Global Fashion Retail Brand Boden Puts Focus on Search and Navigation for Traditional and Mobile E-commerce Sites

Working with Full-Service Provider SLI Systems, Boden Provides Engaging Online Shopping and Browsing Experience Across Multiple Country Sites and for Growing Base of Mobile Purchasers

SAN JOSE, CA, and LONDON, UK – February 29, 2012 – SLI Systems (www.sli-systems.com) today announced that Boden, a leading global retailer of men’s, women’s and children’s apparel, has created a richer, more engaging online shopping experience with the company’s full-service, dynamic search solution, supporting multiple languages across several country e-commerce sites.

Having worked with SLI to power the search of its UK site for several years, Boden recently turned to SLI’s expert team to create the same shopping experience, with intuitive search as the focal point, for all of its international sites in the U.S., France, Austria, and Germany – each in the specific country’s own language.

Additionally, for both the U.S. and UK markets, Boden is using SLI Mobile to deliver consistent, seamless search for visitors to its mobile commerce sites. Boden has also implemented SLI’s Rich Auto Complete feature, which automatically shows suggested search terms, and accompanying products, images and descriptions, based on a visitor’s first few keystrokes when entering keyword terms in the search box. This feature makes it faster for Boden’s visitors to find what they’re looking for and significantly improves conversions rates.

“The fashion retail industry continues to outpace other retail sectors when it comes to online shopping and spending growth, which make our e-commerce sites an important component of our overall business,” said Paul Knutton, Online Project Manager for Boden. “Our aim has always been to deliver a superior shopping experience on our websites, and we’re now replicating the same experience for customers shopping on mobile devices. Working with SLI has been a key part of our multi-channel strategy and the consistent look and feel we offer has resulted in more customers staying loyal to our brand, which ultimately helps grow our bottom line.”

Continued Growth in Online Fashion Retail Drives Innovative Usability Features
Boden’s efforts to bolster its international online presence and enhance web-based shopping and browsing are largely in response to the continued growth the fashion e-retail sector has seen over the past several years, and which is expected to continue for the foreseeable future. According to a research study conducted by the Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG), the online fashion retail sector has exponentially grown by 2,000 percent over the past decade since 2001, a rate that is expected to continue through 2012 and beyond.

Additionally, recent studies show that more and more consumers are not just researching products but actually making purchases on mobile devices – a trend that Boden and other retailers can’t afford to ignore.

“Our mobile site is seeing more and more traffic, and the search box is used heavily by shoppers with smartphones and handheld devices,” said Knutton. “We’ve determined that people who search stay on the mobile site longer,view more items, and also convert at a higher rate. Because of SLI’s knowledge of best practices in both online and mobile site usability our e-commerce and mobile commerce sites are benefiting tremendously.”

SLI’s Rich Auto Complete also delivers an optimal search experience on Boden’s various country sites, as customers who click on one of the suggested results automatically generated by the feature are much more likely to convert than visitors who either don’t search or who bypass Rich Auto Complete’s suggested terms. Boden is also integrating user ratings and reviews into the navigation experience in distinct ways, such as factoring in demographic data so shoppers can find reviews that are relevant to their own personal profiles.

Boden is also working with SLI Systems to enhance its SEO efforts by creating dynamic merchandising banners that showcase the most popular site search results for keywords used in natural search. Keywords used by visitors in external search engines like Google link to a Boden product page which includes a dynamic banner populated with the top five or more items clicked on when site visitors type the same search term on Boden’s site. This use of site search data for natural search merchandising further enhances customer engagement and purchasing activity.

“Today’s online shoppers are much more sophisticated than they were just a year or two ago, and they’re also much more pressed for time,” said Shaun Ryan, CEO of SLI Systems. “The more we can work with clients to streamline the experience they offer their customers and get them to the items they seek in as few steps as possible, the better – particularly when that experience is consistent across multiple channels. The Boden implementation is a great example of the innovative aspects of Learning Search, and how customizable it is for different types of online businesses.”

Learning Search is part of SLI Systems’ full-service, customized site search, navigation and merchandising offerings, which are designed to meet customer expectations for relevant results and information, all based on previous visitors’ search and click-through activity. The Learning Search suite also enables retailers like Boden to use site search data to more effectively promote particular products and brands through merchandising of results, customized banners and dynamic landing pages. Additionally, SLI’s offerings are backed by the company’s team of search and navigation experts, who oversee deployment of Learning Search and provide ongoing management and support.

About SLI Systems
SLI Systems provides full-service, customized, on-demand solutions for site-search, navigation, merchandising, and user-generated SEO. SLI Systems’ solutions empower businesses to enhance customer satisfaction while increasing sales, reducing costs and increasing site conversions. Unlike traditional search and merchandising software, SLI Systems’ patented technology continuously “learns” from the behavior of visitors over time to deliver more relevant results. SLI Systems is a privately held company with offices in San Jose, California; London; New Zealand and Australia. For more information, visit www.sli-systems.com, or read the company’s blog at http://blog.sli-systems.com/, watch the SLI YouTube Channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/SLISiteSearch, follow SLI on Twitter at http://twitter.com/slisystems, or listen to SLI hosted ecommerce podcasts at http://www.ecommercepodcast.com/.