Do you wonder why every click counts and every second matters in an ecommerce store… because people are busy and impatient. They want quick results.
In the competitive world of ecommerce, the efficiency of an ecommerce site search can make or break the user experience. When customers head straight to the search bar, they expect a smooth journey to their desired items.
Ecommerce site search need to deliver accurate, relevant, and instant results. To do so, it needs to implement the best practices on the site search to enhance user experience.
Let’s head out to this blog guide to explore best practices for getting an efficient online store’s search functionality like never before.
What is an ecommerce site search?
An ecommerce site search defines the functionality of an ecommerce platform that is related to search. it allows users to efficiently search for specific products or items within the website inventory.
It refers to a search bar when the user enters a keyword, product name, or description to find relevant items.
The search results are then displayed based on relevance to the user’s query, it lets the user find the product quickly.
Ecommerce site search often includes features such as sorting options, filters, autocomplete, and sometimes even advanced search capabilities to improve product discoverability and enhance user experience.
Why is ecommerce site search important?
Ecommerce site search improves overall user experience by allowing shoppers to quickly find what they’re looking for. It increases customer satisfaction leading to repeat visits.
When customers easily find what they want, they are more likely to make a purchase, resulting in increased revenue for the ecommerce store.
by offering features like autocomplete suggestions and filters customers can engage with the website more deeply.
by using an advanced site search tool, it lets personalize the shopping experience for each user. By analyzing search queries and browsing behavior, ecommerce search sites can recommend relevant products, promotions, and individualized purchases.
As a result, having an ecommerce site search with a robust tool implemented at the backend lets merchants take insight into customer behavior, improve customer engagement, and eventually increase sales.
Top 7 ecommerce site search practices in 2024
Below are the top seven ecommerce site search best practices to implement on your ecommerce store in 2024. Let’s go through each one by one.
Make site search highly visible
Think about it, when you go shopping in an online store where do you go first, Obviously, you head straight to the search bar, right? Recent studies have shown that a particular amount of people rely on the search bar. But if that search bar is not visible, your conversion rate might suffer.
Now, the challenge we know but let’s talk about the good news. here are a few simple key solutions to make your ecommerce site search highly visible and user-friendly. Let’s go to each step by step:
Prime location is key: Make sure the search bar is visible and prominent. the idea is to place it at the top of the website. doing so, it will be the first thing users see when they land on your e-commerce store.
Simplicity is king: Try to make the search bar design clear and unclutter. Use clear and contrasting colors to make the search bar stand out from the website background.
Add a clear label: Don’t play guessing games with your website visitors. label the search bar with simple words like “search” or “find products”.
For example, let’s take a look at a few ecommerce websites like Amazon, eBay, Walmart, and Target that keep the search bar at the ideal place to make it easily accessible for visitors.
Here’s Amazon website view, as you all know:
Make the right use of Auto-complete
If you are an online shopper, you will be familiar with getting a list of suggestion dropdowns when you enter a few letters in the search bar. In simple words, that’s how autocomplete works. This feature is an efficient way to increase ecommerce site search capabilities.
Sometimes customers land on an ecommerce store with a vague idea in mind. They might type “summer clothes” or “summer essentials”.
If your e-commerce website has not implemented autocomplete, it may produce irrelevant results. A basic search function is unable to understand user queries and provide them with what they want.
If autocomplete is implemented effectively, It listens to users’ needs, gives them the right products, and leads to enhanced revenue.
Here are a few best practices to keep in mind when implementing the autocomplete feature on your e-commerce website:
Take long-tail keywords into consideration: Customers often use specific long detailed search terms instead of just suggesting one or two-word search results. Autocomplete can suggest long-tail keywords for the products.
For example, instead of just suggesting “dress” it can be “black party dress with sleeves”. this level of detail lets customers narrow down this search quickly and efficiently.
Think like your customers: Make this a sigma rule, always put yourself in the customer’s shoes and understand their needs and desires. what they want, why they want it, and how they want it. Use relevant synonyms and popular key terms to give autocomplete suggestions.
Keep it simple and fresh: Don’t make autocomplete suggestions confusing for users. Regularly update and add keywords based on seasonal trends. Analyze customer behavior through search analytics and add popular products and newly launched products accordingly.
Piririotize relevance: Last but not least, autocomplete suggestions should be highly relevant to the search query the user entered on websites. Keep track of user searches, analyze their behavior, give helpful suggestions, and reflect real customer queries. To be honest, not me, not you (nobody) wants to see irrelevant suggestions.
Allow for mis-spelling and synonym search queries
Typo tolerance is of four types:
- Missing letter: “drss” to “dress”
- Extraneous letter: “dreess” to “dress”
- Inverted letters: “dressers” to “dress”
- Substituted letters: “dess” to “dress”
If every user exactly knows what they are looking for, search engines should be a fairy tale. But this is never the case.
Does it happen to you, to land on an online store to look for something you don’t quite remember?
Or the last time you looked up for a song and just remembered the tune. (Relatable) Yeah, we understand.
Google search engine can find the exact spelled query, is yours?
Optimizing synonym search helps to reduce the zero results.
Good error correction can often make-or-break feature for creating a great customer experience. Customers don’t always know how to spell certain words or product names, and forcing them to do so is frustrating.
Focus on handling spelling queries well, especially if queries are marketing through word of mouth.
For example, a trip company like TripAdvisor knows well that people often mix, misspell, and forget destinations, so keeping this factor in mind is beneficial.
Add Powerful Merchandising solutions to site search
Merchants need third-party search engines because their current retail setup lacks merchandising features. It’s a need to change the ordering of products to improve search results.
The features that are important for merchandising on an ecommerce website are:
- Promo banners to promote product collection and attract customers
- Product spotlighting to prominently display trending and top products.
- Show my SKU to add product keywords in the product description and keyword section at the backend, so when the user searches for that specific product, it’ll show on the top in the search result.
- Product promotion by attributes to add certain badges on the products when it’s on sale, discounts, or any other promotion.
- No result template configuration to show relevant results instead of “0 results” to increase the chances of upselling and cross-selling
- Product promotion by SKU to show the relevant results on the top when customers search by writing the SKU number of the product instead of the name.
Use analytics insights to gain insights into user behavior
Analytics is crucial to understanding user behavior and then ordering your online store products accordingly. However, the fact that often got ignored is to understand and analyze the search tool that merchants have to use for their stores.
If merchants understand how analytics work, it works to the advantage that you gonna offer to your customers.
Let’s have a look at a few points to keep in mind:
- Total number of searches made
- The most successful queries
- Most sought-after product by your customers
- search options that are performing as well as you expected.
- Search queries that did not show any results.
- Total number of filters in use and frequency of their usage
- Geographical information of where search queries are performed
By observing and analyzing all this data, merchants can get to know what customers are looking for and what to prioritize. This tool able you to make a comparison between tactics that work and those that don’t.
Never allow site search to show “no results”
“No results found”
A phrase that creates a terrible customer experience. Try to give rewards to your customers for their search efforts.
Sometimes, searches yield no result but using the “no result template page” by the convertopia site search tool merchants can populate the page with product suggestions to lead them toward alternatives.
If a customer thinks you don’t have the product they’re looking for or at least a substitute, they will immediately leave. By offering relative suggestions customers care about their needs, which helps convince them to stay.
Ensure products are accurately named and tagged
Merchants…………..!!!!!!!!!!
Just Look at your store, are products at your store as easy to find as they should be??
Products should be accurately named and tagged and it’s not just a nicety, it’s a necessity, why? Because the way products at your ecommerce store are labeled directly impacts how easily they can be found by your customers.
Here’s how you can ensure products are accurately named and tagged on your ecommerce store:
- Clear and concise naming
- Thorough Tagging
- Consistent formatting
Implement all practices with a site search tool
Good intention matters a lot, but alone it doesn’t serve! Maximizing the potential of your ecommerce store demands the right tools. Implementing best practices with a robust site search tool is a success for running an ecommerce store in 2024.
And when it comes to choosing the right search tool, Convertopia stands out with its powerful merchandising features. With Convertopia, you can effortlessly implement and manage all seven ecommerce site search practices, ensuring your customers find exactly what they need, every time.
