Guide to E-Commerce Site Search: So What Exactly Is It?

When I do live presentations concerning our E-Commerce site search product called CyberSiteSearch, I am often asked, “What exactly is E-Commerce site search?” Even more importantly, merchants ask me “Why do I care?”

The second question is the easiest to answer: because it helps boost sales on web sites selling products. The reason why is contained within the answer to the first question, which defines the concept.

First, some definitions:

Site search itself can be generally defined as “A search for content conducted exclusively within the boundaries of a specific web site”. In other words, when you launch your search, results will be returned only from pages contained within that specific website.

E-Commerce site search however, has a more specific definition as “A search for products for sale conducted exclusively within the boundaries of a specific web site”.

The difference between these two definitions is more than semantic, as it can make a huge difference between whether a commercial website simply limps along or actually achieves significant sales. If you're a serious online merchant, that’s critically important.

When we think of search results as presented from popular search engines such as Google, we almost always think of what is termed “ textual search results”. In other words, we are accustomed to seeing search results that are presented as nothing more than text information extracted from web pages presented along with dry, cryptic links to those web pages like this:

 

On the other hand, E-Commerce site search presents your actual products to customers as opposed to text links. As a result, your products come alive as illustrated below for the identical search on the same web site using E-Commerce site search:



This guide is intended to summarize those features that I would consider indispensable for a serious E-Commerce site search product.

First and foremost, consider the requisite features of the product search results. They should be focused on one thing only – selling! Product results are typically carefully designed with numerous features that help sell products, such as:

• Links to product pages from both pictures and text. This seems obvious, but sometimes overlooked. Customer click through to product pages must be facilitated in any possible way.
• Highlighted search terms. Visitors can readily see how the search results pertaining to the keywords that they entered. It’s a way of saying to the customer “here is how this product matches your desires; buy it!”
• Price information including sale pricing if appropriate. Again, this seems obvious but often overlooked. If it’s on sale, tout that fact!
• Stock status information. Is the product in stock? If so, tell the customer immediately. Removing that potential question as soon as possible goes a long way toward moving the customer toward that sale.
• Availability information. How quickly does it ship? When will the customer receive it? Again, answering questions like these early on in the search results helps move the customer along toward the sale.
• A “Buy Now” button right in the search results. Why make the customer click through to a product page to make the purchase? If the product is what he is looking for, let him buy it right then! Fewer clicks mean more sales!
• Product specific promotional messaging. Tout specific product features (“brand new, just received from the importer!”), special deals (“free shipping on this item”), etc.
• Cross sell and up sell links. Show items related to the specific product to increase order sizes.

Other features that E-Commerce site search should offer are some of the following:

• Best selling products are shown at the top of the search results page. This increases the odds of making a sale.
• Customers are permitted to sort search results. Sorting through results by a variety of criteria such as newest additions, price ascending or descending, most popular, etc. allows customers to view results using the criteria that is important to them.
• Merchandising and promotion features. These features permit the merchant to raise a certain product’s position in the search results returned for certain specific search terms.  For example, a merchant may wish to promote a certain new product at the top of the search results page returned in response to a search for “widgets”.
• Attribute based searches. The ability to launch searches based upon product attributes permits site visitors to browse the merchant’s catalog based not only on keywords but also by product attributes such as scent, voltage, axle diameter, pattern, etc.

Finally, a robust E-Commerce site search product should include a comprehensive set of reports that enabled the web merchant to understand what's happening on his website in terms of search activity, click activity and sales.  It’s amazing what can be learned from these reports, including highly actionable items that can increase sales.

In conclusion, E-Commerce site search is all about selling products from a web site, and a good E-Commerce site search solution should focus like a laser on making that happen. All of the features mentioned above contribute to this goal.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Understand your web site objectives

If the purpose your web site is simply to provide information, textual site search might be good enough for you, but if you are actively trying to sell products, E-Commerce site search is the way to go.

I recommend: See possible solutions below which contain both textual and E-Commerce site search options.

Evaluate your existing solution

Many shopping cart programs offer reasonable E-Commerce site search now, but most fall short on the requirements. E-Commerce site search is a specialty area best left to specialists.

I recommend: See possible solutions below, which should be able to be integrated with an existing shopping cart.

Tips & Tactics
Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• Perform test searches - try to locate certain specific products on your site, starting with general search terms. Better yet, ask some friends and neighbors to do the same, carefully record their actions and interview them afterwards. You might be surprised by what you learn. Just because you know how to readily find things on your web site doesn't mean the average visitor can do the same!
• Leverage your knowledge - If you site search reporting shows that your visitors are searching for "purple left handed widgets", it's reasonable to assume that they are searching Google, Yahoo, etc. using the same term. Start bidding those terms in your Pay Per Click campaigns to get more visitors to your site and ring up more sales.