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Dec
22
Written by:
Whereoware Staff
Thursday, December 22, 2011 4:00 PM
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Even with highly organized categories and an easy-to-understand nav bar, customers may still have trouble finding products on your site. Help shoppers find what they want with internal site search…
Why?
In 2010, 90% of companies said that search was the number one means of navigation on their site and that 82% of visitors use site search to find the information they need (Google Enterprise, 2010). Perhaps the most telling testament to the importance of search, however, is the fact that 80% of visitors will abandon a site if search functionality is poor. Transform your site abandonment rates by creating an intuitive site search.
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Make it easy
As web usage has evolved over the past decade, so has internal search. Rather than starting from the homepage, many users are now entering your site on deeper pages, either via targeted search engine queries or referrals from other sites.
This means that they may begin their searches without seeing products or categories that you have carefully displayed on your homepage. Make sure your internal search is up to the task.
To optimize internal search, we recommend:
- Allowing advanced search: Some customers may know what they’re looking for, but would rather find it via search than by navigating through categories. Letting these customers specify what they’re looking for from the get-go gets them directly to their desired product without having to make any detours along the way.
- Setting up filters: Allow your customers to filter by product feature (e.g. size, price, color, etc). Paging through endless product grids can be frustrating. If you have more than 10 products in a category, filters can make it easier for customers to find exactly what they want. This is especially true for customers using search as a browsing tool.
- Accounting for spelling mistakes: Customers are human and are inevitably going to spell things wrong. However,you don’t want to preclude them from a purchase because of a simple error.
Make sure your search engine can tackle spelling mistakes, providing a “did you mean” link or at least suggestions of products in a similar category. It’s a good way to salvage a sale and perhaps upsell in the meantime.
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- Providing auto-fill in search bars: Another way to combat spelling errors or customer indecision is to set up your internal search to auto-complete queries as customers type them. Essentially, site search will suggest keywords or products that the customer might be typing, and the customer can click at anytime on the correct one. While not an ecommerce site, google.com is a great example of this, suggesting conclusions to entire sentences as you search:
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- Never returning zero results: Last but not least, no matter what you do, don’t simply write off unmatched searches as “No results were returned,” even if the product in question doesn’t exist or cannot be located. Instead, take the opportunity to display products in similar categories, current bestsellers, or discounted items. Who knows? You might capture the customer’s attention and net yourself a sale!
Above all else, search (like many design best practices) is about making the website easier for the customer to navigate and easier for you to make a transaction. Don’t lose sight of that! Remember, the fewer hoops customers have to jump through to find the product they want, the higher chance they have of making that final purchase.
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2 comment(s) so far...
Re: Web tip: don’t make customers play hide ‘n’ seek with your site search
Can you provide the link to the Google Enterprise, 2010 research that you cite in the second paragraph?
By Peter on
Saturday, August 25, 2012 1:59 PM
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Re: Web tip: don’t make customers play hide ‘n’ seek with your site search
Hi, Peter!
Sure, we'd be glad to. Here's a .PDF version of the Google report, "Google Enterprise: Value of Site Search" (2010): ow.ly/dfTqR. In it, the company draws on their years as a search giant to explain why it's not only important to put site search into place, but also to make sure that it's optimized for your visitors. It's a position we definitely agree with!
Hope that helps! Let us know if you have any more questions.
-Whereoware Team
By Administrator Account on
Monday, August 27, 2012 8:50 AM
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