The Fast Lane
Discover the world of AI-driven shopping optimization and fast-track your way to increased conversion rates, AOV, and customer loyalty. Explore expert insights on e-commerce personalization, merchandising, site search, and more.
MerchandisingeCommerce Merchandising for Every Season: 5 Best Practices for Selling Seasonal ProductsSeasonal product sales in the online marketplace can only be described as a rollercoaster ride. It's exciting and certainly profitable when done well. To help you make the most of seasonal ups and downs, we explore different eCommerce merchandising best practices for selling seasonal products.
5 Best Merchandising Practices for Selling Seasonal Products
Add compelling product descriptions and imageryOptimize product recommendationsImplement dynamic pricing strategiesCreate seasonal bundles and gift setsLeverage influencer collaborations
1. Add Compelling Product Descriptions and Imagery
Well-crafted product descriptions and visual merchandising are powerful tools for selling seasonal products. You can:
Highlight each product's seasonal appeal and benefits.Connect with your customers on an emotional level.Create seasonal themes and décor.Place your seasonal products strategically in your store for maximum visibility.
For example, Tail Bangers, a specialist dog treats seller, promotes their Spring products by connecting them to baseball season. Phrases like "Play Ball", "What says Spring more", and "a day at the ball park" reinforce this.
Pro tip:Consider what information your target audience finds relevant and useful. Identify their language preferences and whether they're okay with certain words or phrases. This will help you craft informative and persuasive content that meets the buyer's intent.
» Are your seasonal products niche? Try these tips to optimize your merchandising efforts
2. Optimize Product Recommendations
Seasonal products have a limited timeframe when they sell well. So, you want to make sure you get the best out of your seasonal products. Product recommendations create good opportunities for upselling and cross-selling, especially if they're personalized to each customer.
For example, clothing retailer Tulio recommends products based on the seasonal style the customer is browsing in its store. While looking at a pink knit winter jacket, Tulio recommends other pink cardigans and knits under the "Shop the Look" section.
» You should merchandise your product recommendations too: Here's why
3. Implement Dynamic Pricing Strategies
While putting your merchandising strategy together, remember that dynamic pricing and seasonal products go hand-in-hand. By adjusting prices and offering discounts based on seasonal demand, you can create a win-win situation where customers get more value for their money, and your business grows.
For example, outdoor gear retailer BackCountry raises prices on ski clothing and snow gear as winter approaches. During the summer, it runs flash sales and offers discounts on those products to maintain sales momentum.
» Unsure how to bring these merchandising strategies together? Find out how AI can help
4. Create Seasonal Bundles and Gift Sets
By bundling related seasonal items or curating seasonally-themed gift sets, you can:
Increase your average order value by encouraging customers to buy multiple items.Create seasonal promotional campaigns on your store, social media channels, or email.Manage your seasonal inventory by including overstocked items as add-ons or free gifts in product bundles.
For example, CURATEUR, an eCommerce brand founded by style expert Rachael Zoe, uses gift sets as cross-selling opportunities. Its summer-style box curates different products that complement each other.
Pro tip:Leverage different product bundle strategies to refine your merchandising efforts. Test and adjust your approach based on seasonal trends, customer feedback, and data analysis. Done well, seasonal bundles and gifts can boost sales and drive repeat purchases in your store.
5. Leverage Influencer Collaborations
Influencer marketing is a great way to build awareness for your seasonal products. It involves partnering with TikTok, Instagram, and other platform creators to generate content that captivates and delights your audience.
These creators are full of engaging content ideas, and you can pitch your own ideas for the seasonal campaign. For example, influencers collaborating with Sephora creatively unbox its gift sets on Instagram, captivating their followers and fueling excitement for the brand's seasonal offerings.
Pro tip:Partner with creators who have a decent following and a knack for creative storytelling to captivate your audience. With the right influencer collaborations, you can build a credible campaign and amplify your growth and reach.
Swiftly Adapt Your Seasonal Merchandising
If you want to drive sales and foster customer engagement, it's critical to tap into the best practices of eCommerce merchandising. This is true in every area of eCommerce, including seasonal sales. By prioritizing thorough market research, you can understand your customers' preferences and anticipate their seasonal demands. In turn, this can help you optimize your seasonal merchandising strategies. Remember, your store and products are unique, so it's important to test different methods until you find what works best for your store and customers.
» Need more merchandising tips? Find everything you want to know in this ultimate merchandising guide
Search & discoveryUnleash the Power of Custom Site Search: A Guide to Better E-Commerce NavigationWhen you run an e-commerce store, you want to provide your customers with a seamless shopping experience that keeps them coming back for more. That's where custom site search comes in to make it easier for your customers to navigate your store.
By taking advantage of custom site search, you can set your e-commerce store apart from the competition. Custom site search helps you provide a personalized and efficient search experience for your customers so you can drive sales, improve your customer experience, and boost customer loyalty.
Let's dive into how you can take advantage of custom site search on your e-commerce site.
What Is Custom Site Search?
Custom site search is a search tool that gives you advanced features beyond the basic search functionality most e-commerce platforms offer.
With custom site search, you can provide your customers with quick and easy access to the products they're looking for while delivering a smooth and personalized shopping experience.
Alora Boutique: Making It Easier to Find the Perfect Jewelry
If your customer is looking for a specific earring they saw on social media, they'll head to your e-commerce site and start searching. With a custom site search, they can type in the name of the jewelry and receive a list of all the earrings that match it. This eliminates the need for your customer to navigate through different categories and endlessly scroll through product options, especially if you have hundreds of products on your site.
Benefits of a Custom Site Search
1. Improved Customer Experience
No matter your industry, customers want the best shopping experience possible. You can deliver on that by implementing a custom site search that offers a more visually appealing shopping experience. If your e-commerce site sells clothing, you can incorporate custom site search to display product images in the search results, making it easier for customers to identify the product they're looking for.
» Learn how to add, customize, and remove your Shopify search bar for an enhanced shopping experience
2. Relevant Search Results
Custom site search is typically powered by AI algorithms that understand the intent behind each customer's search query, delivering relevant results every time. If a customer has recently searched for a specific type of product on your site, a custom site search can remember their preferences and suggest relevant products when they come back and explore your site later in their buying journey. Having relevant search results saves your customers time, makes it easier for them to find what they're looking for, and increases the likelihood of them making a purchase.
3. Increased Sales
By providing your customers with a fast and personalized shopping experience, custom site search can help drive sales and increase your bottom line. For example, at Alora Boutique, having search on the site has been instrumental in helping shoppers find the products they need, resulting in a higher conversion rate and average order value.
The best part about a custom site search is that you can see what products people are searching for on your site and match your product descriptions to their search intent or introduce new products that customers are looking for but you don't have.
Custom Site Search Features That Improve Navigation
1. Smarter Search
When it comes to optimizing your site, custom site search is the way of the future. Your team can leverage advanced AI algorithms that understand the intent behind each search query, delivering relevant results every time. Custom search helps your team rest easy, knowing your customers won't have to sort through irrelevant results, saving time and reducing headaches.
For example, if a customer searches Alora Boutique for "black hoop earrings" using a custom site search, they'll receive a specific list of black hoop earrings shoes instead of all earrings in general. A good search tool can also consider factors like product popularity, categories, and product reviews to provide even more accurate results.
This level of intelligence ensures that your customers can find what they're looking for faster and more efficiently, leading to a more enjoyable shopping experience and a higher likelihood of purchase. This can result in higher customer satisfaction and, ultimately, customer retention.
2. Personal Customized Style
Merchandising a site is painstaking, and luckily custom site searches can be tailored to match the look and feel of your brand. Doing this will ensure your customers have a consistent shopping experience.
For example, at Alora Boutique, I customized my custom site search to match the website's aesthetics, creating a seamless shopping experience for their customers.
3. Full Search Result Control
With custom site search, you and your team have complete control over the displayed search results. Are you having a sale? You can prioritize certain products. Big holiday collections you need visible in Q4? You can prioritize these collections in your search results. Doing this ensures that your customers can quickly and easily find what they're looking for, and you improve the sales of certain products.
Do Your Custom Site Search the Fast Way
By incorporating custom site search into your e-commerce strategy, you can provide your customers with a highly personalized and efficient shopping experience, driving sales and customer loyalty in the process. With an integrated AI platform, you can implement and maintain custom site search effortlessly.
So why wait? Unleash the power of custom site search today and take your e-commerce store to the next level!
» Have a B2B website? Here's how to optimize site search for B2B
Search & discoveryHow to Use Shopify Instant Search to Maximize Product DiscoveryShopify has become a go-to solution for millions of merchants looking to sell their products online. In most cases, the success of your Shopify store depends on how well you can maximize your product discovery. Shopify instant search can help boost your product discoverability by guiding your customers to their desired products in the quickest and most efficient way possible.
What Is Shopify Instant Search?
Shopify instant search scans your store's product listings and provides relevant results in real time as your customers type in their search queries.
This gives your customers more options to choose from and also makes it easier for them to find what they're looking for. The result is a better shopping experience and increased product discoverability for the store.
Getting the most out of Shopify instant search requires taking a few key steps.
» Further improve your customer shopping experience by adding, removing, and customizing the Shopify search bar
1. Use Autocomplete for Smarter & Faster Results
Autocomplete text is a helpful tool for getting better, faster e-commerce search results. With just a few keystrokes, customers can find what they're looking for without having to spell everything out. This eliminates the need for an extra step and lets customers go straight from typing their search term to a purchasable product with just one click.
Mastermind Toys uses autocomplete text to suggest products faster to their customers. For instance, if a customer types "star" into the search bar, the autocomplete pulls up results for Star Wars-related products right away and maximizes product discovery. This saves the customer time and takes them straight to their desired results.
2. Use NLP to Understand Your Customers' Intent
Natural language processing (NLP) is a technique that helps your search function understand human language and the context your customers are searching in. Shopify instant search uses NLP to extract the meaning behind a search query and look for the most relevant results in a large product dataset, thereby helping to increase product discovery.
When you understand your customers' intent, you can offer instant and relevant search results. For example, if a customer types "este luader" into Fragrance Buy's search bar, the store's natural language search functionality understands that the customer is actually looking for "Estee Lauder" and provides those results. This improves the overall shopping experience and increases the chances of a successful transaction.
3. Personalized Product Discovery
Shopify instant search can also boost personalization for product discovery by using data about your customers' behavior and preferences. This may include keeping track of the products your customers have viewed in the past and using that information to suggest similar products in future searches. By using data from personas and product rating systems, instant searches can make customers' discovery experience even more tailored and efficient.
Here are a few potential outcomes of this:
Your customers are more likely to buy products that match their interests and needs.Your customers are more likely to make repeat purchases because your store caters to their preferences.Your store maximizes product discovery and increases your chances of making a sale.
For example, if a new customer searches for a "white dress" in Princess Polly's search bar, they'll see the standard collection as a result with related (but general) search prompts on the side.
But as the customer browses the white dresses in the collection, particularly the mini dresses, the store's Shopify instant search notes the customer's preferences and interests. So, the next time the customer visits the store, their experience is already more personalized with suggestions for mini dresses and white dresses before even starting their search.
» Dive deeper into the personalization experience
Why Shopify Stores Invest in Instant Search
Smart Shopify merchants understand that their store's search can make or break their customer experience. With the help of its features, you can:
Convert more leads into customers
Instant search makes it easier for your shoppers to quickly find the right product without the hassle of navigating through multiple pages. This significantly increases their odds of purchasing.Improve customer satisfaction and loyalty
An effective instant search solution gathers valuable information about your customers' searches and interactions on your site. You can analyze this data to gain insight into customers' intent so you can show results that enhance their satisfaction and loyalty.Increase sales
Mobile instant search reduces the need for extensive site exploration, shortening the path to purchase and increasing the likelihood of buying and spending more. Shoppers who use search spend 2.6 times more on average than those who don't.
Do It the Fast Way
The e-commerce industry is highly competitive, and with so many choices, customers expect a certain experience when they shop online. With Shopify instant search, you can give your customers a personal shopping journey that effortlessly leads them to the products they're looking for, thereby increasing your conversions and customer retention.
Search & discoverySearch Within Shopify Collections: Improve Product Discoverability and UXShopify collections are a great way to organize and present your products on your online store. However, they're only useful when shoppers can quickly sort through the results and choose the products they're interested in. To get the most out of your collection pages and boost product discoverability and UX, consider integrating search within Shopify collections.
What Is Search Within Collections?
Search within collections is a function that allows shoppers to easily find specific items in a particular collection.
It typically works like this: shoppers visit a collection page (for example, a shoe collection) and enter phrases or keywords related to the product they need (for example, red heels size X) in the search bar. The smart collection page then returns a list of shoes that match the search criteria.
With the right Shopify search functionality for collections, you can boost the customer experience on various fronts.
Customers Find Exactly What They're Looking for
A Shopify search results page within collections can be highly valuable for shoppers. With robust search parameters, they can find the item they're searching for in the exact color, size, style, brand, etc. Collection search saves them from the virtual legwork of looking through all product variants to find the item they want.
For example, 401 Games allows their customers to not only search within their categories (like Board Games) but also refine their search results with filters (in stock, price, vendor, etc.).
» Want to optimize your filters? Try these methods
More Relevant Search Results
The default Shopify search results can be hit or miss with your customers. They may search for a specific product and instead get a sea of product pages that are only vaguely associated with the searched item. A Shopify search bar within collections can improve their experience by offering more relevant results. It accounts for things like alternative phrasings and natural language characteristics to ensure results are tailored to your customers' searches.
For example, Fragrance Buy makes it even easier for their customers. If a customer searches within the Womens fragrance collection, a list pops up with all the relevant brands. If the customer types in "giv" to search for "Givenchy", the search functionality immediately recognizes the customer's intent and gives "Givenchy" as the result. This removes the risk of spelling mistakes or typos.
» Discover why understanding shoppers' intent is important
Personalizes Product Discovery
Shopify search collections can also personalize product discovery for your customers by using data about their behaviors and preferences. This may involve tracking products your customer has viewed in the past and using that information to suggest similar products in future searches. Additionally, collection search may use data from personas and product rating systems to inform their Shopify search and discovery experience.
For example, a customer may search for "red dresses" on Princess Polly and initially get general search results. But after shopping for a while for long-sleeve red dresses specifically, their search results become personalized.
» Learn more about a personalized search and recommendation engine
Why Shopify Stores Invest in Search Within a Collection
Smart Shopify owners know that an effective search feature within their collections makes all the difference for success. The right solution can help you:
Improve the user experience
If your Shopify store has a lot of collection pages, the navigation can get complex, and shoppers may end up struggling to find the right page for product purchase. Search within collections can help them escape the complexity of navigation and get straight to the page and buy products quickly.Tailor your marketing
An effective Shopify collection search tool can gather valuable information about customer searches and interactions with your pages. You can use this data to generate analytics reports that give you insight into the popularity of products, allowing you to tailor your marketing strategy accordingly.Increase your sales
Collection search also shortens people's path to purchase by not requiring them to perform extensive site exploration. This makes shoppers not only more likely to buy but also spend more. A study found that such shoppers spend 2.6 times more on average than those who were not facilitated by a search function.Strengthen your brand
Robust search solutions for Shopify collections do more than just satisfy the search intent—they use data from search to dynamically present customers with the most relevant items, filters, and categories. Additionally, they help deliver a consistent user experience and look across all your store pages and results, which in turn strengthens your brand image and maximizes trustworthiness.
» Here's how to tackle e-commerce hiccups that bust brand loyalty
Make It Fast
Search within Shopify collections can be a game-changer for your e-commerce business. With the right search solution, you can enhance your customers' experience and improve your product discoverability, thereby improving retention and sales too.
Even though your customers aren't interacting with you face-to-face, they still want to feel that personal touch. This means giving them a personalized shopping experience and making sure they can find the products they're looking for without a fuss.
Search & discoveryE-Commerce Product Search Engine: 5 Key Features and BenefitsAn e-commerce product search engine is a "local" search engine built for your e-commerce store. When a customer types in a query, the engine indexes all of your products and uses sophisticated AI algorithms to help match customers with exactly what they're looking for—fast.
In an age where customers expect a smooth user experience and immediate results, an e-commerce product search engine is a must-have for every store owner. And fortunately, this tool is highly accessible: it can be integrated with most major e-commerce platforms, including Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, WooCommerce, Wix, and more.
Let's look at five key features and benefits that you can start reaping today.
» Add, remove, and customize your Shopify search bar for better search results and a seamless shopping experience
1. Fast Loading Time
How quickly your site loads is closely connected to your customers' satisfaction, your site's bounce rate, and its ranking. Your customers may feel that your loading time is a reflection of your service and quality. So, the faster your site loads, the less likely your customers are to leave your site. This keeps your bounce rate down (an average of 9%) and helps to boost your search engine ranking.
Ideally, you should aim for a 2-second loading time for your e-commerce store and its product search functionality to make sure your customers quickly find what they're looking for.
2. Autocomplete Text
Autocomplete text is an AI feature that aims to finish your customer's query as they're typing it. This gives them a quicker path to your product, requiring fewer keystrokes to get to their end goal. It also helps to prevent spelling errors, which can alter their search results and provide a less-than-ideal user experience.
Take Ruggable, for example. When a user types "ze" into the search bar, the product search engine automatically pulls results for zebra-related items. This helps to cut the time the user spends searching, sending them straight to their results.
» Learn how AI can optimize your customers' e-commerce experience
3. Full-Text Search
Sometimes, your customer may know exactly which product they want. But often, this isn't the case. Search queries fall into four types:
Exact product search: Your customers know exactly what they need, down to the product's name.Product type search: Your customers search for a general product, not a brand or model.Problem-based search: Your customers need a solution to an issue, but they're not sure which form it comes in.Non-product search: Your customers are looking for information, not a product.
Full-text search is a helpful feature when your customer hasn't entered an exact product search. It compares every word in your customer's query against your database(s), helping to fill in the gaps where the query lacks specificity or precision.
In this example, a user might type the problem-based search "organize kitchen". Wayfair's e-commerce product search engine returns multiple types of organizers, dividers, and racks to solve the problem.
4. Product Images In-Search
Images are non-negotiable to convince your customers to convert. They need to see the item to visualize if it's what they're really looking for. When your website contains images within search engine results, it speeds up the shopping process, opening the possibility of finding what they're looking for in seconds instead of minutes.
On Hoover's website, a user can type in "pets" and see multiple product suggestions as well as photos and prices—all right from the search bar dropdown. This completes a mini product preview, providing at a glance all the key decision-making information they need.
» Find out how AI visual discovery can inspire your shoppers to buy
5. Synonyms
It's rare that your customer will be able to search for a product verbatim as it's listed on your website. If your product search engine doesn't include synonyms, they may be served "no results" pages when that's not truly the case. Synonyms help to give your customers as many options as possible by showing results based on similar terms.
For example, you can fine-tune your product search engine to display jumpsuits when your customer types "jumper", or denim if they misspell it as "demin". You can make searches more specific or general, like showing rings and bracelets when your customer types "jewelry".
Take the Fast Way
To capture today's online shoppers, your e-commerce product search engine needs to match your competitors in terms of speed, flexibility, and problem-solving. The features we've discussed here can supercharge your user experience, earning loyal customers and predictable revenue.
» Explore how a personalized search and recommendation engine can drive you forward
Search & discoveryShopify Predictive Search: The Complete GuideShopify is a leading e-commerce platform with over 4.4 million online stores using its services to sell their products to customers. Apart from its key features like custom designs and secure hosting, it also offers a predictive text feature to make it easier for your customers to search for products in your store.
Shopify's predictive search feature suggests search results to your customers in real time as they type their queries.
This enhances your customers' search experience and can result in high conversion rates. Plus, predictive search can also help you understand your customers' buyer persona and inform future improvements to your store.
As an industry, e-commerce is rapidly growing and constantly evolving, driven by technological advancements and changing consumer behavior. So, e-commerce sellers are looking for tools like Shopify predictive search that can help them keep up.
» Want to further improve your customer experience? Learn how to add, remove, and customize the Shopify search bar
What Is Shopify Predictive Search?
Shopify predictive search uses algorithms to analyze your customers' behavior and gives them suggestions as they type a query into the search bar. This way, your customers quickly find the products they're looking for without writing the whole query and going through different pages of search results.
The results from predictive search can include different elements:
A simple list of text suggestionsProduct images and namesCategories or collectionsPopular or trending search terms
For example, Princess Polly, an online fashion boutique, gives its customers product suggestions, collection suggestions, and trending searches based on other customers' activities.
How Predictive Search Helps Shopify Stores
Shopify predictive search is a powerful tool that can benefit both you and your customers.
1. Improved Customer Experience
Shopify predictive search offers your customers a quick and easy searching experience, which is far removed from traditional searches and helps to reduce their frustrations if they find it hard to navigate to the product they want.
For example, predictive search can remove certain language issues. It reduces spelling mistakes because your customers don't have to type out their entire query. And if you use synonyms in your site search, then predictive search can make complimentary suggestions if your customers' search terms are different from the terms in your store.
» Discover more tips on using spelling and synonyms to your advantage
2. Higher Conversion Rate
Shopify predictive search makes your products more discoverable. By automatically completing your customers' search query, your conversions can increase by 24%.
Also, since 39% of online shoppers are influenced by a relevant search, you have good opportunities to upsell and cross-sell. By making suggestions to your customers, they may come across products they didn't know you had or thought they needed.
The convenience of instant and relevant search results can not only improve conversion rates but customer retention as well because customers are more likely to return to your store if it offers better experiences.
» Explore these additional benefits of upselling and cross-selling
3. Better Customer Service
You can use the data that Shopify predictive search gathers about your customers' behavior to give them a better experience every time they visit your store.
By personalizing their shopping journey, your customers effortlessly find what they're looking for, which in turn can solidify their trust in and loyalty to your brand and products—by up to 49%.
» Delve into the details of personalization
4. Greater Competitive Advantage
If up to 61% of e-commerce sites deliver disappointing search results, then Shopify predictive search can set you apart from your competitors.
Analyzing the data from your predictive search can not only help to give your customers a positive experience that they associate with your store, but you can also adjust and improve your business strategy, product offerings, pricing, promotions, and marketing to maximize sales and average order value.
» Learn how predictive analytics can help your e-commerce store
How to Set Up Shopify Predictive Search
You might be thinking setting up Shopify predictive search is a lengthy and difficult process, but it's actually not that complex and can be done quite easily.
Start by installing a search app from the Shopify App Store.Once installed, you have to give the app access to your store and product pages so it can start indexing.Once complete, predictive search is enabled for your store. Your customers will be able to use the feature right away.
What to Keep in Mind
As with any app or software, Shopify predictive search can only give you promising results if it's installed and used properly. Consider these tips to make sure your predictive search feature is optimized.
Monitor Your Website Speed
Predictive search apps are full of resources and data points, so they can consume a high amount of server data and slow your website down. This is because predictive search adds an extra layer of complexity to provide real-time suggestions and predictions for your customers.
Tip: Upgrade your website's hosting or optimize the app's algorithms to keep your website's performance at its best.
Ensure Proper Configuration For the Best Search Results
If your predictive search app is not configured correctly, it can give inaccurate results when your customers do a search in your store. This can be because there is not enough data for the app to work with, or its settings aren't properly activated.
Tip: Monitor the backend of your search app to make sure its settings are correct and to increase the data quality and volume if necessary.
Make Sure You Stay in the Fast Lane
The success of any e-commerce store lies in selling its products to its customers—but only if those customers can find your products. Shopify predictive search can give your customers a seamless shopping experience with instant and accurate search results. Your customers only have to give a prompt, therefore saving time and perhaps finding something they didn't expect.
Search & discoveryFederated Search Engine: Show Accurate Results From Multiple SourcesImproving your overall customer experience is essential to running your e-commerce store. And if you want to level up, make sure you have a federated search engine on your site that shows your customers accurate results.
Suppose you have a significant social media presence or run offline ads. When people come to your site after seeing a product they love, they aren't going to scroll endlessly through your products to find it—they'll head to the search bar first. Therefore, you want to be sure your e-commerce store has an effective search engine that delivers the best results and experience.
This is where a federated search engine comes into the picture.
» Learn how to add, remove, and customize your Shopify search bar for an improved customer experience
What Is a Federated Search Engine?
A federated search engine is a search tool that scours multiple sources of information and presents its findings as a single, unified result.
Using this type of search engine is becoming increasingly popular among e-commerce managers. It provides customers with a better search experience by showing them results from different places, including product catalogs, customer reviews, blog posts, and subscriptions.
» Discover the differences between e-commerce and content search
How Does Federated Search Help Your Store?
Federated search helps your store deliver better customer experiences, improves reliability, and helps shoppers find more relevant search results.
1. Better Customer Experience
By providing a unified search experience, a federated search engine helps to improve your customers' shopping experience in your store. Your customers can search for products, content, and other information from one place, saving them time and effort since they don't have to navigate to different parts of the store to find what they're looking for. Plus, your customers may find products they didn't know you had, giving you a great opportunity to upsell and cross-sell.
For example, consider Targus's search results feature content from collections, products, popular searches, and articles, giving their customers a flexible shopping experience.
2. Increased Reliability
A federated search engine can also increase the reliability of your store's search results. By searching multiple sources, a federated search can deliver more accurate results because it finds relevant information in places that it wouldn't be able to with a siloed search engine.
3. More Relevant Search Results
A federated search engine can also deliver more relevant search results based on past customer behavior or by searching various sites. For example, a customer might be searching for a product that's no longer in stock, but a federated search engine could find that product in another store and deliver a result to the customer.
Let's take a look at an example. Urban Clothing has many different brands, and you can get results across all brands when shopping for something specific, like bodysuits. If this feature didn't exist, shoppers would have to search five different sites to find what they're looking for.
4. Easier to Browse
With a traditional search engine, customers might have to navigate to different parts of your store to find what they're looking for. For example, they might have to navigate to your blog to find styling tips for spring and then go to your maxi dress collection to find the perfect floral print. With a federated search engine, customers can search for products, content, and other information from one place. This saves them time and effort and makes it easier to find what they're looking for—and buy!
Take the Fast Way
A federated search engine is a must-have tool for any e-commerce store. By delivering better customer experiences, increased reliability, and more relevant search results, a federated search engine helps your store to stand out from the crowd. A good federated search engine will help you provide a better search experience for your customers and help to keep them coming back for more. So, why wait? Take the fast way and give your store the search engine it deserves.