SLI Systems Integrates Pinterest “Pins” with Site Search on Artbeads.com

Addition of Pinterest Buttons in Search Results Increases Customer Engagement and Allows Shoppers to “Speed-Pin” Items to Their Own Pinboards Directly From Site Search Pages

SAN JOSE, CA – March 26, 2012 – SLI Systems (www.sli-systems.com) today announced that it has helped IR500 retailer Artbeads.com improve the usability of its site and the overall customer experience by integrating Pinterest, the online pinboard, with its Learning Search full-service site search on the beads and jewelry-making supplies retailer’s e-commerce site.

With the SLI-Pinterest integration, visitors to Artbeads.com can now see the number of pins that various items have received from other Pinterest members, directly from within search results pages, and can also easily pin these items to their own pinboards. Pinterest has become one of the fastest growing social networking sites on the Internet, with monthly visitors now at 10 million and growing.

Artbeads.com wanted to take advantage of the popularity of Pinterest to enhance the visitor experience on its site, and as part of SLI Systems’ full-service approach, worked closely with SLI to integrate Pinterest and other social media and user-generated content into site search results. The outcome is a richer mix of information about Artbeads.com’s products, which helps shoppers do research before they buy.

The SLI-Pinterest combination was implemented by SLI Systems’ team of search and navigation experts, who worked closely with Artbeads.com to include the right elements and ensure the site maintained a clean, non-cluttered look and feel.

Robust Site Search Enables ‘Speed Pinning’ of Specialty Items

Artbeads.com is one of the web’s leading suppliers of beads, Swarovski crystal beads and jewelry-making supplies, and imports products from such locales as Thailand, Italy, Bali and Austria. In addition to selling beads and supplies for jewelry-making, Artbeads.com also offers extensive educational content on crafts involving beads and embellishments through its learning center, and hosts community pages on which customers share pictures of their creations along with advice for other bead lovers. The company is also host to the world’s largest community of beaders, with a Facebook community of over 74,000 ‘Likes.’

“Our shoppers have embraced Pinterest because it aligns with their love of craft and jewelry design – so it makes sense for us to guide them to products that have proven popular with other customers,” said Devin Kimura, CEO of Artbeads.com. “By bringing pinned products into SLI site search and allowing people to pin products they like, we can help shoppers explore our products more deeply and benefit from the recommendations of other site visitors.”

Pinterest’s “Pin it” button now appears on search results for products, videos, and “Learning Center” content on Artbeads.com. Next to each “Pin it” button is a number indicating how many times the content has been pinned to a Pinterest board. Since the “Pin it” button appears directly within search results, shoppers can easily add items to their own Pinterest pinboards with just a click.

“We see it as speed-pinning – our shoppers can just keep pinning anything that catches their eye while they search,” said Kimura. “And seeing the number of times an item has been pinned acts as a ratings system of sorts, since shoppers will likely want to find out more about products that have been pinned more than others.”

The integration of Pinterest with SLI’s Learning Search on Artbeads.com is an example of the full-service, customization benefits retailers receive when working with SLI Systems, the number-one SaaS-based site search provider to the IR500. In addition to site search, Learning Search includes hosted navigation and merchandising solutions, which help online retailers like Artbeads.com meet customer expectations for relevant results and information, and also promote particular products and brands, all based on previous visitors’ search and click-through activity. The solutions are dynamic, so results fluctuate to reflect current customer buying trends and changing use of keywords.

“As website visitors take part in new and popular social networks such as Pinterest, it’s important for online retailers to weave in this social content to the overall site experience,” said Shaun Ryan, CEO of SLI Systems. “By encouraging shoppers to pin images on their site, more images will be pinned, and the retailer should get more traffic from this fast growing social network.”

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/.