1.  AI-Instant Search

It’s a rapidly changing situation, but it’s safe to say that the global Coronavirus Pandemic has defined 2020.  Nobody could have foreseen the dramatic changes to their way of life people have experienced across the world.  Every non-essential merchant has been directly impacted by the pandemic and brick and mortar stores are only now gradually reopening.  These events have resulted in unprecedented changes to consumer behavior and most transactions now moving online.

The Search Box on eCommerce sites has always been important.  After all, searching is shopping in an eCommerce context.  With so many more people currently buying online, it is even more important than usual that if your business can provide what a shopper is looking for, you get it in front of them as soon as possible.

Presenting customers with the most relevant search, product, as well as category suggestions is essential.  But it is easy to get AI-Instant Search, or Autocomplete, so wrong that it actually has a negative impact on your shoppers.

36% of autocomplete implementations on eCommerce websites do more harm than good*

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.

Advanced AI-Instant Search returns correct results as a user types in the search box, refining with each keystroke, à la Google.  This allows a user to stop short of typing the entire word or phrase and find what they were looking for quicker.

With Instant Search saving users 2-5 seconds for every search, do they really expect to finish typing their search?  If this is the case, it’s essential that Instant Search works well.

Here’s how to make sure your Instant Search is effective:

1. Character Matching

Often, autocomplete systems only show suggestions that begin with the typed characters, but an effective AI-Instant Search will match on characters anywhere in the search query.

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.  We can see here that the suggestions can contain ‘wedd’ anywhere.  Typed characters are shown in bold in the list of suggestions, with the rest of the suggestion in normal type.

2. Configure which searches are shown first

The most effective AI-Instant Search systems will show trending search suggestions as the user types.  But these suggestions can be supplemented with any other suggestions, as defined by the business user.  The data seeding the search can be configured to include anything.

It’s also a good idea to display the last searches that the user made, even before Instant Search kicks in.

3. Show top products and categories as well as search suggestions

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

As a user types, not only can you show top search suggestions, but also the top products for that search.  The search is actually happening in the background and displayed in the pop-up box.  You could even show top brands or categories associated with that top search.

In the example above, the first three characters of the search for a sofa have been typed.  The top products related to ‘sofa’ are displayed, alongside the top searches and 2 possible categories.  The order that these suggestions are displayed is based on the frequency that they’ve been searched in the last period.

When customers are searching for products that don’t belong in an obvious category, displaying the categories in Instant Search is an effective way of getting the customer to the product quickly.

For certain businesses, the addition of suggested part numbers is also very useful.

4. Option for customers to add directly to cart

If a customer has a list and knows what they want to buy, it’s really important that the journey from search to purchase is as rapid as possible for them.  These customers should be able to type in a part number, see the product appear in the Instant Search pop-up, and add it straight to their cart.  They shouldn’t have to go through numerous search pages.

5. Code-free Layout

The most sophisticated AI-Instant Search systems use templates, making it very easy for the business user to change. EasyAsk provides multiple templates to choose from, or businesses can define their own.

Having a template-driven layout means that it’s easy for business users to decide how they want to lay out their Instant Search pop-up without the need for code.  The EasyAsk system is also optimized for mobile, making it responsive to all screen sizes.

Finding the right products, first time, every time.

EasyAsk’s AI-Instant Search is a very advanced system that is designed to put the right products in front of the user at the earliest opportunity.  Displaying product, search, and category suggestions to a user as soon as they start typing makes the most of a merchandising opportunity that is often missed.

Using AI-Instant Search to improve your eCommerce search is just one of the many features of EasyAsk’s intuitive search and merchandising solution.

Find out more here

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

The post Covid-19 eCom Blog Series: The Importance of Search for eCommerce appeared first on EasyAsk.

It’s a rapidly changing situation, but it’s safe to say that the global Coronavirus Pandemic has defined 2020.  Nobody could have foreseen the dramatic changes to their way of life people have experienced across the world.  Every non-essential store has been directly impacted by the pandemic and stores are only now gradually starting to reopen.  These events have resulted in unprecedented changes to consumer behavior and most transactions now moving online.

Customers have been forced from their daily routines, which included visiting a brick-and-mortar store.  They have been buying what they need online.  Data from a new Capgemini Research Institute report shows that 59% of consumers worldwide had high levels of interaction with physical stores before COVID-19, but now only 24% expect to return to that level.  This is a tectonic shift in consumer shopping habits and is here to stay.  Shoppers will certainly return to brick-and-mortar stores over time, but the more intuitive and happy eCommerce shoppers are, the more likely they are to continue to use eCommerce channels.  Unless companies can quickly adapt to changing circumstances, Amazon will be the new habit for those who couldn’t buy elsewhere.  The next challenge for e-retailers is to provide a superior shopping experience, on par with Amazon.

Search on eCommerce sites has always been important.  After all, searching is shopping in an eCommerce context.  With so many more people currently using eCommerce, it is even more important than usual that if your business can provide what a shopper is looking for, you get it in front of them as soon as possible.  If a shopper uses your search box, they have an idea of what they’re looking for, so you need to make sure they find it, fast.  These shoppers don’t want to waste time repeating searches or navigating through your site.  Your search box is your best Salesperson, especially in this season.

In this blog series, we will be exploring how your business can move, grow, and thrive online.  If there were ever a time to make sure that your customers can buy from you wherever they are, using any device (phone, PC, or tablet), it is surely now.

We will be exploring in more detail the following elements of good search over the coming months:

AI Natural Language Search

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.

We will explore how an AI/Natural Language search solution will ensure that your customers can find what they’re looking for, utilizing intelligent linguistic algorithms, synonym recognition, part number expansion, and more.

Instant Search

Presenting customers with the most relevant search, product, and category suggestions is essential.  But it is easy to get Instant Search, or Autocomplete, so wrong that it actually has a negative impact on your shoppers.

36% of autocomplete implementations on eCommerce websites do more harm than good[2]

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.

Advanced Search-As-You-Type (SAYT) returns correct results as you’re typing in the search box, refining as you continue to enhance, à la Google.  We will explore how to maximize the SAYT experience for your users.

Business Rules

We will demonstrate how you, the business user, can be in control of the products that are presented to your customers.  For example, using simple natural language rules to promote your own brand, to promote another brand during a campaign, or to ‘bury’ products which are low inventory.

Mobile

In a mobile environment, particularly with the proliferation of voice search, we have no idea how a user is going to search.  People don’t speak in keywords, they speak in sentences.

If people have a negative experience on mobile,

they’re 62% less likely to purchase from you in the future[3]

We’ll show you how to make sure you’re not putting off your customers with a poor user experience compared to your desktop site.

Personalization

Personalization is a valuable and effective part of the shopping experience.  But personalization must always be just that – a part of the shopping experience, not the shopping experience.  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.  We’ll explore how to make personalization more powerful through great search.

No Results Pages

46% of eCommerce 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.  But what if you could define and control products, categories, and messaging to display and therefore retain otherwise lost customers?

Conversational Commerce

With the research showing the pattern for Artificial Intelligence to be the biggest influence on eCommerce over the coming years, it is time to make sure that your search system will be able to keep up.

Whether using text or voice input, your customers will be progressively accustomed to chat-based interactions and will expect this format when buying online.  We will be showing how by adopting an intuitive AI-based search system that can cope with the demands of Conversational Commerce, you will be able to fast-track your customers to the right products every time.

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

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

[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

The post COVID-19 eCom Blog Series: Why your Search Box is your best Salesperson appeared first on EasyAsk.

It’s a rapidly-changing situation, but it’s safe to say that the global Coronavirus Pandemic has defined 2020. Nobody could have foreseen the dramatic changes to their way of life people have experienced across the world. Many non-essential stores have been directly impacted by the pandemic and forced to close until further notice. These events have resulted in unprecedented changes to consumer behavior and many more transactions moving online.

Customers have been forced to change their daily routines, which included visiting a brick-and-mortar store. Now they buy what they need online. Whether this change in shopping habits is temporary, or whether customers will revert back to shopping in physical stores will all depend on the eCommerce experience that companies provide.

Unless companies can quickly adapt to changing circumstances, Amazon will be the new habit for those who couldn’t buy elsewhere.  It can be deduced therefore, that companies who are resistant to change will come out the other side of the crisis with less money than they had… or even without any business at all.

What is the data saying about eCommerce and Covid-19?

At EasyAsk, we have observed the impact of the Coronavirus on our customers.  Data from our customers shows that in March, many businesses were more or less in paralysis in the wake of the initial lockdown measures.  From April, however, it is an improving picture when it comes to online orders.  Most likely this is due to the initial shock subsiding, and people beginning to realize this was the ‘new normal’ so they could start spending again. One of our customers’ data demonstrates this trend.

Compared to the same period in 2019, the amount of traffic to the eCommerce site in March 2020 was down by 23%.  In April 2020, however, the amount of traffic was up by 19% compared to April 2019.

The same customer recorded even more impressive results concerning revenue.  In March 2020, revenue was down by 7.83% compared to March 2019, however, revenue for April 2020 was up by 100% from last year.

Is the shift towards eCommerce a surprise?

The truth is, Covid-19 has only accelerated changes to eCommerce that were already well in motion.

Brick-and-mortar operations have been feeling the effects of the shift towards eCommerce long before the effects of the pandemic.  For those companies who do little or no business online, this will be a very hard time to bounce back from.  Those who do 20-30% of their business online will be facing the disastrous prospect of losing most of their revenue if they don’t increase their online presence immediately.

Search on eCommerce sites has always been important.  After all, searching is shopping in an eCommerce context.  In April it was even more important, and if companies are to retain the new customers acquired during the lockdown, site search will be even more critical.

Over the coming months, we will be exploring how your business can move, grow, and thrive online.  If there were ever a time to make sure that your customers can buy from you wherever they are, using any device (phone, PC, or tablet), it is surely now.

The post COVID-19: When has eCommerce ever mattered more? appeared first on EasyAsk.