How does the quality of site search affect conversion rates?

Large online stores spoil users with strong search functions on their sites. Customers can find  what they need instantly without wasting time. Therefore, other companies within the e commerce sphere need to implement similar search functions in order to keep up with major  brands. 

More than 30 percent of website visitors use the search function. This is a  fairly significant number of users who can positively influence your  conversion rate. 

Why low-quality site search is dangerous for e-commerce companies

If people can't find what they need on your site, they leave. Therefore, the main problem of  having a low-quality search function is lost profit. People who use site search are almost always  looking for a specific product/service. The company has a chance of completing that transaction.  In this case, the entire responsibility for getting a customer to purchase falls on the shoulders of  the e-commerce company. If your site has an inconvenient and poorly designed search function,  people will leave without buying. These people will not recommend your brand to their friends  and colleagues, making it more difficult to achieve a good conversion rate. 

Competitors never sleep. If your customers go to them, you will lose more  than just money-namely, your reputation, people's trust in your brand, and  the chance to make a profit. 

How to make an effective site search

For all websites, visitors who use site search are the most valuable because they're at a late stage  of the purchase cycle. This means that they have more chances to bring profit to the business  than people who just scroll through the site without the desire to buy a specific product. 

The only thing that matters to a person who uses search is finding what they're looking for. If  you provide them with various tools to achieve this goal, you win. Your prize is a good  conversion rate. 

High-quality site search also improves customer self-service and reduces the cost of customer  support. According to this study, more than 80 percent of customers want to solve their problems  using a search engine, without outside help. They don't want to contact the manager or ask  questions, let alone talk on the phone. They just want to enter or speak their request and see if  you can give them what they're looking for. 

Therefore, it is very important to offer a competent search engine with the following key  functions: 

1. Voice search: Many people are used to speaking commands instead of typing in queries.  It's important for you to accommodate these preferences. Moreover, voice search has  long been used in search engines, such as Google. 

2. Hints: People are pleased when your site can anticipate their needs. If your search  function includes hints, it will reduce the search time for the product. A person can see  several variants of products at once based on the first letters of the query. Customers will  be happy to save time by choosing from among that list. 

3. Typos: Making mistakes while typing is a reality of the modern world. Many have been  spoiled by the T9 function, which corrects errors. Therefore, people began to write by  touch, knowing that T9 would definitely correct their inputs to what they needed. But  what if T9 didn't fix the error? We have to rewrite everything all over again. But you can 

simply implement a typo-reading function in the search engine, and your site will easily  understand customers, even if they made a mistake. 

4. Autofill: Imagine that your site suggests a phrase in the search bar. A customer thinks of  writing a word, and you have already offered your options for ending it. This is another  good way to build trust in your brand because the person will see your attention to  convenience. Plus, the search time for goods will be reduced, and customers can make a  transaction faster. 

Evinent Search tool offers these types of useful functions, as well as searching by attribute,  color, synonyms. It even works with the wrong keyboard layout. You can find out more  information about the features of our search engine here. Evinent Search not only provides an  effective search function but also includes a statistical control panel and search analytics.