Telescope: Everything You Need to Know About Search
Welcome to this edition of Telescope on Search, our monthly newsletter devoted to search. Our goal is to
offer a regular, quick-browse e-newsletter with useful information, tips, and news of the latest developments
on Site Search, Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, and site usability. If you have any
feedback or questions please direct them
to newsletter@sli-systems.com.
Feature: Gift Finders
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Shaun Ryan
CEO, SLI Systems
With the busy holiday shopping season already underway, we thought we’d focus this issue of the newsletter
on an interesting and topical subset of the site navigation services we provide: the “gift finder.”
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A simple concept to deploy and one that can further generate more sales on your ecommerce site, the gift finder
is a useful tool that gives people an additional way to find products that would make ideal gifts for the different
people on their holiday lists.
The gift finder can easily be promoted on the home page or throughout the whole site. It allows people to define
a set of criteria (e.g. price, occasion, recipient, gift type, etc.) and see a list of all the products that fall
within. The gift finder isn’t necessarily different from normal navigation – it’s just labeled in a way to be
a utility for people doing their holiday (or other type of) gift shopping on your site – and it’s relatively
easy to set up.
Example of Gift Finder on Harry and David
Our experience has shown that giving people the ability to specify a price range is critical in the gift finder.
Most people have an idea in their mind as to how much they want to spend on a particular gift, so making it easy for
them to quickly see all the products that are within their budget is appealing. You can go one step further and
rank the products within each pricing category in order of popularity, or any other criteria that is relevant.
If you’re interested in putting up a gift finder on your site in time to generate more sales activity this
holiday season, just let us know (contact your account manager). We may be able to work with you and create the
appropriate navigation categories in no time at all.
If you have any comments you'd like to share, email us at
newsletter@sli-systems.com.
Partner Highlight: |
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This month’s partner focus is on PowerReviews, a Web 2.0 company
that provides online customer ratings and reviews solutions. We’ve teamed up with PowerReviews on a number of
joint customer implementations, including CableOrganizer,
Your Blinds, Coffee for Less and
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters.
By integrating our Learning Search with the PowerReviews customer review solution, we’ve enabled these and
other retailers to provide their customers with another important navigation tool: the ability to search for
products according to how they’re rated, as well as how they’re categorized. With this combined offering
on your site, a search can be further refined by clicking on a link to look at only products with four or five-star
(or whatever number deemed appropriate) reviews. Additionally, customers who write these reviews can also tag the
products for different categories, giving subsequent visitors yet another way to search.
For example, when you search for “cable” on CableOrganizer.com, you’ll see to the left of the
results a link to see only products rated by customers with four or five stars, and you’ll also see a listing
of categories and sub-categories, including Computers, Office, Office Supplies, Accessories & Supplies, etc.,
through which to further refine your search.
The combination of our hosted site search with PowerReviews’ customer review solution brings a powerful tool to your
customers by helping them see the products rated most highly by their peers. Most online shoppers see ratings from
other customers as more credible than a standard product description or other marketing messages. The joint
SLI-PowerReviews solution is easy to implement and maintain, and can generate great results.
If you’re interested in learning more about how SLI and PowerReviews can improve your site, please contact
partners@sli-systems.com.
SLI Systems & Customers in the News
Below are links to recent news articles highlighting our Learning Search service:
SLI Systems helps Interflora grow its online business - The Retail IT Bulletin - Nov 15, 2007
New site search at Republic of Tea boosts average order value - Internet Retailer - Nov 6, 2007
SLI Systems Steps Ahead of Competition With Enhanced Performance and Scalability of Learning Search - Marketwire - Oct 22, 2007
“Scary Clowns” and “Zombies” Help Retailers Cash in on Site Search Activity - Internet Retailer - Oct 25, 2007
Instawares.com Boosts Conversion Rates with New Site Search Solution - Internet Retailer - Oct 25, 2007
Halloween Predicted to Be an Even Bigger Fright-Fest This Year Based on Site Search Data From E-commerce Companies Fright Catalog and MovieGoods - Marketwire - Oct 23, 2007
Visit SLI Systems Booths at:
Channel Intelligence Retail Marketing Summit - Jan 22nd
Shop.org Strategy and Innovation - Jan 22 - Jan 24, booth #203
Internet Retailer Web Design - Jan 30 - Feb 01, booth #45
If you have any comments or suggestions for future issues please email us at
newsletter@sli-systems.com.
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