Site Search

Survey Says: ‘Easy’ Product Search Isn’t Good Enough
August 24, 2023 at 12:07 pm

If you asked nearly 500 online shoppers how they would classify their experience finding products on their favorite retail website and nearly three in four said it was “easy,” you’d think that most websites were doing a pretty good job, right? Think again. While 70 percent of those shoppers characterized searching for products online as…

AI is Bringing Conversation Back to Commerce
July 31, 2023 at 2:45 pm

Even in its earliest form, commerce has always been centered around conversation. The evolution to e-commerce seemed to de-center that conversational element, though. Without a person to speak with, conversation was relegated to a single place within the online shopping experience: the search bar. As the only direct insight into what consumers really want, the…

When Evaluating Site Design and UX, Don’t Neglect Search
June 29, 2023 at 11:28 am

With social commerce on the rise — estimates have sales through social platforms growing from $27 billion in 2020 to nearly $80 billion by 2025 — consumer expectations of online shopping experiences are changing, particularly with respect to website design and user experience. However, as brands adapt their sites to this changing behavior, one key…

Harnessing the Power of AI for Retail Merchandising
June 13, 2023 at 10:39 am

A retailer’s ability to create a seamless and relevant experience for their customers ultimately can be the difference between gaining loyalty or falling behind competitors. Today’s customers are looking for faster connections to the items they’re looking for and want personalization at every step along the way. This is why the pressure to nail online…

You Understand What Your Customers Want. Does Your Search Engine?
May 25, 2023 at 10:07 am

Understanding what customers wanted was pretty simple in a physical store. They could tell a store associate, “I need a coat for a ski trip,” or simply point to an item to say, “I need something like that.” With the introduction of online shopping, the e-commerce search bar became the store associate. A customer simply…

3 Tactics for Growing Revenue Using Data-Driven Search and Discovery
March 29, 2023 at 1:55 pm

Amid economic turbulence, many retailers are revamping their marketing strategies to try and bring in more customers. However, increasing advertising spend is not the end-all-be-all solution to boosting their bottom lines. Instead, they can increase their revenue by more effectively capitalizing on the customer interactions they already have on their e-commerce platforms and outperforming competitors.…

5 Ways E-Commerce Experiences Must Evolve to Succeed Among Economic Uncertainty
March 21, 2023 at 12:26 pm

The economic downturn is dramatically impacting consumer budgets, making shoppers think twice about their spending. This puts pressure on e-commerce merchants to adapt their online shopping experiences to maximize profitable conversions. Meeting this challenge requires a focus on five key areas: 1. Enhance e-commerce site search with dynamic ranking and merchandising. With every cent counting…

Search Relevance is Broken: Why Product Discovery Software Made for E-Commerce is Better
March 7, 2023 at 10:17 am

Relevance has historically underpinned much of e-commerce search and product discovery strategy. The saying goes, “Reach the right people in the right place at the right time,” and relevance is typically believed to be at the foundation of that objective, guiding retailers and brands as they aim to surface the right product in the right…

How Advanced Site Search Delivers a True Omnichannel Shopping Experience
August 16, 2022 at 9:06 pm

As consumers return to in-person shopping, businesses everywhere are moving quickly to include the best parts of physical retail in the online customer journey. But retailers looking to take features from brick-and-mortar shopping and port them over to the online experience are thinking about it in the wrong way. Success in this new age of…

Lily AI Exec on the Impact of Enriched Product Data for E-Commerce Businesses
August 3, 2022 at 5:51 pm

In this episode of Total Retail Tech Insights, Editor-in-Chief Joe Keenan interviews Jay Hinman, vice president of marketing at Lily AI, the product attribution management platform for e-commerce retailers. Listen in as Hinman discusses Lily AI's technology solutions for retailers (0:58), his professional background in marketing (2:24), and the challenges that retailers face in delivering great…