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Savvy Site Search Specs By Vangie Beal
March 5, 2007
For the small online retail shop, a sharp product search is crucial to a successful shopping experience, but incorporating this feature can be overwhelming and expensive. Nonetheless, most businesses can't afford to keep serving up failed search results. Industry analysts say that if a desirable match is not returned on a query, roughly 75 percent of shoppers will look elsewhere.
Unfortunately, failed searches are quite common. The incorrect spelling of a product name or brand or the use of multiple words in a query that doesn't support phrases can trigger a misfire, but it doesn't end there. Sometimes, valid results are produced, but they don't correspond to what the shopper has in mind.
Often, this is because many e-tailers set up their storefront using basic hosting and e-commerce packages, and while they work, they don't necessarily have the search features needed to compete in online business. Visit any big-box retailer online and you'll find extensive search engines that offer loads of features, such as special product recommendations, image displays, similar results, direct add-to-cart functionality, and more. Visit a small e-tailer and you may very well conduct a search and find a single result page with one or two items, or worse, "no match."
The Basics of Site Search E-commerce site searches should perform like a good floor sales associate by finding the exact products a customer is looking for, or a similar item, highlight sale items and cross-promote and up-sell products. To do this, your search should accept multiple word queries, find products based on variations of keywords as well as phrases, allow customers to shop by specific product, brand name or even a manufacturer part number. Efficient e-commerce searches also allow customers to shop within a specified price range and see images of the products, show stock availability and add the product directly to a cart from the search results page.
Consider Outsourcing Because so much is involved in site-specific search, even the "big guys" outsource the task, but managed search is an attractive option for any online businesses — big or small. Outsourcing your site's search means the traffic, and corresponding hardware requirements, is off-set to a third party, so you can select and choose the features and functions you want. Best of all, perhaps, you don't have to know a single thing about the technology, how to edit or add options and so on.
A Case Study in Conversions Richard Sexton, President of Carolina Rustica is no stranger to the tasks of managing an e-commerce business. After running his retail furniture business successfully for five years in Charlotte, NC, the company in 1996 went online with the Himal Home Gallery, now a Yahoo Store, featuring one-of-a-kind rustic and provincial home furnishings. Seeing a big demand online for quality wrought-iron furniture, the company expanded its online operations to Carolina Rustica, now its main online retail store. The Himal Home Galley offered a basic product search that was a part of their e-commerce software package. They noticed that just a single incorrect character typed into the search box resulted in failed searches.
In December of 2005, the company decided that something needed to be done about the search feature on their Web site. This small business, handled by a staff of 12, was doing almost 95 percent of their business online. For Richard Sexton the time had come to invest in a good e-commerce site search.
In using the SLI Systems "Learning Search" solution the first benefit was realized when the search function was offloaded to a third-party server, allowing the Carolina Rustica Web site to perform well and not be slowed down by excessive user queries, a frequent problem before the change.
In addition, Learning Search continually "learns" from past site search activity by tracking visitors' aggregate search queries and click-throughs. If, for example, 10 shoppers who enter the same search query select the same product on a search results page, that result would then be shown at the top of the search results, helping to ensure customers find what they want on the first page of results.
It also automatically promotes similar or top-selling products and sale items, and offers dynamic banners to aid in up-sell or cross-selling. Another benefit is that the learning search integrates cart buttons and product selections directly from search results pages.
The Cost of Managed E-Commerce Searching For the most part, Web shop owners can use common sense when deciding whether or not to upgrade their site search. SLI Systems' CEO Shaun Ryan says that simply by using the search function yourself you can see how well or poorly it's performing. Other red flags: when your customer support staff starts fielding questions and complaints about the search, and fielding product-related e-mails or calls for questions that should be answered by using the site's search.
So, just how much does outsourced search cost? Well, if you're looking for something like the search platform used by CarolinaRustica.com, Ryan says that the customizable Learning Search service starts at $800 per month and fees are charged based on the number of queries served. The company offers a fully-functional 30-day trial (including all reporting) in which the search software is customized for your business so you can see the advantages and conversions for yourself before investing.
A Worthwhile Investment Obviously managed e-commerce search is not something that can fit into every small businesses' budget, but you should also consider the costs associated for doing your own, which include your current IT expenses (with a managed service this is included), the hardware and bandwidth costs to run your own searching and whether or not your getting a lot of conversions. In the past six months, Carolina Rustica's sales increased by about 30 percent, which Sexton attributes partly to the new site search they've incorporated.
Sexton, who has been very successful in his online retail venture, says that today small businesses are facing fierce competition from big-box stores online. His advice for staying in the game: Keep a tight focus, remember who your customers are and find a niche you can serve well. He says a good site search is an expensive investment, but if you plan on growing your online business, it's worth addressing.
"Small businesses need to look at site search as an important investment for their e-commerce business. It is a long term decision but the payback comes in the form conversions, which is something you'll notice," said Sexton. "Another big benefit of using managed search is that I spend less time focusing on the site's navigation and search and more time focusing on what I should be doing — growing and expanding the business."
Vangie Beal is a frequent contributor to ECommerce-Guide.com. She is also the managing editor of Webopedia.
Do you have a comment or question about this article or other e-commerce topics in general? Speak out in the SmallBusinessComputing.com E-Commerce Forum. Join the discussion today!
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