted product promotions, highlight product bundles, and suggest complementary products to enhance their visibility. This rich content guides shoppers into exploring new products and adding more items to their carts, thus increasing the average value of their orders. - Reduced Bounce Rates
ECommerce site search ensures that shoppers find the products they are looking for without any hassles. With features such as automated personalized product suggestions, product bundle highlights, query autocompletion, and so on, shoppers can conduct accurate product searches and are thus, less likely to leave your online store immediately out of frustration. This keeps your customers engaged and helps in reducing website bounce rates significantly. - Actionable Insights
The search engine tracks customer data and search queries that can be used to gain insights into what your ideal customers are searching for and which products from your catalog are popular among them. This data can also be used to analyze customer preferences, popular products, emerging shopping trends, and so on. These insights can be later on leveraged to personalize shopping experiences, devise tailored marketing strategies, and optimize store inventory to drive more sales. - Personalization
By examining shopping behavior, preferences, and past interactions, e-commerce site search enhances your site personalization efforts. It can customize the search results based on every shopper's profile and interactions. The search engine considers factors like locations of shoppers, their devices, time zones, and more to create contextual relevance with respect to their actions. It makes sure that customers stumble upon things they are looking for at the right time. This approach improves the shopping experience and increases customer satisfaction. - SEO Benefits
ECommerce site search offers numerous SEO benefits to online stores by enhancing shopper engagement and reducing the website bounce rates. As customers are able to find the products they wish to purchase quickly, they tend to stay longer on your website and explore your product collections. The time these shoppers spend on your website is a strong determinant that your site is valuable and user-friendly. This boosts your website SEO, enhances its ranking and visibility on search engine results page. - Reduced Customer Support Load
ECommerce site search offers a self-service platform that enables customers to find desired products through accurate search results. Its features like autocomplete suggestions, product recommendations, knowledge base integration, and more helps shoppers resolve their queries without the involvement of any human customer support agent. This also decreases the number of support tickets thereby freeing up your customer service teams time to focus on other important tasks. - Competitive Advantage
Ecommerce site search offers a competitive advantage by providing a seamless and personalized shopping experience to customers. The advanced search features help shoppers quickly find relevant products thus improving satisfaction and conversion rates. This efficiency and personalization can distinguish your online store from competitors, fostering customer loyalty and encouraging repeat business.
5 Highly Effective Search UI Designs
A well-designed search interface helps shoppers find what they are looking for quickly and efficiently, thereby increasing engagement and conversion rates. Here are the top five highly effective search UI designs that are transforming the way customers interact with online stores.
Autocomplete and Predictive Search
Autocomplete and predictive search streamline the search process by suggesting relevant search queries or keywords as shoppers type. This feature reduces typing effort, spelling mistakes, and other errors, guiding shoppers to popular or related products quickly. This facilitates improved user experience and reduced search time thereby increasing the likelihood of shoppers in finding desired items and enhancing conversion rates.
For example, Ambraee, a leading clothing brand displays keyword suggestions to shoppers as soon as they start typing a letter in the search box.
Faceted Search
Faceted search allows shoppers to refine search results using multiple filters such as category, price, brand, ratings, and more. This design helps them to narrow down large volume of results and find products that precisely match their criteria. This leads to a more organized and manageable search process, thus allowing higher user satisfaction and increased chances of purchase. For example, Individual Socks offers extensive filtering options on the left side of the search results page. This filter panel can be used to narrow down the displayed search results as per shoppers' preferences.
Rich Autocomplete with Images
This type of autocomplete feature goes a step further from the standard autocomplete by displaying images, prices, and ratings alongside textual product suggestions. It helps shoppers identify desired products more quickly and accurately. This results in a more engaging and informative search experience. It reduces the time required to find products and increases the likelihood of shopper engagement and conversion. For example, Phoenix Store displays product images in the autocomplete suggestions to simplify product search for their customers.
Search with Voice Input
As the name suggests, voice input allows shoppers to speak their queries instead of typing them, offering a hands-free search option. This feature is particularly useful for mobile users and those with accessibility needs. It offers a more convenient and faster search method, broadening the accessibility and usability of the site. This can potentially increase user engagement and sales. For example, Amazon offers a voice search functionality on its mobile app and website. Shoppers just need to speak their queries to find desired products quickly.
Personalized Search Results
This search functionality leverages shopper data and behavior to tailor search results according to individual preferences. This feature ensures that shoppers see the most relevant products first, based on their past interactions and purchases. It creates a highly relevant and satisfying shopping experience that promotes customer loyalty and higher conversion rates due to more precise product recommendations. For instance, Tasva tailors product suggestions and search results based on the shopper's browsing history and preferences.
Top 5 Search Engines for eCommerce in the Industry
Selecting the right search engine is essential for optimizing product discovery and enhancing user experience in your online store. Here are a few of the best 5 search engines you can consider investing in.
#1. Sparq
Sparq is a powerful search, navigation, and product discovery solution that is designed to simplify product search experiences for customers. It is powered by AI technology and offers advanced search capabilities and customization options to offer optimized shopping experiences.
Pros -
- Designed for eCommerce companies exclusively.
- Offers advanced features like intelligent collection filters, instant search-as-you-type, and location filters, among others.
- Shares valuable insights into search behavior for making strategic decisions.
- Provides search and filters that are optimized for all devices.
- Can be customized to match your brand aesthetics.
- Offers dedicated customer support with 24/6 live chat availability.
Pricing -
- Standard plan @ $19 per month.
- Premium plan @ $59 per month.
- Enterprise plan @ $299 per month. USP - Offers the most affordable and highly customizable search engine that provides personalized onboarding for customers.
#2. Algolia
Algolia is another eCommerce search engine that offers relevant search and discovery APIs for building intuitive search experiences. It is equipped to provide the right search results even for complex keywords.
Pros -
- Offers best search features like autocomplete, instant search, search suggestions, and more to display exactly those products that shopper wants.
- Provides detailed analytics.
- Offers good customer support.
Cons -
- Involves a learning curve.
- Can be expensive, especially for small businesses.
- Might not offer customization options.
Pricing - Offers 4 subscription plans with varied functionality namely Basic, Grow, Premium, and Elevate. Contact the Algolia team for detailed pricing structures.
USP - Offers speedy results and is the best choice for larger eCommerce platforms or enterprises.
#3. Yext
Yext is a smart search engine for building AI-powered search experiences for customers using natural language understanding technology and multi-algorithm approach.
Pros -
- Offers personalized product recommendations based on shopper behavior.
- Ensures real-time updates are instantly reflected in product information.
- Provides strong analytics to monitor search performance and other metrics.
Cons -
- Offers a tedious onboarding process with little to no help from customer support.
- Involves a learning curve as the setup process is quite complex.
Pricing - Offers customized pricing based on your business needs. You need to contact their team for detailed pricing structures.
USP - Integrates extensively with third-party platforms in real-time for better product visibility.
#4. Coveo
Coveo is the next search and recommendations solution provider that helps eCommerce businesses enhance the relevance of search results and personalize customer experiences.
Pros -
- Offers an AI-powered search for accurate search results.
- Provides intelligent insights into search behavior using analytics.
- Delivers contextually relevant search results using natural language understanding.
Cons -
- Implementation requires the involvement of technical expertise.
- Might be expensive, especially for small businesses.
Pricing -
- Base plan @ $600 per month.
- Pro plan @ $1320 per month.
- Enterprise plan - contact the team for customized pricing.
USP - Can handle large volumes of data thereby making it the best choice for enterprises.
#5. Bloomreach
Bloomreach provides an all-inclusive set of tools that offers product search and content management to generate an integrated and well-optimized shopping experience.
Pros -
- Delivers highly relevant search results using AI algorithms to understand user intent.
- Provides detailed reports on search performance and shopper behavior.
- Offers a user-friendly interface.
Cons -
- Expensive and hence, may not be suitable for small businesses.
- May involve a learning curve to understand and implement a few features.
Pricing - You need to connect with the Bloomreach team with your requirements and request a customized quote.
USP - Combines product search with merchandising, content management, and more for offering seamless shopping experiences.
What Are the Top Features to Look for in an Ecommerce Engine
Here are the top features to look for in an ecommerce search engine to ensure it meets the needs of both your business and your customers.
- Advanced Relevance Algorithms - These algorithms ensure highly relevant search results by considering factors like keyword matches, product popularity, user behavior, and contextual relevance. This improves search accuracy, leading to higher customer satisfaction and conversion rates as shoppers quickly find what they need.
- Faceted Navigation - This allows shoppers to refine search results using filters like categories, price ranges, brands, ratings, and colors. It contributes to building a precise search experience, helping customers find exact products, especially in stores with large inventories.
- Autocomplete and Predictive Search - This feature provides real-time search suggestions and predictions as shoppers type their queries. It displays popular searches, product matches, and categories. It speeds up the search process, reduces typing effort, and helps shoppers discover relevant products even if they’re unsure of exact terms.
- Natural Language Processing (NLP) - NLP enables the search engine to understand and process natural language queries, allowing shoppers to search with everyday language and phrases. It enhances the search experience by accommodating conversational and complex queries, improving the accuracy and relevance of results.
- Personalization - Personalization uses data on user behavior, preferences, and past interactions to tailor search results and recommendations. This creates a more engaging and relevant shopping experience, increasing the likelihood of repeat visits and purchases, and significantly boosting customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Wrapping Up
Choosing the right ecommerce site search engine is crucial for enhancing shopper experience and driving sales. You can leverage the best eCommerce site search features like advanced product recommendation engine, natural language understanding, faceted navigation, autocomplete suggestions, and more to optimize your search experiences. Tools like Sparq, Bloomreach, and others we mentioned in this post can help you streamline product discovery on your online store and boost customer satisfaction. Not sure about which tool to choose? See Sparq in action. Book a free demo with our experts and consultants to understand better.
