Investment in site search increasing

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Recent research from Searchandise Commerce and iProspect found that site search, the search engine located on a retailer’s website, is a key element of the online shopping process. Their survey found 40% of shoppers use site search to find products on a retailer’s site, whereas only 20% browse the home or landing page.

Another survey, this time from Econsultancy in association with Internet and enterprise search firm Funnelback, found an increasing recognition amongst marketers of the importance of site search. They found over half (57%) of the 500 or so participating companies plan to increase their investment in site search in the coming year.

For the majority of companies (83%) providing site search was seen to be the key to providing users with a better experience while 65% cited the biggest benefits as “more site usage” and 64% said an increase in sales.

Econsultancy’s research also unearthed dissatisfaction with current site search functionality and performance. Almost a third of companies were “quite” or “very” dissatisfied and just 41% “satisfied”.

Interestingly, the most common type of technology used for site search is that which comes integrated with other software (27%) followed by Google’s site search (23%), in-house developed technology (15%), specialist site search vendor (16%) and open source technology (10%).

According to Funnelback UK managing director, Stephen Morgan, many users of site search continue to have a disappointing experience, with only half finding what they are looking for, and marketers need to up their game, and investment.

“The need for quality website search is accelerating, as Internet users get used to increasingly sophisticated and relevant returns. A great search engine needs to deliver a fast, accurate result set and then expand on this to allow the user to correct, expand or refine what they’re looking for, quickly and easily,” said Morgan.

Christmas is just around the corner and once summer is over consumers will be online, en masse, searching for the perfect holiday gifts. Retailers that make this research easy, and reliable, will reap the benefits and site search has a major role in making that happen.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kristina Knight-1
Kristina Knight, Journalist , BA
Content Writer & Editor
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Kristina Knight is a freelance writer with more than 15 years of experience writing on varied topics. Kristina’s focus for the past 10 years has been the small business, online marketing, and banking sectors, however, she keeps things interesting by writing about her experiences as an adoptive mom, parenting, and education issues. Kristina’s work has appeared with BizReport.com, NBC News, Soaps.com, DisasterNewsNetwork, and many more publications.