Searchandising: The Ultimate Guide to Boosting Your Sales through Search

Are you tired of struggling to make sales? Would you like to convert more of your traffic into orders? If so, you’ve come to the right place! Reading this guide about searchandising will definitely help you achieve your goal. So let's get to it!

We’ve all been here: you’re doing your online shopping, searching for something in particular, and instead of finding what you are looking for you end up clicking through infinite pages of random stuff. It’s frustrating, right? Guess what? As an eCommerce business owner, there is still something you can do to save your customers from this digital maze and convert that annoyance into excitement: searchandising.

Optimizing search results for users based on their intent enables the customers to get exactly what they want at the quickest and simplest way possible. Customizing product discovery based on user behavior can also improve the user experience, and make your ecommerce website more competitive and profitable.

In this guide, we’ll dive into searchandising (searchandizing, if you want to get fancy) and how pairing ecommerce merchandising and savvy search methods can convert window shoppers into paying customers. Stay with me and I’ll get you a plan that increases conversions, average order value and love for your store!

What is Searchandising? (It’s Like Magic, But Better)

Before we go into depth, let’s cover the basics: What is searchandising? Think of it this way: You’re in the physical store, and all the greatest deals and latest arrivals are at eye level in front of you. That’s classic merchandising at play. Now, apply that same strategy to the search function on your website.

Searchandising is the art of combining search with ecommerce merchandising. When a visitor enters something in your store’s search bar, they don’t just see a soulless list of products, but exactly what you want them to see: bestsellers, promotions, related products, etc. Think of it as providing your customers with a private shopping assistant without the stale sales script.

Just like merchandising in physical stores, whereby products are placed in specific locations within a store to maximize visibility and offer the best user experience, search engine optimization also focuses on optimizing the search results algorithm, in order to get them where you want them to go:  bestsellers, promotions, related products, and more.

Importance of Searchandising for eCommerce

Here’s why searchandising is really a big deal:

Shoppers love to search: 15-30% of online shoppers go directly to the search bar. These are high-intent buyers, people! They know what they’re after, and if you can make it easy for them to find it, you’re halfway to the sale.

More Bang for Your Buck: By displaying complementary products or bestsellers alongside shoppers’ search results, you’re not just enhancing their experience, but increasing average order value (AOV) as well. It’s the digital equivalent of putting impulse purchases, like snacks and soda, at the register.

Enhance Customer Loyalty: Providing a seamless, personalized shopping experience shows consumers that you understand and value them. When your site does that well by understanding customers’ preferences, they will return for a bit more — and perhaps even tell their friends.

Did you know?

Those who have searched on the search bar are 2-3 times more likely to convert than those other visitors who simply just browse on your website! Use smart searchandising strategies to help them find the item they’re searching for easily.

How Does Searchandising Work?

Let’s break it down:

Relevance Meets Strategy: By default your search engine pulls up products mapped to specific keywords. With searchandising, you can also pull up specific products (seasonal products, bestsellers, high-margin items, etc.) even if they would not pop up by default. You’re not simply displaying what people are searching for — you’re showing them what they didn’t even realize they needed!

Personalization for the Win: Advanced searchandising tools tap into data from customers — past purchases, browsing history, even geographic location — to deliver more relevant results. So when someone searches for “jackets” in New York, during winter, they get the warmest, coziest options available, while a shopper in Florida may get lightweight windbreakers. See what we did there?

Cross-Selling & Upselling: Why settle on giving customers just what they looked for? Smart searchandising also prompts customers to add complementary products, for an initial $50 cart to become a $100 sale. If someone’s looking for a laptop, show them laptop bags, wireless mice, or a stand. It’s the digital version of, “Would you like fries with that?”

An example of a real life searchandising success story:

A small business running on Shopify called Ornamentallyyou has taken searchandising to the next level. Even before customers start searching on the search bar, Ornamentallyyou displayes trending searches, feature categories, and bestsellers. For example, typing “ceramic” into the search bar provides not only the top ceramic ornaments but also provides relevant categories like custom ceramic ornaments or holiday season ceramic ornaments for both Christmas or Halloween that may perform well in the upcoming holiday season. Through a more tailored approach, conversions have increased and customers are happier.

Let me give you the details: 6 searchandising methods you should be already using

There is no ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to search results

Personalization is not a fad — it’s a requirement!

Personalize search results based on each customer’s behavior with searchandising features. If someone often buys exercise wear, show them sneakers and tights when they search for “shoes,” not formal footwear. These capabilities adjust the search results and merchandising strategies to align with shopper needs — enriching the overall user experience.

Pro Tip: Go above and beyond and provide localized search results. If you know your customers live in a rainy area, display water-resistant jackets and boots when they enter “outdoor gear” into the search bar.

Check out this nice example from Nordstrom:

Promote Your Top Products

Got a hot new product? Is it sale season? Consider using searchandising to show these products a little extra love.

For ecommerce stores, this means you can push high-margin or best-selling items to the top so they are the first things customers see in search results. Even promotional banners and ads can be utilized to showcase specific products for effective product promotion and capturing user attention.

Note: Monitor the stock. If you have a low stock on certain items, it may be worthwhile to change its visibility—everyone hates getting excited about something only to find they can’t buy it!

Amazon, for example, always promotes the top-selling or high-margin products first in the search results. When you search for “wireless headphones”, “Amazon’s Choice”, “Best Seller” or “Overall Pick” badges are frequently placed prominently on available offerings that seem to be performing best.

Use Autocomplete to Speed Things Up (Because Time is Money)

Who doesn’t love a good autocomplete? But don’t just point out what to search for — go the extra mile and display product images in your dropdown. So, therefore, your customers won’t need to even hit “Enter” to search what they desire.

Example: Visit bestbuy. com and start typing a product name — “iPhone,” for example. As you begin to type out a query, BestBuy’s autocomplete pulls up suggested search terms in the dropdown, as well as small product images and prices.

Upsell and cross-sell like a Pro

Cross-selling and upselling through searchandising is an opportunity you don’t want to pass up. If a customer searches “laptop,” display accessories—such as chargers, bags, and screen protectors—in the search result pane.This method maximizes cart value without being too aggressive.

Pro Tip: Encourage shoppers to add more to their cart with product bundles or discounts on complementary products.

Example: If you visit www. apple. com and search for something like “MacBook,” Apple doesn’t give you just a list of MacBook models; it also gives you a recommendation for accessories like chargers, cases and AirPods. These complementary products often appear on the product page, directly below the main item, under a “Frequently Bought Together” or “You Might Also Like” section.

Highlight Offers and Banners

Got a sale going on? Let your customers know about it! You can show promotional banners or badges directly in the search results to attract attention for best deals or offers for a limited-time. This is searchandising in action, combining promotional tactics to maximize product visibility.

Example: When you visit www. macys. com and type in search terms such as “dresses” or “shoes,” Macy’s frequently, but not always, features special offers, sales or limited-time promotions in the results list. You can often tend to see banners or badges such as “50% Off” or “Special Offer” superimposed on some products so those deals stand out.

Search data analysis and optimization

This is where data has your back with searchandising. Monitor user behavior regularly to see how users engage with your search function. Are they finding what they are looking for? Are some products very poor performers? Make sure to use that data to maximize the effectiveness of your approach and increase your impact.

Did you know? Search abandonment occurs when shoppers don’t find what they need. Mining search data allows you to adjust your approach to minimize those ugly “No Results” pages.

Example: Check your trending products or order statistics inside an intelligent search and filter app’s admin, like Rapid Search.

Evaluating the Performance of Searchandising

Conversion Rate: Measure the percentage of visitors who convert by completing a purchase. A higher conversion rate shows that your searchandising strategy is doing a good job directing users to the relevant products and pushing them to purchase.

Search Result Relevance — Examine how relevant the search results are to some of the search queries made in your store. High search relevance means users are quickly finding what they’re looking for — leading to higher satisfaction and more sales.

User Engagement: Measure metrics for usage like time on site, bounce rate, and pages per session. These metrics can offer you an insight into how effective your searchandising strategy is at engaging users with your site.

Average Order Value: Track average order revenue from search. If you see an increase in average order value, that's a strong signal that searchandising is succeeding in helping shoppers add more products to their cart.

Return on Investment (ROI): Estimate the ROI of searchandising to see if the benefits outweigh the costs. This means measuring the revenue earned from searchandising against the costs in implementing and maintaining this tool / feature.

Customer satisfaction: Track how well customers are satisfied using surveys, feedback forms, or other methods. What you want is happy customers — happy customers return and recommend your site to others, so measuring their satisfaction with your site’s search functionality is important.

If you monitor these KPIs regularly, you will understand the effectiveness of your searchandising strategy, helping you make better decisions to optimize it even further.

What’s Next? The Future of Searchandising

With AI and machine learning getting increasingly sophisticated, searchandising will only become more effective.

Natural language processing (NLP) will allow your search engine to understand the context of queries (even the ones with spelling errors), and advanced AI will know what your customers want before they even know they need it.

And defining business-specific rules would help you to refine your search results based on your business goals and match the response with user intent.

It does not only improve user experience in general but also boosts sales. The sky is the limit for search, my friends!

Now Go Power Up Your Searchandising Game

With so many businesses flocking online, understanding searchandising can greatly increase your competitive advantage.

Mixing ecommerce merchandising strategies with actual search functionality will empower your ecommerce business to provide shoppers with an integrated, tailored shopping experience that drives both sales and brand loyalty.

This personalization of the search experience for users — through features such as recent searches and related searches — directly contributes to improving the user experience and, in the case of eCommerce websites, their conversion rates as well.

Are you ready to take your eCommerce merchandising to the next level?

Start searchandising with Rapid Search today, and watch your conversions skyrocket!

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