Imagine logging onto a major retailer’s site. You know precisely what you want: several button-down shirts of a specific color. Egregiously, there is no search bar to be found, and you can’t query about anything. You have to flip through the web pages to find what you want. Shopping this way would be insane. Instead, it would be infinitely less productive than going to a store and browsing among available items. How could such inanity occur? If the owner of the business and site has failed to optimize his or her site in terms of eCommerce. The primary way to make a site e-commerce-ready is simply to have a search bar that populates a healthy series of results based on what the customer asks. Furthermore, an ecommerce search engine can help you learn more about your customers by analyzing what your customers type into the search bar. To place one’s eCommerce site among the best sites is to maintain an excellent search engine across one’s site.
Why Are Search Bars So Important?
If a customer has to peruse each page and tab on your site to find a single product, that’s terrible for business. Not only will the customer feel discouraged from purchasing your product, but to lengthen the process by which customers buy products is to lengthen the time until you and your business generate revenue. A search bar must be present for customers to address whatever their needs are.
Also, suppose your customers have immediate access to a search bar on your eCommerce site’s homepage. In that case, they will be more likely to purchase something, regardless of whether they intend to window-shop. A search bar keeps customers from scrolling aimlessly and focuses on creating revenue for your business.
Finally, eCommerce businesses thrive when they have access to feedback. Again, the contents of a search bar can be recorded by eCommerce software, allowing you to have a clear view of demographic information and information about customers’ needs. Online, there is no way to pick at a customer’s brain without using an annoying survey. Even then, a customer may be too annoyed to answer the survey honestly or to complete the survey at all. Accordingly, you will have to improvise with online eCommerce tools that allow you to take a closer look at your base of customers.
A Search Engine’s Features
Apart from using a keyword to populate a list of terms, a search engine has a lot of parts that work together to make the buying process easier for customers and more lucrative for your business. First of all, many are equipped with some form of spell-checking. With no spell correction, an incorrectly-spelled keyword may populate an inadequate list of items that ultimately does not help the customer. Spell-checking makes it easier for customers to find what they need, plain and simple. Similar to spell-check is autocomplete. Autocomplete allows a customer to see relevant items upon typing a few letters of a word into a search bar. Of course, this saves time and lets customers know about other items of probable interest.
Clicking on a search bar can also reveal to customers any trending items. Letting current customers know how previous customers addressed needs may expedite your current customers’ purchasing process. Furthermore, eCommerce software may offer functionality across many devices, from mobile to desktop. More compatible devices mean more potential customers. Some people only use phones over computers when buying things online.
The final few features of an eCommerce search engine regard the products that appear in response to a customer’s query. You can sort products by how relevant they are and how much they cost. There are categories to provide customers as customers look for the right items to purchase. Possible categories usually include characteristics like color, brand, size, texture, and others. You can also give your users the option to determine how many results to populate a list after typing a query. Customers may even want an infinite option with which to scroll through the entirety of relevant search results more quickly. With the right eCommerce software, all list sizes are possible and customizable from the perspective of each distinct customer. The synonym feature is one feature that’s distinct from autocomplete but allows similar results. The synonym feature causes similar items to appear in a sidebar. Think candy and soda at a grocery store’s checkout line or gift shop.
Ecommerce is less about confusing business owners and more about empowering them. If you optimize your eCommerce search engine, your eCommerce site will be among the best on the internet.
