Using InstantSearch+ To Link Shoppers and Merchants

Two things infuriate customers when shopping in a store. One is when no one is around to help them, and the other is when a salesperson follows them around but can’t answer simple questions about the product. When this happens, customers will walk out unhappy, unfulfilled, and unlikely to return.

When shoppers have a hard time finding what they are looking for in an eCommerce environment, they will click away to a competitor’s site. We featured a spotlight on this in our eCcommerce site search blog that demonstrates the benefits of using machine learning and AI.

Whether online or physical, every buying process begins with a search. Providing efficient site search makes it easier for customers to look for the product of their choice. It’s just like glancing at a store aisle where all the products are properly organized, tagged, and priced.

If your business has a clunky site search, you’ll lose customers and sales.

On average, users who complete a search are 1.8 x more likely to convert, generating as much as 13.8% of overall revenue.

Shopify

4 Reasons Why Efficient Site Search Is Critical for Online Businesses

Over 30% of online shoppers depend on site search to find what they want on eCommerce websites. Statistically speaking, an active search demonstrates a strong signal of intent to buy.

Here are four fundamental reasons for implementing a complete site search function on all your best eCommerce websites.

1. Generate More Sales - When customers search for specific products on your website, they’re usually in the end stage of the buying cycle. With the right product information, price and availability, they will buy it from your site.
2. Improved Customer Loyalty - The more comfortable you make the shopping experience, the more likely they will become your repeat buyers.
3. Better Conversions Using the Autocomplete Feature - Filling in the correct spelling and making product suggestions increases conversions. Customers can find alternatives and additional items, essentially upselling themselves.
4. Greater Insight Into What Customers Want - Capturing search data is vital information for retailers or merchandisers. It enables better stock control and inventory management. Promote items while they’re in demand or move excess inventory based on search data.

Site search that provides a better user experience and delivers excellent fast results will have better conversions. For example, IMA, a military collectible store, reported a seven-times increase in conversions adding InstantSearch+ to their store.

Seamless Integrated Applications for eCommerce Platforms

Since 2013, InstantSearch+ has helped over 300,000 eCommerce businesses improve their shopper’s experiences. The difference between InstantSearch+ and most other site search apps is the integrated AI for self-learning. With each new search, the app becomes more intuitive for searches on your site.

InstantSearch makes it MUCH easier for potential customers to find specific groomsmen gifts or military branded products through plain-language queries, which helps conversion rate while also reducing our time spent answering simple questions over the phone or live chat.

Bullets 2 Bandages

Some of the main features that merchants and customers appreciate include:

Natural Language Search – Customers use a variety of lengthy search terms, phrases, and misspelled words when looking for products. Natural Language search immediately adjusts and suggests the right search query.

Merchandising – Optimize your product placement and presentation through the searches. You control the factors including geo-targeting, seasonal changes, new product discovery, and any variable you choose.

Smart Navigation - Enhance the accuracy and relevancy of each search marketing query using Smart Navigation. This one-click widget presents a consistent shopper experience across every page. Visitors can use the search to find the most relevant products, categories, and filters for an enjoyable shopping experience.

Product Recommendations – Product recommendations are the smart way to cross-sell and upsell your customers. The app captures all customer shopping behavior to offer products that they want to see. The intelligent algorithm delivers relevant and timely recommendations, matching the right products with your shoppers’ intent.

Mobile Search – When shoppers search using their mobile devices, all information loads from the cloud, not your server, creating a faster response. The search-as-you-type feature suggests products from the first character entered.

User-Generated SEO Landing Pages - When shoppers search using relevant short and long-tail keywords, InstantSearch+ automatically creates the landing pages. Google and Bing index the pages, increasing organic traffic to your site.

Landing Pages – Create custom landing pages in minutes using drag-and-drop technology. Add time-sensitive banners to increase urgency and conversions.

InstantSearch+ offers dedicated customer service. Although the app installs without coding, they have technicians ready to assist with any issues that come up.

FashionNova.com

The App That Goes Far Beyond Searching

Although the AI returns results based on the buyer’s search behavior, you have manual control over the results. This allows you to geo-target, promote seasonal items, or move overstocked items instead of just a stock response to each search.

Here is how a typical search works using one of their clients, Riddell, a sports equipment retailer as an example. Type in “Helmets” in the search box. You’ll notice a drop-down list appears with the first letter typed populated with suggestions, descriptions, images, and prices. With each additional letter typed, AI intuitively changes the recommendations to match. The advantage is it makes it so much easier for shoppers.

To see how InstantSearch+ will work for your store, check out some of the other examples:

• Puravida Bracelets
• Fashion Nova
• DuluthPack
• Gymshark

GymShark.com

The search app quickly integrates with all eCommerce platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, and WooCommerce. While most of those platforms offer some form of site search, they have some limitations. It can also be pricey to have a third-party custom code it to your site. With InstantSearch+, there is no coding, integration or maintenance required.

It features a fast, autocomplete function that helps shoppers find what they’re looking for, as well as offer, cross-sells, and upsell ideas. The robust analytics allows you to see what shoppers want and then easily customize any aspect of the search results. Auto-generated filters can refine searches using synonyms, redirects, SKUs, specific product attributes, and more.

With InstantSearch+, search results are in front of our customer quickly and intuitively. We love the recommended products feature and implementation was so easy – on the site within one day!

Paul Mihelich, COO – Shoezen.com

Functionalities Are Tiered with The Pricing

Whether you’re already an enterprise eCommerce business or striving to get there, InstantSearch+ will keep your shoppers happy and on your site.

Using a cloud commerce platform makes the app flexible and easy to scale up for any size multi-channel business. InstantSearch+’s enterprise eCommerce SEO search solution provides retailers with the technology to launch products and promotions faster, expand globally, and let customers search online or offline stores from any device.

Image Credit: InstantSearch+ / instantsearchplus.com