How to increase the conversion and the average check site search

From translator

Good day to Habravchane! As a marketer, I was interested in the topic of increasing conversion in stores with technical methods. Today I publish a translation dedicated to search engines in online stores. The article may be of interest to entrepreneurs, marketers, programmers.

Who needs an advanced search system

If there are hundreds of items in your online store, most likely you would like a more advanced product search system to help customers find what they want faster. If in your online store there are less than 500 products, then you just need to be sure that the navigation of your website is clear and effective. However, for stores with more than 500 items, an advanced search system will help you in many ways, including an increase in turnover.

There are several factors that determine whether your site needs an advanced search engine. The main factor is the number of products in your catalog. “The more products on the storefront, the more difficult it is for buyers to find the right product,” said Joe Lichtman, director of retail solutions for FAST, which develops advanced search systems.
')
Large multi-profile retailers, in particular, can benefit from the implementation of a unified system for searching and processing information in their organizational structures. Choosing a single search platform to meet all these search needs, as well as an online storefront, large multi-retailers get a positive economies of scale and experience a real return on investment.

How does this affect sales

By providing the site with an advanced and well-tuned search system, retailers increase site conversion, average bill, and customer loyalty. An advanced search system helps buyers narrow the range of products to the ones they need, increasing the likelihood of purchase. Traders can use the site search to cross-sell related products to customers looking for a particular product, which potentially affects the average bill. By offering personalized search and recommendations to a specific visitor, an advanced search system can increase customer loyalty.



Mercado Software customers report a change in conversion growth from 50% to 100%, and a 300% increase in site search usage. The best way to keep people on the site is to solve all the characteristic e-commerce search problems and offer sales opportunities that allow retailers to show certain brands, promote sales, high-margin and surplus products, measure indicators such as conversion and revenue, to effectively manage sales and conduct multidimensional testing.

Even if you now have a search on the site, it may be too simple and not be able to edit the wrong words, fuzzy matches, or not have data analysis. The founder of Nextopia, a Toronto-based e-commerce search and navigation solution company, Sanjay Arora, claims that most of the existing search engines in online stores show: “Sorry, no match found” for those products that are in stock.



“It's simple: low usability = lower sales,” says Arora. "People usually do not have the patience or time to attempt to enter various keywords and phrases and simply leave the site." Many merchants use home-made search engines that are not scalable and not customizable in the future, which is tantamount to dissatisfied visitors and huge monetary losses.

If buyers shop on the site and cannot find the right product in a matter of minutes, they will most likely stop searching and go to another site. An advanced search engine that literally understands visitor behavior and quickly identifies the product you are looking for allows you to increase conversion, overall customer satisfaction, and save the customer.

How much is it?

The cost of implementing a search engine in online shopping varies greatly. “It depends on whether the customer wants to get a subscription to a search service or a license for a software solution that can be adapted to specific business needs,” said Kevin Lindsay, head of marketing at Mercado Software. For example, the most affordable solution from Nextopia can be purchased and implemented for about $ 1000 a year.

“Despite the price, it is important to know which solutions are suitable for your specific tasks, and to clearly understand what benefits you will get by investing in this solution,” says Sean Ryan.

Large retailers should consider choosing a contractor who can scale their solution easily to prevent the cost of hardware.

check yourself

The best thing you can do for your online store is to search for products yourself, as if you are a consumer, and get results. If you could not find the product you need, imagine how unhappy your visitors are if they want to find something. The introduction of an advanced search engine increases the turnover and loyalty of your customers.

Source of article for translation:
www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/541-Site-Search-Increases-Conversion-Rates-Average-Order-Value-And-Loyalty

From translator

What solutions are there

Yandex has created its own ready-made solution Yandex.Search to organize a search. It is completely free and has many features.

Link: site.yandex.ru

Probably, I will not surprise anyone, voicing the search from Sphinx, opensource full-text search system, which has already gained popularity.
Link: www.sphinxsearch.com

There is an interesting project Searchanise (by the way written on the basis of Sphinx). They made an interesting cloud search solution for free too.
It was great to come up with the issuance of not only the names of the desired product, but also stocks and special offers.

Link: www.searchanise.com

Update

Tell me, what other engines exist and how do you solve this problem?