The Unstupid Guide from Loop54

Loop54.se

USING PRODUCT SEARCH

TO CONVERT

ABOUT USWe didn’t mean to start a search engine. At first it was just something to keep our mathematician busy while we figured out how to make money. But while we developed Loop54 Search by chance, we’ve built it into a self-learning, low-maintenance engine that ensures your sales are anything but accidental. Loop54 Search can be set up in a matter of days and it starts learning right away — no fancy data project needed.

Who uses product search?There are many types of search query, but to simplify we’ve divided the people who use search into three groups.

The BrowserIn the mood to shop, has some ideas, but also wants to discover products.

The Sort Of SureKnows the category of product they want, but wants to narrow

down the query.

The Made-Up MindWants to find a specific product, and uses search to get there faster.

WHAT’S WRONG WITH SEARCH?Today, product search is often so bad that people don’t expect much from it. That’s the short version, but we’ll expand on this throughout the guide. The key point right now is that users of search convert at twice the rate of your other site visitors*, but if they don’t find what they came for, they are likely to think you don’t have it. That might make them go to a competitor. And that’s definitely bad for your business.

We’re pretty good at search, and in this guide we’ll give you some useful tips on faceting, page layouts, and show you how autocomplete can help keep your users oriented. We’ll also share some ideas about how to make the most of your search data.

We know how hard it is to do search well; these are just a few things you can do yourself, without having to do a total overhaul.

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Users of search convert at twice the rate of other visitors — if they find what they are looking for. That’s why search matters.tl;dr

*http://www.smartinsights.com/ecommerce/ecommerce-analytics/ecommerce-conversion-rates/

Talk to Joel about punsTalk to Mike

about squash

Talk to Jane about dogs

Talk to Robin about anything

but puns

Talk to Erik about coffee

But wait! Faceting isn’t enough on its ownFacets should be relevant to the customer and add value to their whole experience. Get to know how customers behave on your site--when they’re browsing, searching for options, or making a laser-focused purchase.

Shopping IRL is a multifaceted experience; great search is, tooLet’s say you’re looking for pirate stuff. You go into your local toy store, where you’ll see a range of options. In the Lego aisle there’s a cool pirate ship, but who has time to assemble it? You want pirate gear: an eye patch, a hat, maybe a fake wooden leg, and, of course, an obnoxious squawking parrot. Your kids are going to be so surprised when you pick them up from school! Now search for ’pirate’ at the same toy retailer’s online store. Sure, you’ll get plenty of results. The Lego is there, as is the parrot — but everything is in total disarray. This is where faceted search makes life easier, especially for your customer who is sort of sure what they want.

Now let’s say you are that toy retailer.

Adding faceting to your results pages isn’t just to help the customer navigate to what they need; it also helps them understand how to navigate around your site. Done well, faceting helps customers learn their way around your online catalogue just like they would in your physical store.

If you searched for ’pirate’, faceting shows you where you ended up, not just a scattershot match of the word ‘pirate’ but what categories contain pirate stuff.

Faceted search helps users navigate, narrow their options, and not lose their way as they search.tl;dr

AVOID THESE DEADLY SINS:

Don’t overload them! Showing too many facets will confuse users, and defeat the purpose of facets.

Don’t limit them to one! People need to define what they want, so let them choose multiple facets at the same time.

Not all facets are created equal! Make sure you know which options are most important to your customers, and put those at the top.

Think before you define! They need to be mutually exclusive and based on clear structures, so make sure they’re based on how your customers search.

With faceting that offers the right filters at the right time, your customers will leave with whatever they came for, along with a better understanding of your online store.

Great search will autocomplete youFirst, let’s get bad autocomplete out of the way. We’ve all seen it. There they are, product suggestions directly in the search field’s dropdown window! This leaves users in the position of making a binary decision. It dumps them right onto a product page, rather than showing them the possible products in the context of whatever part of the store they are in. If they want to choose something else, they have to go back and do another search.

The more searches they have to do before they find what they want, the more likely you are to lose them to a competitor. This is especially true for customers searching on mobile devices, where there is poorer interface potential. When retailers realised they could show products right in the search window, they got excited. After all, bringing the customer straight to a specific product will convert them without distractions, especially if their minds are already made up — won’t it?

But the truth is, while some of your visitors might come to your site with made-up minds, they don’t have tunnel vision. It’s much better to suggest search phrases in the dropdown window, and then bring them to a results page. Results pages that show a range of products convert better than getting too specific too soon. You might want to show off how good your engine is at finding individual products, but that isn’t making the most of it as a sales tool.

Searchpira

pirate

piraya

pirate ship

pirate costume

pirate flag

pirate toy

Autocomplete is great, but make sure yours suggests search phrases, not products, since results pages convert better.tl;dr

Make sure your search field is sized and placed so that users will find it immediately.

Don’t put most of the results below the fold. People don’t want to have to scroll to get the results.

Keep the search field populated with the query words. That way, the user can narrow their search without having to go back and remember what they searched.

1 2 3Consider including a quick-view option. Offering a preview of your products saves your customers from having to leave the results page or open a new tab before they’re closer to a purchasing decision.

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When you deliver a results page, make sure you don’t get customers lost. tl;dr

Good search results pages convert; bad ones chase your customers away, even the customers who have lots of time to browse. It sounds simple enough, yet the world of online retail is cluttered with bad results pages. We know there’s a lot to consider, and you’re probably getting lots of conflicting advice about layouts, eye-tracking, button placement, microcopy – it’s enough to make you want to walk the plank.

The important thing to remember is that when you deliver a results page, you can also deliver reassurance. Here are four things you can do to on your results pages to ensure that your customers won’t get lost at sea.

Make the most of your search results pages

Use your data to become a know-it-allYou’re probably already looking at your site data, but here are some more things to look for that can help you make your customers even happier.

Even a failed search has some learning for you. Look at popular queries that don’t generate search results — are these products that you should carry? Or, if it’s something you do carry, are your customers using a term your product managers need to know about? Having the synonyms customers use for the products you carry will make it easier to find what they need using their words, not yours.

What about products that just don’t convert well? Popular search queries that don’t convert well could mean that something is missing, or that a competitor is running a better deal of some kind. It could also teach you what consumer trends are actually catching on, and for finding out how much stock to carry — especially before the holidays.

For example, we have one customer who found that Easter-themed search queries began to trend a full week before their campaign actually started. When you have seasonal merchandise, you can use this information to plan and control your stock, run campaigns, or target particular types of customers.

Are you making the most of your data insights? Even failed searches can teach you a lot.

tl;dr

Great search is hard, but it’s worth the effort, especially in the crowded and-growing online retail market. You don’t need the big data power of Amazon to create ways for small-data-based search to turn browsers into happy customers.

Here’s what we hope you learned from our short guide, and what you and your team can implement right away.

Don’t do something just because it’s technically possible; only do what will help you build relationships with your customers

Know why your site visitors use search, and understand how they behave depending on what they’re trying to do in your store

Use your understanding to provide smart faceting that will help your searchers narrow their queries and find their way to what they want.

Use autocomplete to deliver suggested search phrases, and then bring customers to results pages; dropping them straight into a product page can make them feel lost.

Make sure the search field is easy to find, and keep it populated with search queries even once the customer has reached the results page.

Design results pages so that products are above the fold--don’t make people scroll too much just to find out where they’ve ended up.

Don’t make your users leave the page or open a new tab too quickly; consider adding a quickview option as a middle step that helps them narrow their options.

Use the insights from your data to learn from failed searches

Talk to Loop54 about product search that converts (Yeah, we thought we’d throw that one in there.)

SUMMARY

GET TO KNOW

THE UNSTUPID WAY

TO BETTER SEARCH

Key featuresAutomatically learns your customers’ language: Our engine adapts to your customers’ behaviour as soon as they start using it. This is extra-helpful for users of broad search terms, who can get good results without refining queries in advance.

Features advanced autocomplete and spellcheck: Loop54 Search learns what your users mean. This is especially handy for people on mobiles, where interface potential is poorer and fingers are sausagier.

Finds synonyms automatically: Most search engines require you to add synonyms manually, or need a lot of user data before they can match words with similar meanings. Loop54 Search uses contextual relationships to find synonyms fast, automatically.

Delivers rich insights: Loop54 Search does more than analytics. It alerts you to trends, non-converting searches, or other unusual events.

Almost always returns search results: Even when a user types something that doesn’t make much sense, our engine finds approximate matches. No more conversion-killing problem of empty results pages.

More benefitsIncrease your sales: Your search engine is a powerful sales tool. Loop54 Search customers have increased their sales by 28 to 50 percent.

Make mobile shopping easy: You can deliver relevant options to users that have high expectations, pressing needs, and are on a device with poor interface potential.

Upsell and cross-sell right in the results page: Loop54 Search makes the online experience more like shopping in a physical store. Shoppers find what they need, and can browse relevant recommended products.

Create personalised experiences: Our engine gets to know even your moderately regular customers, by learning what they like, even after just a few visits.

Be lazy about maintenance: Loop54 learns all by itself. You should, of course, keep your product catalogue updated, but the engine will do a lot of the housekeeping for you.

How to get unstupifiedLoop54 Search can be configured and implemented quickly by one of our partners. You’ll have smart, fast search up and learning in a matter of days.

Some of the customers who’ve bought Loop54 Search include:

Loop54 Search is a fast-learning, easy-to-implement product search engine that gives retailers a competitive edge.

We didn’t mean to make a search engine. At first, it was something that kept Mike, our mathematician, busy while we figured out how to make money. Once we started to use the engine, it behaved in ways we hadn’t seen before. We realised we had something fundamentally different on our hands, so we gave up what we were doing to focus on developing our search solution.

We might have discovered our product by chance, but we’ve built it into something with real purpose.

WHAT MAKES LOOP54 SEARCH DIFFERENT?Other product search engines rely on text-matching algorithms to match search queries with products, which means site visitors have to guess how products are described in the catalogue. These engines need a lot of user data, and require a huge amount of manual maintenance before they can return the kinds of rich results that lead to conversions and higher average order values.

Our engine uses a context-driven algorithm that finds the best results by comparing multiple sets of relationships and points of connection in the product data. This allows your customers to search in their own words, rather than trying to figure out how your database talks. Not only is Loop54 Search self-learning, but it starts using what it learns as soon as you implement it, helping you deliver the right results to the right customers, right when they want them.

KEY FEATURES & MORE

B I N G O

Enterprise in the cloud

Content Commerce

Integrated marketing

Online E-commerce Marketplace

Smart watch

Search-andising

Social Login

Gamification

Long tail

Big Data strategy

iBeacons

Link juice

Dynamic pricing

BYOD

Rockstar Developers

Uber for *****

Omnichannel experience

Pureplay

Guerilla marketing

M-commerce

Yelp for *****

Wearable strategy

Lean *****

References to ninjas/rockstars that do not refer

to feudal Japanese mercenaries or

famous musicians

Cross-border commerce

We do it, they do it, we all do it. Every time you hear one of the industry buzzwords on this card, mark the square. The first two people to score a BINGO will win a prize! If you think you’ve won, come find a

member of the Loop54 team to show off your achievement.

(Extra points if the buzzwords came from one of us.)

L INGOBINGO

Loop54.se

Holländargatan 23, 111 60 Stockholmrobin@loop54.com, +46 70 818 1382

GET IN THE LOOP!

L INGOBINGO