E-Commerce - Faster Search Suits Etronics' Servers

• Client: Etronics (http://www.etronics.com/) - one of the world's fastest-growing online retailers of electronics equipment, based in New York
  
• Business Problem: A slow search on overloaded servers that reduced the likelihood of sales
  
• Solution: S.L.I. Systems' hosted search solution is much faster for users and learns from their search behavior to continuously improve search results, increasing the probability of sales
  
• Results: Search speed down from 20 seconds to under seven; nil server load on search; 45% of visitors click on a result on their first search; 20% conversion from search result to immediate purchase.

S.L.I. Systems' hosted search reduces server loads and increases Web site efficiency and effectiveness

The cost of a slow search response

Etronics' servers were feeling the strain of 35,000 searches per day.

The company's founder and president, Mayer Balser, concluded that the slow search function over Etronics' massive database was discouraging repeat visits and putting an unacceptable strain on server power.

With the site delivering 90% of the company's sales and the search box being used in up to 70% of all visits to the Etronics site, Mr Balser could ill afford a poor customer search experience.

S.L.I. Systems' standout service

Mr Balser reviewed a range of search technology to improve customers' experience of the site and support his company's fast, responsive and reliable positioning.

S.L.I. Systems was among several global search providers he investigated. Within days of his enquiry, S.L.I. Systems' had built Etronics a trial search on its servers. The trial immediately took a load off Etronics' servers during the peak Christmas 2002 online shopping period.

Etronics staff also found information on the site more quickly and easily and Mr Balser could see from the improvement in S.L.I. Systems' comprehensive Reporting Tools that customers were also experiencing an improvement.

"It was an issue of whether or not they would come back [if the search was too slow] - having a decent search improves the usability of the site," says Mr Balser.

He was particularly impressed when he needed some support from S.L.I. Systems at 9pm one Saturday night and put a call through to the search company's help center. He immediately got through to an S.L.I. Systems representative and was sorting the query out with a technical advisor within the hour.

"That degree of support sold me [on the technology]. I didn't even have to follow up with the other search providers," says Mr Balser.

"S.L.I. Systems seems to be really experienced in search - they know what works and what doesn't," says Mr Balser.

S.L.I. Systems' service includes regular search reports, analysis tools and search suggestions that help visitors to refine their search and increase their odds of finding the information they seek. The reports help Etronics to identify the most commonly used search phrases, the poorest performing search terms and how site visitors interact with the search results presented.

With up to 600 competitors in the electronics e-commerce market, Mr Balser sees improvements to search as being very important to the overall performance of the website and believes having a good search function is essential to e-commerce success.

"If you offer a lot of products and have issues with load and server speed, it's important that you solve that problem if you are to get the most out of your e-commerce business," Mr Balser says.

With site visits and search activity increasing, the server is free to focus on its core business - serving up products for online sale. And anything that helps his business and its online operation to sell more - faster, more responsively and more reliably - gets the thumbs up from Mr Balser.

Enquire about S.L.I.'s hosted search service for your e-commerce site: sales@sli-systems.com

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