Today marks the 10th anniversary since SLI Systems was incorporated. So we’re celebrating. We’re having parties, giving gifts to our staff and I though I would take a little time to reflect on the past decade.

In the beginning

SLI started from the ashes of NBCi. We had sold our search company, GloblaBrain to NBCi in 2000, only to find that it was closing down in about April of 2001. We saw then that there was an opportunity to use the GlobalBrain technology to improve site search, which at the time was either non existent, or extremely poor. So we formed SLI Systems, bought our technology back from NBC and started selling our software as a service site search, which we called Learning Search.

Fast forward
When you look back it is amazing how quickly a decade seems to have passed. We now have over 300 customers, and almost 500 sites that we run the search and/or navigation for. Our product suite has broadened and we have over 70 staff in 4 countries. We are growing as fast now as we ever have, with our last quarter being our best ever.

It hasn’t all been plain sailing. We started in the depths of the dot com crash. September 11 happened soon after the company formed. They were tough conditions under which to run a company. It meant we really appreciated any customers we were able to acquire and we did anything we could to keep them satisfied so we could keep them as a customer. This has helped form our culture of a fanatical focus on customer satisfaction which is now one of our core differentiators. I am constantly hearing from our customers that we are one of the best vendors they deal with.

In more recent times we have come through the global financial crisis strongly and, in the last nine months, survived the earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand. We are still unable to access our office in the middle of the city and the fate of our building is unknown. But we are working productively from temporary offices.

The knowledge that we have weathered these storms means that we are we are confident that we can survive anything that the future will throw at us.

Our secrets to success

• This sounds like business 101 – but our focus on our customers has been key. Ensuring that they get great service and value for money is core to what we do.
• Our willingness to change. We are constantly seeking to improve our product and the way we do everything in our business. It’s part of our name and part of our DNA.
• Our staff. We employ smart people. We stimulate them and ensure that they enjoy being part of the company. As a result we have a great team that is dedicated to our customers.

I’m very proud of what our team has achieved. We have huge opportunities ahead of us and I’m looking forward to the next 10 years.

Earlier this week we had a problem at one of our data centers. The way it was successfully handled makes for an interesting story that I’d like to share.

The outage
We use multiple data centers in different locations. One of them lost power at two of their core switches which meant our servers in that data center were not connected to the internet for about an hour and 40 minutes. Now this isn’t supposed to happen. The providers we use have all sorts of processes in place to try to ensure that they are online all the time. However from our experience over the past 10 years of doing this, we see that every now and then a series of unforeseen events happens and they do go offline. To deal with this unlikely eventuality we have designed our hosting architecture to provide uninterrupted service even when these outages occur.

What would have happened in the past?
Depending on when in our 10 year history this happened, we could have had the following outcomes:

• Loss of service for all of our customers during all the outage
• Loss of service for some of our customers during the outage
• Loss of service for a portion of our customers’ visitors for a part of the outage

In any case, it would have been all hands to the deck while we tried to find a solution and there would have been a lot of communication with our customers letting them know that there was a problem and what we were doing to fix it, and then afterwards, what we had done to reduce the possibility of it happening again. In short there would have been a lot of stress all around.

So what was the impact?

We have over 100 sites whose search and navigation are partially hosted in the data center segment that had the outage.

• For the first 50 seconds a third of the visitors searching on those sites experienced a single 30 second delay while their browser timed out and then tried our next data center. Thereafter they will have had service as normal.
• For the next 100 seconds a third of the visitors to those sites experienced a single subsecond delay while their browser got a connection refused response and tried another data center. Thereafter they will have had service as normal.
• After that the data center was automatically removed from the DNS and no further requests will have been sent to it
• Once our servers came back on line the data center was added back into the DNS and operations continued as normal

The data center has informed us that they have made some changes to their processes and hardware so this type of fault won’t happen again. So they are a little stronger now than they were before. However I’m sure they will still suffer another outage at some stage.

In summary, during a 150 second period, a third of the visitors searching on the effected sites will have experienced a single delay, but after that delay they will have been able to use the services as normal. We didn’t hear anything from any of our customers and it was all handled without any stress. This is a significant improvement over what we’ve done in the past.

I wanted to highlight this story because it shows one of the unseen benefits of our service. Our less experienced and cheaper competitors don’t offer this sort of redundancy. Most website operators that are hosting their own search are also unable to provide this level of redundancy. Our customers expect our services to be running all of the time. The reason we are able to provide the level of service that we do is a combination of our dedication to continually improve the way we do things, combined with the knowledge gained through years of experience.

SLI Systems Blog, Guest Post

Contributed by: Ed Kennedy, Business Development, Guidance

Recently, I was listening to APM’s Marketplace Tech Report which highlighted how Google and Bing are now including social content such as Twitter and Facebook postings in natural search results.  The report left me wondering how retailers can leverage social search to drive traffic to their sites.

So … I decided to contact eCommerce search partner, SLI Systems, to learn more about how this new trend has impacted their site search and navigation solution.  During our conversation, we talked about ways retailers can combine social and search to enhance the customer’s shopping experience.  Here are some of them:

• Index social media content in search results: If you have blogs, Twitter feeds, Facebook wall posts, videos on YouTube or photos on Flickr, all of this content should appear in your site search results – possibly in a separate tab, as Yarn.com handles it.




• Place Facebook “like” buttons on product pages: This will encourage site visitors to share your products with their connections. In addition, Facebook “likes” can improve the page’s ranking on search engines, like Bing. You can also import the number of likes that each product has into your site search index and allow your site visitors to reorder site search results so the products with the most “likes” are ranked highest.
• Add search to your Facebook page: You can add a search box to your company Facebook page, and results will appear within Facebook. This is a good way to build stronger relationships with shoppers who like to combine shopping with social networking. Here is Chaparral Motorsports’ facebook search.




• Implement Facebook Sign-In for your store: A more advanced integration between Facebook and your commerce site is allowing visitors to use their Facebook profile as their account on your store. This reduces the amount of information visitors need to provide to create an account with your site. This functionality can also trigger personalized content for the user based on their friend’s activity on the site. TripAdvisor does a good job of encouraging Facebook Sign-In and using friends’ activity to promote certain destinations or trips.




• Encourage user generated content and tie to social networks: When Guidance designed TOMS Shoes, our User Experience and Design team looked for ways to combine the customer’s passion for the brand’s canvas shoe and the popularity of social networks. They came up with How We Wear Them, a section on TOMS’ site that allows users to upload a photo of themselves wearing their favorite pair of TOMS. The user associates the shoe in the photo to a SKU in the catalog, linking directly to that product detail page (PDP) and is then prompted to share the photo on Facebook. These images are then represented as thumbnails on the PDP, adding a social touch to the buying experience.

Got any tips of your own?  Share them with me via Twitter, @EdwardPKennedy, or via @guidance.

Next week we’ll be exhibiting at the annual Retail World conference in Sydney, taking place June 27-29. If you’re attending the event, be sure to see us at stand #51, where we’ll be demonstrating our recently announced Conversion Optimizer A/B testing tool for site search, as well as the power our Learning Search site search, navigation and merchandising solutions deliver to online retailers. You can also enter our draw to win an iPad 2.

Be sure to also pick up your conference passport, which allows you to get stamps from participating exhibitors (like us) and be entered to win prizes once your passport is complete. And on June 29 we’ll be exhibiting in the eRetailing and Multi-Channel Retail Day in stand #2 – so you can also catch us there.

We hope to see you there!

Minor changes to search and navigation, such as the way search results or images are displayed, can improve conversions and increase orders, while helping streamline the customer experience. However, if you’re not testing the various options before you put them into place, it’s hard to know what impact they’ll have – and testing can take a lot of time if you don’t have help.

Today we unveiled Conversion Optimizer, our new tool for conducting multivariate and A/B testing. We announced the beta version of this tool several months ago, and we’ve been working closely with customers to make sure it delivers all the right functionality and performs smoothly. Like all our products, Conversion Optimizer is backed by our team of search and merchandising experts who will help you figure out which options to test and manage all the tests for you, then help you determine next steps after you see the results.

Click here to read more about Conversion Optimizer, or ask your Customer Success Manager for a demo.

Our customer U.S. Toy has found that cross-linking site search results across its three different websites has increased revenue and reduced confusion among shoppers. The online retailer of toys and classroom supplies has separate sites for consumers and teachers/educators, so visitors sometimes didn’t realize they were on the wrong site – and their searches didn’t turn up results for products that could be found on another U.S. Toy site.

U.S. Toy now cross-links results for all three sites, so that visitors on one site can conduct a search and find products available on the alternate sites. If they click on such a product, they are taken to the site with the product they need.

As U.S. Toy found out, cross-linking can help keep customers on sites longer and make larger purchases, since they’re more likely to conduct successful searches and find what they’re looking for. Since the company began cross-linking in March, site search referrals from each of its sites are responsible for 13% of total revenue for the educator-focused website, and shoppers have completed several hundred purchases that would have otherwise been lost. Click here to read more about U.S. Toy and cross-linking.

From the look of things, UK eRetailers have bought into the idea of Site Search as a Full-Service to provide the best user experience on their sites, while removing the headaches commonly associated with set-up and maintenance over time.

In the past week we announced 2 new UK online retailers SockShop, a specialty socks and hosiery e-retailer, and Outdoor Megastore, which sells outdoor clothing and camping gear, reaping the benefits of Full-Service search. These are just a couple of the e-retail clients in the UK we’re now working with, and we’ll be announcing many more in the coming weeks (including some fairly recognizable names).

What’s apparent from our work with SockShop and Outdoor Megastore is that online shoppers in countries around the globe have the same requirements for an intuitive, streamlined experience when shopping online (or on mobile devices). And both of these companies struggled to offer that before they started working with SLI. For example, by relying on the default site search that was part of its e-commerce platform, Outdoor Megastore found its previous site search to be a major cause of site abandonment, and was a barrier to the superior online experience they aimed to deliver.

With SLI’s Full-Service Search in place, both companies now offer a range of refinement options in search results, as well as suggestions for alternate search terms and the ability to sort results by a variety of factors (price, brand, etc.). As a result, abandonment rates have dropped, and visitors who search stay on the site longer, view more pages and convert at a higher rate than those who don’t search. These results demonstrate exactly what we want our clients to see – that a more powerful site search can drive more business online and offer almost-immediate ROI benefits.

Perhaps online retailers in the UK – and their customers – are on to something.

I spotted a story in Twin Cities Business blog  about 3M suing Shoplet over their site search results and thought it was worthy of a comment or two. I found this interesting because its not often you see a lawsuit talking about the relevance of site search results. Shoplet are not a customer of ours.

The crux of the story is that 3M are suing Shoplet because when you search for “Post-it” on the Shoplet site 3M’s competitors products are shown first despite the fact that the results are based on relevance. This raises the question of what does relevance mean? You can see from the screenshot below that the Universal products are shown at the top of the search results.

Maybe for the Shoplet customers the Universal products are the best (by some measure). They certainly seem cheaper than the Post-it products. It comes down to how the shoplet site search engine determines relevance. If the ranking they are showing is the best experience for the users of their site, then are shoplet doing anything wrong? The lawsuit claims that manufacturers can pay a fee to receive prominent placement on its site. Maybe this is what is happening. But getting prominent placement on the site doesn’t necessarily mean getting prominent placement within the search results for particular terms.

In my opinion, what is more damming from Shoplet’s point of view is the fact that there is a “Post It” tag on the product page for the Universal Self-Stick Notes. Tags are normally manually added as additional  information that can have a number of purposes, including:

1. Giving the users more information about the contents of the page,
2. Helping the internal search engine rank the page for the tags,
3. Acting as a navigation aid to find related information.

By putting the Post It tag on the Universal Product shoplet are explicitly saying they want this product to rank for the search term Post It. But again, if it is best for the users, is it wrong in the eyes of the law. It will be interesting to see the result of this lawsuit. Chances are we’ll never see what happens, these things tend to be settled privately.

SLI Systems Blog, Guest Post

Contributed by: Steve Warren, Vice President of Business Development, Fifth Gear

Every retail transaction has a lifecycle. In ecommerce, that lifecycle includes four distinct stages, each representing an opportunity to impress or disappoint your customers. The quality of this four stage process determines a shopper’s opinion of your brand, and it means the difference between a one-time buyer and a repeat customer.

Stage 1: Identify Need and Search

We all understand what it means to identify a need. Whether the washing machine goes on the fritz, or you see an ad for those shoes you didn’t know you wanted, this is where the shopping process begins.

For up to 95% of ecommerce shoppers, the next step is an internet search. This is why search engine visibility is utterly crucial for online retailers. Unless shoppers have a prior positive experience with your brand, they’ll turn to Google to find the product they’re seeking. Your site must rank in that search or your site will be overlooked entirely. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts have real bottom line impact. We all know that SEO is a complex, nuanced and resource intensive process, so retailers should work with a reputable search firm to gain visibility. A solid SEO strategy is the best way to start a great experience with your shoppers.

Stage 2: Compare Solutions and Make the Purchase

Once customers arrive at your ecommerce site, they won’t want to wade through pages of tabs and links. For immediate engagement with your potential buyer, provide a prominent search box in the universal header of your site. The ease and convenience of on-site search gives you an advantage over competing sites, allowing for relevant product comparisons. When an advanced search tool is used, your shopper is three times more likely to make a purchase.

Next, be sure you’ve removed all roadblocks between the purchase decision and payment. Online retailers must make the purchase process simple, painless and intuitive. Ecommerce checkout design is the last interaction a customer has with your site. Make it a pleasurable experience.

Stage 3: Receive Your Order

Throughout the ordering process, you’ve communicated a brand promise: “We provide convenience and quality. We care about you.” The actual delivery of your product to a customer’s front door is the fulfillment of your brand promise.

The delivery must be timely, accurate and attractively packaged – meeting or exceeding every expectation of the product’s anticipated arrival. If the customer has questions before or after delivery, your contact center agents must be well informed, and in tune with the voice of your brand. Order fulfillment and customer support require costly infrastructure including facilities, staff, technology and vendor relationships. To ensure brand integrity while maintaining efficiencies, consider working with experienced order fulfillment providers who can deliver that brand promise on your behalf.

Stage 4: Form an Opinion

Satisfaction with the overall experience will determine whether or not there is a next-time purchase. Your company’s ability to form a positive opinion in the mind of the shopper is the final determining factor that will either bring them back again or send them looking somewhere else. Ensure satisfaction with a clear brand promise that matches your product delivery. Remove roadblocks from discovery to purchase, and fulfill that promise with a quality product.

In order to provide a great shopping experience to every ecommerce buyer and win them over for another purchase, retailers must craft each stage of the order lifecycle. Analyze these stages in your business, and you’ll find new ways to increase your percentage of repeat customers.

We just posted our latest video tip by Shaun Ryan today, the 2nd of a two-part series on site search refinements. This latest tip (just 6 ½ minutes long) covers many aspects of how best to display refinements on your site, looking at options such as category boxes down the left with items underneath (either links or check boxes), drop-down boxes (which allow for more refinements above the fold), refinement tabs across the top of the search results page, and other variations, like using icons instead of text.

The video also discusses how best to allow your visitors to refine results and then go back to the full list if they wish, and options for offering price range refinements. Additionally, the video looks at the benefits of introducing new refinements after a top-level refinement is selected. As Shaun emphasizes throughout, there are many best practices approaches to follow, but the best way to determine what works on your site is to test, test and test (we can help you with this effort).

In the first part of this two-part series (a 4 ½-minute segment), Shaun discusses what refinements are, why you should have them on your site and how best to select the refinements that will work best for your products and customers – for example, by color (using color swatches), top-sellers, men’s/women’s, star ratings, etc. One way to tell what refinements might work is to look at your search logs to see what terms people are using on your site (e.g. “red shirt” may indicate that a color refinement will work well). Aside from the obvious benefit of streamlining the search experience for your customers, refinements give you a deeper glimpse into what your customers are looking for and how they’re searching – which is always useful information for your business.