How Fast Simon Can Help Build An Optimized Site Search Experience In Your Store
Published December 3, 2024.
Site search is undeniably one of the most important features of any eCommerce site. If people aren’t able to find the products they are searching for, the store simply isn’t doing it’s job. If people can’t find the required products, sales can’t happen, and the business will fail.
On the other hand, the better an eCommerce search engine is at returning the results needed, the more sales are encouraged to happen. But providing accurate results is only the starting point, the functions of site search can be so much more than that. Fast Simon’s eCommerce site search can help.
What Is Site Search?
E-Commerce site search is a search engine solution that you can integrate into your eCommerce store. At the bare minimum, this can help users find the products they are looking for in your store through matching keywords. But given the opportunity, it can be an inspiration for new purchases and a sign to let your customers know that you really care about their buyers’ journey.
Modern eCommerce search is not as simple as a keyword-based generic search engine. An effective solution nowadays also includes; navigation, intelligent autocomplete suggestions, advanced analytics, dashboard features, personalization, A/B testing and even visual features. It should be propped up by machine learning and AI to utilize users’ behavior to automate and remove results and outcomes as necessary.
Site search should provide your user with what they need, whatever they are looking for.
The Benefits Of Advanced Site Search
There are 3 main advantages of advanced site search:
- Higher Conversion Rates
- Better Customer Experience
- Better Business Decisions Through Analytics Data
According to Forrester Research, 43% of website visitors head straight to the search bar when they open a website; these are shoppers that should not be let down. They have high-intent, and in general have a 6 times higher conversion probability- but one website or site search failure could let you down, and put them off.
So the better configured the site search engine, the easier it is for people to find the information they are seeking without needing assistance from customer service, or without having to leave your website. An advanced site search is basically the online equivalent of the best salesperson ever.
The ability to add an advanced site search feature such as personalization takes things to the next level and increases the chance of developing lifetime customers. Showing customers that you care about their individual needs is a great opportunity to grow brand loyalty.
A good analytics system based on search data means that the company is constantly learning what their customers want. Understanding customer intent and growing data on customer interests is a hugely valuable advantage that can be yours instantaneously. This information can obviously be used to make better future business decisions that will benefit you long term.
On the other hand; having a site search that doesn’t work well sends your customers the signal that you don’t care about their experience. These customers will then move to a competitor who offers better site search capabilities. If your site search is up to scratch, you stand to gain happy customers, boosted brand image, boosted sales and an overall increase in conversions.
How Fast Simon Can Help
Fast Simon specializes in offering powerful AI eCommerce site search providing quick and accurate results. This is the service that your customers deserve, and the service that creates customers that keep on returning to shop at your store. Offering much more than the minimum site search feature, Fast Simon’s system allows you to reap all the available benefits of the most advanced site search.
Let’s take a look at some of the optimized site search experience features offered:
Autocomplete Suggestions
Customers who know what they are searching for should be able to find their results in the shortest time possible; their buyer’s journey should be short and precise- with no time wasting. Autocomplete suggestions uses previously learned data to provide customers with their required search- whether it is products, collections, search terms or blog posts- in a matter of seconds.
No matter the size of your catalog, instant results can be created in response to any query. These will be suggested as soon as the customer starts typing, to give them that extra help and speed to reach their results.
Customizable Dropdown Results
Customization is very important in terms of ensuring that your business and brand comes across in the way you want it to. Fast Simon offers the ability to choose how the dropdown results appear visually to the viewer. The results can be wide or narrow, horizontal or vertical, full of results or only sharing a select few- this is all up to you.
Fast Simon lets you meet all your customizing needs without any coding assistance required. This means that the site search not only works well, but it looks good too.
Customizable Results Page
Fast Simon offers a customizable search results page that has been designed to deliver the optimal results for shoppers’ search and navigation experience. Making sure the search works effectively is one thing; but the layout of the search page is highly important and not to be overlooked especially in terms of merchandising.
You can choose from a pre-set theme, or customize your own, and with the new No-Code Editor, creating a results page that suits your business has never been easier. It can be done with no coding required, but simply through a drag and drop feature.
The additional features such as accessible smart filters create a multi-faceted search experience with easy and exemplary shopper navigation.
Natural Language Search
Fast Simon’s machine learning adjusts itself to the customer’s intention in order to deliver the best results. This means that the natural language the customer uses to first search for their query will definitely yield results- even if it doesn’t match the product name exactly.
Customers being unable to find their required search query because of a spelling mistake, for example, is an avoidable error that your search should be compensating for. Fast Simon’s advanced synonym and antonym feature means that shoppers can find the content they need, no matter the spelling, words or phrases used to find it.
This feature is especially useful in fields such as fashion which frequently uses specific product names and phrases, meaning that the dreaded ‘No Results’ screen is never witnessed by potential customers.
Visual Discovery
The eCommerce world is constantly growing, expanding and improving. Visual Discovery proves this. Search isn’t only done textually anymore, there is also the potential to find queries visually, through images, social media and advertisements. Having this advanced functionality possibility enhances the customer experience, makes it easy to find products without keywords, and inspires customers to shop in a way similar to that of a brick and mortar store. This is site search taken to the next level, thinking outside the box.
Personalized Search
As mentioned before, personalized search adds a whole new dimension to the customer experience, and Fast Simon has got this covered. Understanding each individual customers’ intent means that the results they see will be directly relevant to them, based on their past searches and preferences.
All of these kinds of details are gathered and stored in the analytics dashboard feature, which means that no important data information goes to waste. The data can be used to provide personalized features, or it can be used to inform future business decisions regarding the search and other elements of the website.
What Are You Waiting For?
As you have seen, Fast Simon’s site search experience is far beyond basic. It offers extensions and improvements in all areas, meaning that the eCommerce experience for both the buyer and the merchant are as smooth, fast and optimized as they can be. It is this kind of ‘extra mile’ attitude that will win repeat customers and make your store stand out from the crowd.