By Shaun Ryan*

With hundreds of statistics and anecdotes floating around highlighting the significant value of the local etail industry, it’s little wonder that local retailers are spending more time and resources on fine-tuning their online store. From new web designs and enhanced product catalogues to smarter direct mail tactics, retailers are very aware of the future of etailing and are determined to secure as much of the pie as possible. And fair enough too. But when it comes to being smarter about how you increase sales via the website, many retailers are overlooking a fundamental tool that can increase conversion rates significantly. I’m talking about the site search box on your website.

The use of site search technology in Australia is in its infancy but things are changing quickly, and Google’s recent entrance into the site search technology space is a good indication that retailer demand for smart site search solutions is growing. Retailers are increasingly aware that they need to give visitors what they want immediately, with more and more people turning to online stores to compare prices, research products and purchase goods.

Many retailers have a limited understanding of the value of site search technology and how it can contribute dramatically to the business bottom line. While most retailers offer a search function on their website, it’s mostly by default and I’m guessing many don’t realise that (on average) more than 43 per cent of website visitors will head straight to that search tool to find what they’re looking for. With this in mind, ask yourself; are our customers finding the products they want? How are they searching for our products? Are they abandoning our site after using the search tool? Many retailers probably don’t know the answers to these questions, which is a shame because they hold the key to increasing site conversions significantly.

So, let’s look at some of the typical ways in which you can significantly improve the value of your site search:

Make it easy for the customer – First and foremost make your site search easy to find. This sounds like an obvious piece of advice to offer but you’d be surprised how many websites are so ‘busy’ and crowded with messages that the site search is very difficult to locate. This is a big mistake given how many people use site search as the main method for finding products. It should be in a prominent location so if it’s not, move it.

You say tee shirt, I say t-shirt – Your site search needs to accommodate all the different ways potential customers spell product names and types. The word ‘t-shirt’ is a great example of the importance of this. If I go to your site and search for ‘tee shirts’ but your site is only setup to return products when it’s spelt ‘tshirt’ then you’re going to frustrate your customers with those horrible ‘zero results’ pages, especially if it’s obvious that you sell t-shirts. If you’re lucky, the customer will make another search attempt but will soon move on to another site that is easier to navigate. The moral of the story? Anticipate all the different ways people search for items and more importantly, track how your site visitors are searching for products and update spelling and search terms accordingly.

Offer a little refinement – Let’s say you’re in the computer business and someone comes to your online store and conducts a search for ‘Mac screens’. Hopefully your site search technology is sophisticated enough to offer that prospect a good amount of product information. But your site search service shouldn’t end there. This is a good first step but we need to take site navigation one step further and offer customers the chance to refine his or her search whether by ‘colour’, ‘brand’ or ‘size’. In offering simple refinement options, people not only come to your site and conduct a search quickly and effectively, but they see you doing the work for them by offering different pathways to finding exactly what they want.

Think of a typical in-store experience. You wouldn’t train your sales team to point customers in the direction of your Mac screens and then walk away, leaving your customer to wander the aisles. A sales rep would walk them to the relevant section and then help the customer refine the number of products they look at according to their personal preferences. Why would you run your online store any differently?

Watch and mimic –You cannot underestimate the value of watching what your customers are searching for on your site and mimicking those behaviours with relevant search results and refined search options. Similar to watching how your customers are arriving at your online store, you need to understand how people navigate your site and use your site search so you can better service their needs and consequently boost sales.

These tricks of the trade are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to providing site visitors with a satisfying website experience but they make a great start. So if you’ve got a minute, jump onto your website with an open mind and see how you can use the tips above to quickly and dramatically improve site conversions and customer satisfaction.

* Shaun Ryan is CEO of SLI Systems, a provider of site search technologies for online retailers and content-rich web sites. More information on SLI Systems is available at
www.sli-systems.com.au. You can contact Shaun at shaun.ryan@sli-systems.com