E-Merchants Can Increase Conversions With Site Search

Retailers and wholesalers can improve merchandising by tracking the products customers search for on the site through internal site search. Currently, two-thirds of the top e-merchants use data from site search tools to improve their ability to offer shoppers more of what they seek. This tactic is sure to increase your visitor-to-sales ratio.

While internal site search functionality is not a priority for marketers, it is very important to consumers. How many times have you had someone you know complain about not being able to find merchandise on a retail site?

Research from MarketingSherpa indicates that consumers go to the site search box before any other navigation tool. However, 52 percent of the marketers surveyed gave themselves poor marks when rating their internal search function.

Shopping Cart Abandonment

You can prevent shopping cart abandonment and eliminate one-time visitors by incorporating an effective site search capability that guides customers along the conversion path. This enhances the user experience by engaging users as they successfully complete their objectives.

Site search provides you with a cache of valuable information as customers leave a trail that tells you how to anticipate their current and future needs. You will also find some new keywords you can use to achieve better organic and paid rankings.

Site Search Data

The data you collect is a valuable marketing resource that helps control your merchandising efforts in driving promotions, cross-sells, up-sells and conversions. Your site search data will also identify products your customers seek but you don’t currently offer, giving you ideas for offering new merchandise.

How to Customize Your Site Search

To provide a good user experience, you need site search, good navigation, and a well-siloed site. This also helps develop the relationship between your brand and the customer. Here’s what you can do to maximize site search.

• Provide easy navigation from your home page to all major product categories and sub-categories
• Provide site search on every page with content that requires more research
• Provide site search on items by brand, price and color.
• Provide site search for featured products in every category.
• Provide site search by brand in every category, as well as for the best sellers in each category.
• Provide site search for sale items

Your upgraded internal search will likely produce more checkouts than you had before because customers would be finding the desired merchandise on the first try. Other benefits will include a boost in performance and revenue, along with increased efficiency for your call centers as call length is reduced and operators can handle more inquiries.

Operating Systems and such

One of the biggest questions a new CEO has to answer when starting up a web business is “What OS should I use?”. Once again, more questions need to be asked before making that decision. So before we begin with the questions, lets make sure we all know what we’re talking about. The operating system (OS) is a layer in computers that exists between the hardware and the software. The OS’s job is to move information and instructions between programs and the hardware components. A quick example is going to a web page. First you tell the web browser to go to www.toptenwholesale.com. The web browser then tells the OS to talk to the network card and passes on the information of what site is needed. The OS then handles the transaction between the network card and the remote site and passes the returned information back up to the browser, which then displays the page.

Onto the question at hand. In the small to mid-size business range you’ll find three choices for your OS. They are Windows (ms), Mac and linux. Each has pluses and minuses depending on what the computer is doing. Lets take a look at each by the machine type.

Desktop:

Windows: As much as I hate to say it, Microsoft Windows seems to be the best. The only reason, I repeat, the only reason to use Windows is because everyone else in the business world is using it. I have found the Windows OS to be the most frustrating and dangerous OS implementation out there. How many of you have lost productivity when your Windows box crashes and has to be re-installed? How many of you have gotten a virus or worm running Windows, potentially stealing important data? My advice is to run PCs, with Windows, behind a firewall and never ever run outlook (unless its the web based version).

Mac: I like mac a lot. The newer machines run a rock solid OS called X10. Unfortunately, the biggest gripe I hear from businesses that use mac desktops is that they can’t run/open files sent to them from the rest of the business world. The only exception I have found to this are graphic houses (companies that specialize in print and graphic media). Mac has always had “emulators” that try to run like Windows, but they’re just not there yet.

Linux: I really love Linux on my PC. But I am a geek and spend countless hours tinkering and learning about my computer. Once again, the lack of linux support and the domination of Windows makes it so that this is not the best option for a company. Although, if your looking at your bottom line, you might want to consider it. Linux is a free software where as Windows runs between $80 – $250 per license.

Server:

Linux: Hands down the winner!! Once again it is a “free” (redhat charges a license fee for their enterprise release) solution that works great. Linux is a form of UNIX, which is an OS thats been around since the 60’s. I’ve had my own personal web server up and running for over 2 years!! (To those of you in the Windows world, believe it or not, but you don’t have to reboot your box every time something goes wrong or something needs to be changed). Another wonderful thing about linux is the community support. There are literaly thousands of websites that will give you howto’s (documents on how to set up or run) and chances are, if you have a problem, you’ll find a link to someone who had the same exact problem and found a solution.

Windows: HAHAHAHAHAHAH!!! Ok, I needed that laugh. So far I have found only two reasons why a company would ever run the Microsoft server software. 1. The company enjoys wasting time and money on expensive and faulty software. 2. A slick Microsoft salesperson convinced them that its what the company needs. Either way, if you decide to run Microsoft, you’ll need a very expensive system admin (who will usually only be able to reboot the box to fix the problem) and you’ll be shelling out hundreds if not thousands for the software license.

Mac: I haven’t heard of anyone running server software using macs, but it should be very possible seeing how the 10X os is a unix operating system. I imagine that at some point Apple will be getting into the server market, but we shall see.

Beware of Crooked Agencies

OK, so 99% of ad agencies are probably good and have nothing but the best intention. But, get a load of this one!

We recently picked up a new client ( whom a salesperson had contact with for many months, but the account was brought in this week to us by their agency). Shortly after receiving the order for the client ( we wont use any names for now), their agency calls us back up ans say that they “have a lot of international wholesale clients and would like to bring us more business”….OK, great. Obviously, this agency sees our network as a credible place to spend their clients funds where a reasonable ROI can be achieved…..Errrrr……..Not the case…

Here is what happened next. After commending our services, this agency states that he’d like ( yes, small agency) to be listed in a few of categories and doesn’t believe he should pay for it. He also stated that if we didn’t list him, he wouldn’t advocate our network of over 30,000 buyers to his clients. Since we refuse to sell our souls to the devil ( and operate on policy of HIP- Honesty Integrity Professionalism) his request was denied and he was more or less told to go and pound sand.

This scares me, for many reason. An agency should always have their clients best interests at hand. Agencies that operate like that are nothing but fly-byes laundering their clients budget to achieve their own goals with no concern for their clients marketing initiatives. Buyer beware! Here a few tips to avoid a crooked agency:

1. Get references….And call them!
2. Inquire as to how much work the agency has done in your industry.
3. Meet the people! A handshake and eye contact go a long way.
4. Ask for case studies and white papers the agency has put out.
5. Check the BBB for complaints.
6. Is the agency too concerned about money issues? Most agencies want to get that out the way real quick and don’t want to appear invoice happy. They work because they love what they do.
7. Get documentation, insertions, monthly statements, and quotes before any job is started or when any job is finished.
8. Be involved. Your feedback is everything.Have market research prepared and if your agency doesn’t recommend a certain media you are sure of…Ask why!!!

Again, most agencies are good. I’ve used many agencies and contractors in the past. Most good, some bad. Be careful. Be cautious. Going that route is not cheap, and it’s always best to have assurance that the agency you pick is being help to a level of accountability that can foster a profitable relationship. For the Crook we mention earlier, we only hope that you see the light and learn how to conduct business with H.I.P!!

Jason

ps- Here is a copy of the VERY prefoessional email that our sales person sent to this agency:
Hi William,

I am very confused to why we are not moving forward with ** Trading’s
account. Is the only reason because we do not have the type of referral
program that will benefit *O Info? You need to understand that we are very
professional and honest in the way that we conduct business. Our rules are
set in place for reasons and we will not break them for anyone. As a
business owner, I hope you can appreciate that. I am afraid that you are
doing your clients a huge injustice by not using services because they do
not benefit you. Isn’t it much more beneficial to you and your company to
embark on marketing plans that are successful for your clients? We can help
with that aspect of your business. William, as a service provider, you have
certain fiduciary duties to follow and you should always act in the best
interests of your clients. Wouldn’t you agree? Do you think that it’s right
to not let ** Trading benefit from our users because we don’t have a
referral program that you like?

Enticing Shoppers to Browse Online

Several eye tracking studies have shown that shoppers are not looking for bells and whistles on ecommerce web sites. Rather, they seem to focus on navigation aids such as the search box and navigation bars.

To prove the validity of these findings, MarketingSherpa conducted a study on a sample of retailer home pages, asking consumers what they do when they visit an ecommerce site. Below are a few tips from this research that can be used by wholesalers and retailers.

Shoppers Want to Cut to the Chase

The first thing shoppers do upon arriving at a retail site is to use the site search box (43 percent) and/or click on useful navigation bars (39 percent). Add these together, and you’ve got 82 percent of your shoppers wanting to cut to the chase to find what they’re looking for. They’re not in the mood to browse.

Usually, only men shop this way. Upon entering the mall, they go into a store on a mission to buy and ignore everything else along the way. Most men will buy an item quickly without much shopping around, get in the checkout line and leave the store. They don’t like to shop and you see very few of them sitting in a chair, waiting for the little woman to try on clothes these days. For men, shopping is a task to done quickly and avoided if possible.

Women, on the other hand, linger at every counter that attracts their attention. Looking over clothing, handling the merchandise and trying on dozens of outfits, women can spend hours in a store without buying a thing. In fact, some women work the department stores and boutiques with no particular goal in mind — shopping is a recreational activity. When it comes to window shopping, this is where the urge to buy can start. That’s why the brands spend so much time on displays, to tempt women who are just looking around.

However, this type of browsing activity just doesn’t happen online, even for women. Maybe it’s because the displays aren’t real, or perhaps the retailers have not yet learned how to design sites that are a pleasure to browse. At any rate, following are some actions that can be taken by retailers to entice more online browsing.

Shoppers Like Easy Navigation

Improve your home page navigation to be functional, accurate and enticing. Make sure your pages load quickly. Label your nav buttons correctly.

Don’t make the mistake of showcasing your brand and corporate image on the home page, that’s the last thing an online shopper is interested in. Shoppers want to find the specific merchandise that is first and foremost on their mind. So if you want sales, design your site with your visitor’s interests in mind, not those of the corporate boardroom.

Give some thought to where your navigational elements are placed. Don’t put them on the edge of the screen or at the bottom of the page. By now, most people will look for nav elements at the top of the page. Make them easily visible and accessible in various places on your home page and category pages. Besides nav bars, you can use hyperlinks on key items throughout the text on the page, bringing visitors to hot merchandise. Talk about the items du jour on your home page and provide a link right in the midst of your content. Make your home page more like a site map with attractive content to increase your conversions.

Shoppers Use Site Search

Site search on a wholesale or retail site is vital. You can’t just put in search functionality and leave it at that. You need to test your landing pages, and when you do, you’ll not only be able to serve your customers better, you can use the customer behavior data to improve your site performance.

Here’s one thing to look out for when you’re testing. Many shoppers make typos or use different nomenclature when searching for merchandise. They might type in coat when they mean blazer or make a typo like blzer. You need to provide links for all possible answers to these searches. Nothing turns shoppers off more than “zero results.”

Entice Shoppers With Category Pages

Category pages are those where shoppers land when they type in a general search term or if they click on a main navigation bar or link. These pages are critical because they can lead to a sale, or not.

While marketers typically concentrate on the design of individual product pages, not many focus attention on the category pages that drive the traffic there. Sometimes category pages are created by default, and the layout is something generic that was never tested for functionality.

So don’t make that mistake and treat your category pages the same as your home page. Concentrate on how to make your category pages easy to navigate. Have as many clickable elements as possible, such as sale hotlinks and dedicated search boxes.

Improve Your Site Conversions

So there you have it, a few simple tips that can help wholesalers and retailers improve site conversions. The heavy lifting was done for you so you don’t have to start testing from scratch and go through trial and error. Just implement some of the above changes and watch your bottom line improve.