When you’re trying to find something on a poorly designed or overly cluttered website, it can feel like you’re in one of those computer games where you’re trapped in a dark hallway and don’t know which room to choose. Will clicking on a given tab help get you where you want to go, or will […]
This month, we have a tip on boosting conversions from people who land on your product pages from searches via Google and other Internet search engines. The tip is to show a tailored product banner to these visitors. You have little control over how Internet search engines will rank your product pages so by showing […]
Your website visitors have high expectations of quickly finding the products or content they need. However, visitors often struggle to figure out exactly what terms they should use in the search box. Auto Complete, which we’ve talked about in the past, shows suggestions as you type into the search box. Another way to help visitors […]
At SLI, we spend a lot of time talking with our clients about ways they can improve performance of their site search and navigation, and options to consider for merchandising results pages. We’ve also discussed many best practices approaches in this newsletter – everything from refinement options, display options (e.g. ‘grid view vs. list view’), […]
With the recent growth in mobile shopping, coupled with new technologies that bring online shopping to the physical world (and vice-versa), the lines between online and offline have blurred. It’s no longer prudent to keep offline and online marketing efforts completely separate from one another, yet many retailers still do. Below are some tips for […]
Not long ago, you could implement key technology upgrades to your e-commerce site a few months in advance of the crucial holiday shopping season, all in one go – then leave your site alone until next year. However, the accelerated pace of retail technology innovation, along with higher expectations from users, means that you need […]
It’s hard to believe another year is coming to a close. In 2010, site search continued to evolve into an important merchandising technology that positively impacts online businesses. As we’ve done in previous years, we’d like to take this opportunity to share with you popular news items, blog posts, and podcasts from the past year. […]
Have you ever shopped for clothing, books, or sporting supplies on your mobile device? If so, was it an easy process, or was it cumbersome and time-consuming? While the numbers vary a bit from report to report, most experts predict that consumers will soon launch themselves into the mobile commerce revolution – possibly even during […]
In last month’s newsletter, we explained how to identify the most useful refinements for your site search, depending on your customers’ needs and the product mix. Figuring out which refinements to offer is the starting point, but there’s more work to be done: This month, we’ll tell you how to display these refinements so that […]
Disaster planning and business continuity are an important part of any hosted service offering – and in particular, with the holidays coming up, retailers need a search solution that won’t fail when they need it most. We have had firsthand experience with this and the 7.1 earthquake that hit our offices in Christchurch, New Zealand […]