When eCommerce site search is working well, it is a dream for your customers; they can find what they’re looking for on the first try.  No need to endlessly click through your site’s categories and attributes.  Unfortunately, eCommerce search is too often scaring customers away.  At a time when years of eCommerce progress has been made in a matter of months, it’s even more important than ever that your site search is up to scratch.  We’ll look at six scary statistics and the ways that you can ensure your site search is not one of the frightening ones…

Scary Statistic #1

70% of eCommerce search implementations are unable to return relevant results,

requiring users to search using the exact same jargon as the site[1]

Yes, that’s right, nearly three-quarters of eCommerce site searches will only return the right products if the customers happen to use the right language.  That’s a lot of lost revenue when those customers become frustrated and abandon the site.

To ensure that your customers can find what they’re looking for, you need a Natural Language search solution.  Natural Language search solutions find different versions of the same terms so that pluralities and tenses can be managed.  For example, it wouldn’t make any difference if a customer used the term “mens”, “man”, “men” or “womens”, “women”, “ladies”.  An intelligent Natural Language search system will understand this automatically, without any input.

Scary Statistic #2

34% of eCommerce site searches don’t return useful results when users search for a model number or misspell just a single character in the product title[2]

This scary statistic raises 2 important issues:

1. Misspelling

A good spell correction system is not just about correcting, but about finding words that occur in the product data which most closely match what the user described.

With EasyAsk’s intuitive search system, your product data becomes the look-up dictionary, meaning that your customers don’t have to match the spelling of your products exactly.

2. Complex Product Numbers

Whilst most good search systems will find common misspellings, they lack the ability to deal effectively with part or model numbers.  Consumers who are taking the time to type in a part number are undoubtedly more ready to buy, so it is even more important that they are able to find what they are looking for.  This is a particular issue for B2B companies.

EasyAsk has the ability to index part and model numbers comprehensively, indexing all variations to ensure that users can find the product, even if they forget or mistype part of the number.

EasyAsk’s ‘Part Number Expander’

A ‘Part Number Expander’ is especially useful for complex part numbers that include a combination of letters, numbers, and other characters.  A user might forget whether characters were separated by a hyphen or a slash, or might omit letters from the end.

The Part Number Expander takes each part number and creates all the different versions of terms, inserting them into the searchable index so that if any of them are searched for, they will match to the product.  The code is broken up into parts and the separators are substituted in all combinations.

For example, if the part number is

123-HC/1345AB

the Part Number Expander would index:

123-HC-1345AB                                     123

123/HC/1345AB                                    123-HC

123/HC-1345AB                                    HC

123 HC 1345AB                         1345

…amongst many other combinations.

If a customer types a part/model number that is slightly different (for example, using spaces instead of hyphens) the correct product will still be found.

JLMWholesale.com demonstrates how Part Number Expander can avoid no results for customers:

The part number for this door handle is 1191-E-3 US32D.  If a customer replaces the hyphens with spaces and omits the last section of the part number, the exact product is still returned.

Scary Statistic #3

If people have a negative experience on mobile, they’re 62% less likely to purchase from you in the future[3]

A negative experience will stay with prospects longer than a positive one, so if you want your mobile customers to become regular, you’ll need to make sure you’re not putting them off with a poor user experience compared to your desktop site.

Does your site have a mobile responsive design, so that the text, images, and menus change according to the screen size?  Furthermore, as your site adapts to a mobile size, do you show relevant categories and attributes, as opposed to just the first ones from the desktop site.

Customers using a mobile eCommerce site are more likely to use voice input, and therefore different word choices and sentence structures when speaking.  Your search system needs to be able to cope with voice input and the long-tail queries that are more likely on mobile.

Scary Statistic #4

46% of e-commerce sites have a “No Results Page” implementation that is essentially a dead-end for users, offering no more than a generic set of search tips[4]

Generating a generic ‘Sorry, no results matched your search’ message could be disastrous.  How many shoppers would stay on your site and how many would go straight to your competitor?

There are better ways to use a ‘No Results’ page, but what if it was possible to avoid searches returning no results in the first place?

It may be that a simple spell correction rectifies a ‘No Results’ search, but it is also important to monitor what EasyAsk calls ‘relaxed’ searches.  A relaxed search is one where the search system has modified the search by intelligently dropping (or ‘relaxing’) a term or terms.

For example, if a customer searched for a ‘Men’s black lace jacket’ and there are no products that match this description, we would want the results to show ‘Men’s black jackets’, rather than ‘Men’s lace jackets’ or ‘black lace jackets’, having relaxed the term ‘lace’.  Some searches will inevitably need to be modified and in this example, we want our search system to recognize that the gender stated in the search query is more important than the fabric.

If a user’s search has been modified (such as by spell correcting or relaxation) it is important to display a message explaining the changes to the original search.  For example, a user may search for “purple leather couches” and see the following message:

This user could have searched for leather couches in the first instance and spent a long time scrolling through the pages of results looking for any in purple.  But by using messaging in this way, the user is informed immediately and is more likely to use the search system again.

So-called intelligent ‘No Results’ pages will suggest searches based on what a user asked for, but truly intelligent search systems will change the search to find relevant products based on what the user asked for, even though there may not be an exact match.

Scary Statistic #5

It’s 5 to 25 times more expensive to acquire a new customer than it is to retain an existing one[5]

A worrying number of businesses still don’t use merchandising tools such as cross-sells and up-sells effectively on their eCommerce sites.  These businesses are leaving money on the table.

EasyAsk’s search solution includes a comprehensive set of merchandising controls.  With 9 predefined promotion types, banners, and business rules, amongst other functions, the business user is in control of the products that are presented to the customer.

Scary Statistic #6

36% of autocomplete implementations on eCommerce websites do more harm than good[6]

Although basic autocomplete suggestions can be found on 82% of eCommerce sites, most sites do not take the opportunity to capitalize on merchandising while users are searching.

As a user types into a search box supported by EasyAsk, however, search suggestions and category suggestions will be displayed as well as the products themselves.

EasyAsk offers ‘Search as you Type’, or SAYT, because it means a whole lot more than just a list of suggested searches.  It means many possibilities for getting the right products in front of your customers.

SAYT progressively searches for and filters through text.  As a user types a query, suggestions, products, categories, and attributes are found and presented with each keystroke.  This allows a user to stop short of typing the entire word or phrase and find what they were looking for quicker.

Search suggestions as well as relevant and popular products, attributes, and categories can all be displayed in an easy to use interface.

Here is an example from EasyAsk customer personalizationmall.com:

The user is looking for a wedding gift and the letters ‘wedd’ have been typed into the search box on the desktop site so far.  The above drop-down panel is displayed without needing to execute the search.  Alongside the search suggestions in the right-hand column, a popular category to browse and 7 products are displayed, based on the first search prediction, ‘wedding’.  Scrolling through the search suggestions using the down and up arrows updates the real-time search and therefore the categories and products displayed.  Personalization Mall could have also configured their search so that it updates just by a mouse hover for a certain amount of time.

Typed characters are shown in bold in the list of suggestions, with the rest of the suggestion in normal type.  Often, autocomplete systems only show suggestions that begin with the typed characters, but we can see here that the suggestions can contain ‘wedd’ anywhere.

Presenting customers with the most relevant search, product, and category suggestions is essential.

Conclusion

When your site search is performing well, customers won’t be scared off, and your business won’t become one of the statistics above.

Getting the right products in front of the customer as quickly as possible shortens the path to conversion, keeping your customers and your bank balance happy.

Follow the tips and best practices in EasyAsk’s upcoming eGuide: “Preparing for the Holiday Season: A Guide for your Ecommerce Site” to ensure your customers find the right products the first time.

[1] https://baymard.com/blog/ecommerce-search-report-and-benchmark

[2] https://baymard.com/blog/ecommerce-search-report-and-benchmark

[3] https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/intl/en-gb/advertising-channels/mobile/few-tips-speed-your-mobile-site-and-tools-test-it/

[4] https://baymard.com/ecommerce-search/benchmark/page-types/no-search-results-page

[5] https://hbr.org/2014/10/the-value-of-keeping-the-right-customers

[6] https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2014/08/the-current-state-of-e-commerce-search/

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According to Forrester, B2B eCommerce in the U.S. will hit $1.2 trillion by 2021, seeing a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 7.4% over the next four years. It is therefore essential that businesses optimize the eCommerce experience for their customers. B2B sites have typically been known as less usable, but it is time for them to catch up with B2C and make it really easy for customers to do business. B2B eCommerce has unique complexities, which present unique challenges and therefore require a unique set of best practices. We will explore these challenges in our B2B blog series and offer advice and solutions to ensure that your B2B site delivers a superior experience.

Fast-track your Customers

B2B buyers typically know exactly what they want. Being able to find it quickly and without unnecessary clicks or searches is key. Your B2B buyers need to search and navigate your site easily so that they can find what they are looking for and get on with their day. Don’t forget that your B2B buyers are also B2C customers of other companies, and it’s likely that they are used to experiencing good product findability.

We can break product findability down into two main areas: Navigation and Search.

Navigation

B2B products can be complex, with a huge number of attributes, products and ways to buy. The manageability of navigation filters is important so that your business can quickly create new filters as products are changed or added. Make these filters visually attractive and easy to use, for example by creating sliders for numeric options.

Remember to adjust the number of attributes that are displayed according to how far down the navigation tree the buyer is. At a broad level of products, it would slow down the buyer to show the attributes for every single product. Limit this to broader attributes, such as brand and color. Depending on the user interface, we suggest showing 5 to 6 attributes. As the buyer progresses in their navigation, it becomes more important to show the detailed attributes.

EasyAsk’s search solution allows complete business user control over navigation, including:

• Category Management – The ability to restructure categories to better suit the needs of the buyer.
• Dynamic Attributes – The ability to create attribute groupings based on numeric data. For example, dynamic price groupings.
• Multi-Select Attributes – EasyAsk allows attributes to be multi-selectable or single select.

All of this functionality is under the control of the business user, not the IT department, which could take days or even weeks to implement. EasyAsk keeps your B2B site agile and current.

Search

Your B2B site search needs to be accurate and to understand the terms that your business uses. It should also allow any non-standard terms to be defined. The higher the number of products in your catalog, the greater the importance of Natural Language Processing (NLP). NLP is the ability to understand the different ways that people might describe the same product. Understanding the terminology of your users and the ability of your search engine to intuitively and instantly map that to the correct products is extremely important in B2B. Analytics are invaluable in showing how your users are interacting with your site, but are you able to implement any resulting changes rapidly and easily?

Does your site search implicitly understand prices, sizes, lengths and other weights and measures, allowing customers to search using alternative forms of input? Your site should enable your customers to buy how they want to, not how your search system dictates they should.

Of course, users may well be searching using complex part or product numbers rather than words on B2B sites. This can be an issue for regular site search engines and we will cover this challenge in our next blog post.

Search As You Type (SAYT), aka autocomplete/instant search, is a really useful tool for B2B buyers on your site. As a user is typing, the pop up can show the products that are most likely to be sought, for example recently searched or purchased products. It’s also a good idea to display the last searches that the user made even before SAYT kicks in. B2B buyers are often buying the same products repeatedly.

With all search results pages, it is important that your search engine only displays products that your customer is entitled to buy. We will explore customer-specific catalogs later on in this blog series.

The Power to Perform

Although B2B buyers interact in differing ways to B2C shoppers with your search and navigation, it’s equally, if not more important that your search system performs well when faced with the unique demands of B2B eCommerce. You need a powerful system to cope with that.

EasyAsk offers the only merchandising tool designed exclusively for the rigors and challenges of B2B eCommerce. EasyAsk can be configured for any platform, either commercial or built in-house.

EasyAsk has long served the B2B customer segment and over 200 B2B distributors have chosen us to power their B2B eCommerce sites, including: HD Supply, Aramark, Alphabroder, Demco, Kaman Industries, Tacoma Screw, and Crown Packaging.

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Is Navigation important if you have great search?

An overgeneralization is that shoppers navigate if they don’t know exactly what they want (or if they feel they can’t trust the search engine, like an obsolete keyword search).  Conversely, shoppers use the search box when they DO know exactly what they want.  It’s critical to avoid the ‘clicking to oblivion’ syndrome via poor navigation.

How much patience do your customers have? How long will they hang around on irrelevant pages before they bounce? Does your whole Search System work in sync, providing a consistent experience whether your customers search or navigate?

Navigation is distinct from search and is typically a way of reaching a set of products without searching. Customers can navigate an eCommerce site by clicking on menus, categories, and sub-categories. Once an initial product set is displayed, customers can click on filters too.

Intuitive, Natural Language search is imperative, but great customer experience should also permeate your site’s navigation.

Here are some important considerations for the navigation of your site:

Keep it consistent

A lot of category pages don’t give users many options for what to do next. Unless your site’s landing page is to be set out in a particular way, it should reflect a search results page. It may have extra components, such as banners, but the products and filters should be the same. By presenting the same filters as on a search page (being able to choose price range or color, for example), options are provided for users who perhaps don’t know the right words for a search.

There should always be consistency between the experience of a user who searches and a user who navigates. If a customer navigates the categories mens > jackets they should expect to see the exact same products as if they had typed the search, ‘men’s jackets’. This gives the user confidence in your site. If, however, a customer performs a search that doesn’t return any results and subsequently navigates to find lots of products, their confidence in your search or navigation is undermined, having a detrimental effect on your bounce and conversion rates. Customers are likely to leave a site that they feel they can’t trust. If customers don’t see the right products, they can’t buy them.

Build navigation into the search box

When a user starts to type a query in the search box, does your search system display category or attribute links dynamically? SAYT (Search as you Type) is another form of navigation, allowing the user to stop short of typing their whole query and start to navigate using the links. Once the user has clicked a category, it is important for them to be able to zoom in as easily as possible, using a combination of filters, such as textual/numerical filters, price sliders or color swatches. These options should be visually attractive and easily recognizable.

The North Face Filters

Give your customers what they want

When offering sub-category filtering, always try to present attributes in the order that they are most likely to be used. For example, if the price filters are the most-clicked, show them first. Make use of analytics to keep an eye on where people are clicking on your site. EasyAsk can even provide analytics showing which values are the most popular within attributes. If blue turns out to be your customers’ top color click, show blue as an option before red. Don’t bury the popular clicks, especially on mobile sites and apps.

Use Mega Menus

A Mega Menu can be displayed when a user hovers over or clicks a category heading and contains everything related to that category. Think of it as Search as You Type for navigation.

The North Face Women’s Mega Menu

Users can see everything in detail and decide which sub-category to click next. With EasyAsk driving this functionality, special headings or sub-categories can be generated dynamically from derived attributes and used to pull up appropriate products, such as collections with a given name.

Easy does it…

Navigation and search should be in sync and complement each other. This is a real opportunity for your search system to resonate with your customers. It is crucial that your business does not rely on a development team to generate and tweak changes to navigation. Many systems are coded by developers, so if a business wanted to make changes, there would be time and cost implications.

With EasyAsk, merchandizers have direct access to analytics and dynamic tools in order to optimize their customers’ search and navigation experience.

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Why Messaging?

Intelligent search engines will show alternative products or searches when users search for something that returns no results. Messaging on product results pages are used when this has happened. It is an opportunity to inform customers why they’re seeing a particular set of products and it is imperative that users quickly understand what has happened so that their confidence in the search system is maintained.

Messaging might be used in the following instances:

Spell Correction

When a change has been made to the original text, it is important to inform the user how the spelling has been changed. For example,

“sofaa” returned no results, so we’re showing you results for “sofa” instead.

It is, of course, necessary that your spell correct function is up to the job in the first place. An intelligent search engine will check spellings against the company data as well as a dictionary.

Out of Stock Products

Popular products may periodically go out of stock. Messaging allows your business to let customers know that certain products would normally be available and that you are showing them alternative products. For example,

“Gracey Recliner” returned no results, so we’re showing you results for “leather recliner” instead. The Gracey recliner is currently unavailable.

Products not in the Catalog

If your business does not stock a particular brand, but does stock brands who produce similar products, it is important to redirect your customers to relevant alternative products. An electronics supplier might display a message such as: “Sorry, we don’t stock Canon, but Nikon is an excellent alternative”.

Simply telling your customers that you don’t stock a particular product or brand is a missed opportunity.

Relaxation

With certain customer search queries, part of a search may need to be relaxed. If a user’s search has been changed in this way, a message explaining the changes to the original search should be displayed. For example, a user may search for “purple leather couches” and see the following message: “Sorry, we don’t have purple leather couches, but here are the leather couches we do have”.

This user could have searched for leather couches in the first instance and spent a long time scrolling through the pages of results looking for any in purple. But by using messaging in this way, the user is informed immediately and is more likely to use the search system again.

Keeping the Customer Informed

The key to messaging is letting the user know what is happening. If there is a message that could be conveyed, it should always be displayed, and the more explicit you can be, the better. This gives the user confidence in the search system. Conversely, if no message is displayed when changes have been made to a search, it is confusing for the user. If, for example, an alternative brand of product is presented with no messaging to explain why, the user may assume that the search is not working, lose confidence in the search system and even abandon the site. Ideally, there would be multiple messages set up for different purposes.

Implementing messaging on product result pages is straightforward to set up and configure with EasyAsk’s intuitive search solution.

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Redirects

When done right, Redirects have the power to inform and invite your customers towards more relevant content. Running a text-search for their queries may not be the most appropriate next step in their journey through your eCommerce site. Sometimes, it is more appropriate to show a different page or set of results. And customers who realize that your search engine is intelligent and intuitive in this way will trust you with their time and money.

How can I use Redirects?

There are many uses for Redirects in eCommerce and we like to define them in three ways:

Web Page Redirects

A Web Page Redirect redirects a search term to a specific web page instead of performing a search. It is useful for catching queries, such as ‘delivery’ or ‘returns’. For example, a customer may enter ‘delivery’ into a search box to find out about the company delivery costs or policies. When a Web Page Redirect is set up for ‘delivery’, the customer is redirected to the delivery web page rather than the engine running a search. This kind of redirect can be set up to recognize queries such as, “Where’s my order?” or, “How much does delivery cost?”

Web Page Redirects are also valuable for when you wish to direct customers to a specially-created landing page. For example, you might set up a redirect for a particular brand that takes customers to a brand page that includes brand information, cross-sells and other content. Perhaps you would like customers who search for party dresses over the coming months to be redirected to a ‘Christmas Party’ landing page that displays dresses, jewelry, shoes, and other accessories.

Search Page Redirects

A Search Page Redirect redirects from one search to another search. For example, there may be searches for which you wish your customers to only see a specific set of products that you have defined. Instead of seeing results for their original search, customers will be redirected to a different results page. Perhaps when users search for a particular brand, you would like to drive them to a particular set of products with a special deal or a higher profit margin.

Conditional Definitions

This tool, unique to the EasyAsk solution, is an incredibly useful way to avoid ‘No Results’ pages for products that are out of stock. If a business identifies a popular product that frequently goes out of stock, it is possible to use Conditional Definitions to show the specific product if it is in stock, but a different (defined) set of products, should the requested product be out of stock at that time. Our previous blog in the series, ‘Reducing No Results’, covers this in further detail.

Take Control

By using Redirects in conjunction with data from their search analytics, retailers can take control of their customers’ experience. When customers use the search box, they don’t always need or want the search results for their query. Redirects allow flexibility over what pages and products are put in front of customers. Redirects are just one of the many tools that are part of EasyAsk’s intuitive search solution.

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No Results

According to a WebLink study, shoppers using internal site search deliver a 216% higher conversion rate compared to customers that simply browse. With search playing such a crucial role, generating a generic ‘Sorry, no results matched your search’ message could be disastrous. How many shoppers would stay on your site and how many would go straight to your competitor?

Check out these common causes for ‘No Results’ pages and how to avoid them:

Spelling Errors

A large number of ‘No Results’ searches can be put down to poor spell correction. An effective Search Engine must have sensible spell corrections and synonyms, including the ability to understand plurals. For example, the adjectives ‘smoked’ and ‘smoky’ should be understood by the Search Engine as synonymous.

Most Search Engines provide a reasonably good service when it comes to spell corrections or synonyms, but can yours manage word inflection, such as changes in tense or verb conjugation? For example, will your search system recognize that ‘mattresses’ is the plural form of ‘mattress’ because it has the suffix ‘es’ rather than just ‘s’? If your business operates across different countries, and therefore languages, this becomes an even bigger challenge. Do you have a Natural Language engine that understands these complexities across multiple languages?

Specific Language

Another cause of ‘No Results’ searches is shoppers’ use of language. It could be that a search is too specific, and that by ‘relaxing’ one or more words, a relevant set of results can still be shown. A good Natural Language tool will be capable of understanding that words such as ‘over’ and ‘under’ relate to a price indication. As people become increasingly used to using voice searches, they may include phrases like ‘show me’ or ‘I’m looking for’. Although typically searches would fail with the addition of these phrases, a Search Engine that can understand Natural Language will still make sense of the query.

You don’t sell particular products

When a shopper searches for something that is not stocked by an eRetailer, it may seem that a ‘No Results’ message would be inevitable. But a successful Search System will show results for alternative searches when a company doesn’t have what users ask for. The system should allow the business to set up redirects based on likely search queries (see our first blog post in this series to find out how to best use Search Analytics in this way). For example, if a company doesn’t stock Nike products, a redirect could be set up to show Adidas products (that they do stock) instead. Redirects allow businesses to redefine the terms a customer uses in order to point to different terms and therefore different products.

Products are Out of Stock

If a popular product has gone out of stock, most Search Systems will display a ‘No Results’ message. This is no longer a reason for a wasted opportunity with EasyAsk’s unique tool, ‘Conditional Redirects’. The tool enables businesses to set up a redirection to a separate set of products when their customers search for a popular product that is out of stock. For example, if a company usually sells Gracey Recliners, they may find that they sometimes have an issue with the supply, due to the product’s popularity. The merchandiser could set up a conditional redirect rule using EasyAsk software, so that when Gracey recliners are unavailable, a message displays explaining this, along with a redirected search for ‘leather recliners’. When the Gracey recliners are back in stock, they will once again be shown in the search results. It is not necessary for a merchandizer to remove the rule; the Search System will automatically show the product again.

No Results? No way!

Avoiding ‘No Results’ searches is a simple yet valuable way to ensure your customers find, and buy, what they are looking for. It is essential to use a Search Engine that is flexible and can understand the multitude of ways that a user might phrase a query. Quite simply, you won’t resolve the underlying causes of ‘No results’ without an intuitive Natural Language engine. With flexible merchandising and search tuning, you can make sure that you’re not hard-wiring the way that search works.

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1: Interpreting Search Analytics

We know your mind is still on camping trips and barbeques, but now is the time to act in order to maximize revenue this Holiday Season. Creating an optimized shopping experience for your customers will be a gift to your business accounts as well as your customers. This blog post is the first in a series of posts that will lay out best practices and tips as you prepare your eCommerce site for the biggest commercial period of the year.

Search Analytics

Understanding the behavior of your customers is the crucial first step to improving their online shopping experience, and therefore to boosting your eCommerce site’s conversion. You need visibility into how users are using search and search navigation, which then allows you to make changes that will improve your bottom line. The most effective Search Analytics reports are presented in order of frequency, with the top searches presented at the top of the page. With all Analytics reports, there is more to be gained in most cases from acting upon the most frequent searches.

There are two key aspects to interpreting Search Analytics:

1. Fixing Problem Areas

The first and most obvious way to use Search Analytics is to remedy searches that produce inaccurate, or no results. Fixing ‘No Results’ searches is fundamental. If customers are commonly searching for something that produces no results, either those customers are all coincidentally using the wrong site, or something needs to be done to show results for those searches. Our next blog post in the series will give you more tips for reducing ‘No Results’.

It may be that a simple spell correction rectifies a ‘No Results’ search, but it is also important to monitor what EasyAsk call ‘Relaxed’ Searches. A relaxed search is one where the search system has modified the search by intelligently dropping (or ‘relaxing’) a term or terms. For example, if a customer searched for a ‘Men’s black lace jacket’ and there are no products that match this description, we would want the results to show ‘Men’s black jackets’, rather than ‘Men’s lace jackets’ or ‘black lace jackets’, having relaxed the term ‘lace’. Being able to monitor relaxed searches is important to make sure that the search system is relaxing in the correct way. Some searches will inevitably need to be modified and in our example, we want our search system to recognize that the gender stated in the search query is more important than the fabric.

2. Improving the Most Popular Searches

Optimizing the most frequently searched queries on your site is like collecting the low-hanging fruit: it makes the most significant impact for the least effort.

The key is to identify the most popular customer searches and then show exactly the right products for those searches. For example, if the most commonly made search is ‘Women’s jackets’, don’t just show all women’s jackets in a haphazard way. You may show the most popular products first, or the products that you want to sell most of, for example, end of season products, those with higher stock levels, or even products with higher profit margins.

EasyAsk provides Analytics about how users have clicked within their session, as well as providing information about the search entries. Customers make searches then often click filters, such as price or color. EasyAsk can give an analysis of the most popular attribute clicks, making it possible to ‘clickstream’ products. For example, if the color black has been identified as the most popular click in the category, the site might be fine-tuned to show black products first in the search results.

If you use Google Analytics or another standard eCommerce analytics tool, you can baseline your current conversion rate, then monitor how any changes you make affect your bottom line.

It’s not just about great search

Although optimizing your site in response to good Analytics will make you more money, there is a lot more information to be gleaned from Search Analytics. Understanding how your customer’s shop can help you to provide enhancements to your user interface. It may lead you to create landing pages or dynamic attributes (once again, more to come on these topics in future Holiday Series blogs). Search Analytics offer a live insight into your industry and your customer’s behavior, allowing you to respond to increases in searches for particular products by putting them in stock.

The process is cyclical: Search Analytics provide insights that allow businesses to optimize their search results, and the better the search box functionality, the more use it gets and the better the quality of the data produced. But in order to obtain great quality data for analysis, the search system needs to be up to the job so your customers will actually use the search box. Returning customers quickly lose faith in a bad search system.

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What is a Chatbot?

Users interact with a Chatbot via a chat or messaging interface, imitating a conversation. After a series of questions and responses, users should arrive at an answer or product. Chatbots have moved on from their beginnings as a text-based response tree to now include elements of Artificial Intelligence such as Natural Language Processing. The most common use for Chatbots is for customer service. The Chatbot can answer the simpler customer queries, leaving the complex answers to the ‘living’ employees.

So Chatbots might be a good substitution for human customer service, but are they the next big thing for eCommerce sites? Chatbots can provide an intelligent interaction, but do shoppers really want to have an interaction when they know what they’re looking for?

Not a substitute for Good Search

Chatbots can provide a novel user experience, but when it comes to customers who are searching for a specific product or service, Chatbots cannot be a substitute for good search. A Chatbot is only as smart as the engine behind it.

Take the example of a customer looking for a leather sofa. Using a Chatbot, the customer may have to navigate through a series of questions to narrow down their search. They might select ‘Living Room Products’, followed by ‘Sofas’ and then be presented with a list of attributes, such as brand or size. Eventually, the customer may be presented with the option to select a fabric, where they can choose a ‘leather’ sofa. A Chatbot is typically pre-programmed with the order in which it will ask the questions and a customer may have to answer four or five questions before the most important question is asked. Compare this scenario to a great search system, where the customer can ask for a ‘brown leather sofa under $1000’ using the search box and see exactly the right products.

Chatbot vs Site Search

We thought we’d give eCommerce giant eBay a chance to wow us with their Chatbot capabilities before it stopped taking orders on September 6, 2018. We compared the same search with its regular site search results.

A query using the eBay ShopBot for ‘1967 Corvette Seats’ initially brought back the following responses:

It was necessary to click on one of the options regarding placement before results were presented. The first result shows seat covers rather than seats and the subsequent products available to view by clicking through the carousel were seat parts or tools, and not actual seats either.

The ShopBot then required a typed response to ascertain the desired price range. No clickable answers to save time, just the messaging entry field:

Once a price range was identified, the first result is indeed Corvette seat foam. Subsequent products in the carousel are seat brackets or assembly items.

The ShopBot then asked a seemingly relevant question about which type of seat was required.  On selecting ‘driver seat’, one result is returned, of a seat base for a 1993 – 2013 Corvette:

We think we can see why the ShopBot has had relatively little take up compared to the eBay mobile App. Contrast the Chatbot experience to that of using the regular site search:

Although the first result is a seat belt, the following results are 1967 Corvette seats, as requested, and the site search also provides the customer with a choice of products.

Even though the Ebay Shopbot appeared clever, it was still quite painful compared with simply running a search. If a shopper knows what products they are looking for, their choice is to either spend 2 to 5 minutes taking part in a question and answer session or to simply use intuitive search. Do shoppers want to have a chat with a computer or find the right products the first time they ask?

As Chatbots become more intelligent with advances in Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning, it would be easy to assume that they are a cure-all, but let’s not underestimate the necessity of great search. A Search Box query combined with intuitive Natural Language search technology will speed up a customer’s route to checkout. Instead of customers spending time interacting with a Chatbot, intelligent Search creates a faster track to a product or service, and therefore improves conversion rates.

Do you want EasyAsk’s advice? Don’t rush to deploy something that will bring down your conversion.

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A: All the difference.

This might just be the single most important component in a successful eCommerce strategy and the key to driving significantly more revenue.

It is essential to get the usability of the search box within eCommerce sites right. Up to 30% of visitors will use the site search tool and these will be highly motivated shoppers who know exactly what they’re looking for. Shoppers who use the search box will buy more:

Search functionality should be prioritized when developing redesigns, whether for mobile or desktop sites. So, what are the most important considerations for your search box?

Accessibility and consistency are key here.

Ensure the search box is positioned prominently and where it’s expected to be; don’t make users search for the search box. The diagram below shows that usually, this is in the top-right of your eCommerce site.

from ‘Where’s the search? Re-examining Users Expectations of Web Objects’ study by A. Dawn Shaikh and Keisi Lenz

Usability studies have shown that placing elements on the right gives instant access to the browser scrollbar. Having said this, with eCommerce giants such as Amazon opting for a top-center search box, this is also now a common location.

If your site uses a modern NLP search engine, the chances are your customers will find what they’re looking for the first time they search. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case for traditional keyword search boxes. For this reason, it is important for the search box to remain in the same place on every page. The search box should be accessible in the navigation bar menu at all times.

The North Face demonstrate this consistency by making the search box available from any page on their site, including non-product pages:

“Consistency is one of the most powerful usability principles: when things always behave the same, users don’t have to worry about what will happen. Instead, they know what will happen based on earlier experience.”

— Jakob Nielsen

The components of a search box may seem predetermined, but there are surprising variations in the composition of search boxes. Once again, it is important that users find what they would expect from a search box, that is, a text entry field plus a button or icon to click and execute the search. It is possible for a user to press the ‘enter’ key to execute, but the presence of a button serves as a reminder that there is an action to take after typing a query.

If your site necessitates more than one entry field on a particular page, make sure that the search box stands out as different from any other fields.

It is not necessary to display advanced search options by default in the search box.

It isn’t quite the case of ‘the bigger the better’… but almost.

A large search box is easier to spot and therefore click. Ensuring an appropriate field size also makes a search box user-friendly. A search box that limits the visible characters too much will conceal a user’s search, leading to shorter, more vague queries. Jakob Nielsen, usability consultant, recommends an ideal width of 27 characters.

For mobile pages where space is more restricted, the search box could be condensed to a magnifying glass which expands when selected.

The search button itself is most commonly labeled ‘search’, but might be labeled ‘Go’ or something similar:

The universally recognized magnifying glass icon is used increasingly to label the search button. It gives a visual clue as to what the text area is. A simple, schematic magnifying-glass icon should be used, without too much graphic detail to speed up recognition.

Every site’s branding and themes are different, but the colors used in the search box should be such that it stands out against its background. For example, if the website background is light in color, consider using a colored search box, and vice versa.

The microphone icon reminds users of voice search functionality, and mobile eCommerce retailers, in particular, should build a microphone into their search experience. Though voice search functionality is a great addition, a microphone icon is worthless unless the search engine is intuitive and understands conversational requests.

Revisit this EasyAsk blog from earlier this year for further detail about the use of the microphone icon.

Some search boxes are left completely blank, but businesses are increasingly using placeholder text in their search box to inform and invite their users.

Inform the shopper of the capabilities of your search box by upgrading the placeholder text from the traditional ‘Search’ text:

Limit the text to a few words for maximum effect.

Auto-suggestion or ‘Search As You Type’ (SAYT) function can guide a shopper by helping them formulate their query. This function shows a list of useful queries as the shopper begins to type. Look out for our future blog post on this topic.

Search box UX is an extensive and important aspect of eCommerce site design. Shoppers who search are looking for something they want to buy, so they need to be able to locate and use the search box with ease. Having optimized your search box, have you also ensured that your site-search technology can provide relevant results when your shoppers actually use your search box?

EasyAsk technology can.

“While I acknowledge that there is a need for art, fun, and a general good time on the web, I believe that the main goal of most web projects should be to make it easy for customers to perform useful tasks.”

– Jakob Nielsen, Designing Web Usability

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Don’t get me wrong, personalization is great

The scope and advantages of personalization for eCommerce are ever-growing.  Personalization systems tailor the information a customer sees on the screen based on something known about them.  For example, if a shopper in Atlanta searches for jackets in the spring, a personalization system might use the knowledge of location and time of year to display lighter-weight jackets than it would to another shopper living in Boston during the winter.  Or maybe a shopper has been browsing the women’s department of a site, then searches for a shirt.  The personalization system might choose to show women’s shirts to the shopper first.

Shoppers can even be labeled with a persona, based on their search and purchase history, such as ‘budget- buyer’ or ‘fashion-conscious’.  A personalization system can change the way the same product is presented to different people, for example by using a particular template, or highlighting the reviews of a product.  The visual results and recommendations will vary depending on the type of shopper that has been identified.  Personalization can mean many things to many people. But if personalization sacrifices accuracy for a shopper, it can result in a serious reduction in customer conversion.

Picture the Scene…

Kerry has come to know Sarah like a friend.  Sarah is an assistant in the women’s department of Kerry’s favorite store.  Over the years, Sarah has learned Kerry’s taste in color and style and seems to always help Kerry find exactly what she is looking for.

On this day, Kerry decides to do some shopping on her lunch break and heads over to the store.  She explains that she needs a dress for a wedding this summer at the beach.  Surprisingly, Sarah doesn’t think they have anything for such an occasion.  Kerry persists and repeats her request in simpler terms.  This seems to work as Sarah springs into action and asks Kerry to follow her.  She then leads Kerry downstairs into the men’s department where she stops in front of men’s slim-fit suits.  Confused, Kerry asks Sarah if she had heard her correctly.  Sarah explains that she had noticed Kerry was shopping for men’s slim-fit shirts last week, and since she is shopping for a wedding outfit, these suits would work perfectly.

After explaining to Sarah that she had been shopping for her husband last week, Kerry heads back to the women’s department on her own.  After finding something, she remembers she also needs a jacket for the outfit and asks Sarah to find something appropriate.  Unfortunately, Sarah returns with a winter coat.  Exasperated, Kerry exclaims, “I asked for a light jacket, I can’t wear a winter coat to a summer wedding!”  Sarah is once again confused and explains that it is currently only 40 degrees outside and that she assumed Kerry would need a winter coat.

Personalized bad results are worse than no personalization at all

Wouldn’t it be crazy to actually experience the above situation in a brick and mortar store?  Yet if we allow personalization to rule over relevancy, this will be the experience in our online stores.  And an online shopper is likely to give up on their shopping experience if they receive poor search results.  Don’t expect them to have Kerry’s patience.

Relevance is key

Typically, shoppers that use the search box have an idea of what they’re looking for, so they probably aren’t ‘window shopping’.  Users who search during a session are far more likely to convert than those who navigate using categories and attributes.  Being able to find the right products is fundamental.  Therefore, if a shopper asks to see blue mountain bikes, you need to show them blue mountain bikes.  And if you don’t carry blue mountain bikes, show them the red, white, black mountain bikes you do sell.

Clearly, the ability to bring back relevant results should remain the focus when it comes to search.  But by all means, show your customers the most relevant products in a personalized way.  Show them what they are asking for, in a way that makes them want to buy.  Highlight different aspects of a product or show products in a different order, but ensure that those products are actually what your customer searched for.

Personalization is at its best when it is used in the context of the right set of products to choose from – the most relevant products. That’s when personalization becomes powerful.

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