Searchandising another new Term on the Net

You've all seen the Search boxes on E Commerce sites, you know the ones that allow you to quickly find what you are looking for, without having to trawl through the navigation. What you (probably) didn't konw is that this is a "Searchandising" tool !!

Many of the most successful Web sites have these search applications built in, and research has shown that online retailers that use these searchandising tools often get a boost in sales, conversion rates and average order values.

Here are four tips from a report by the Aberdeen Group entitled “Web Site Search: Revenue in the Results". These tips are designed to help online marketers achieve the best results possible using "searchandising" tools.

1. Customise, it pays off. Companies who altered the standard search box applications to fit their products or services got the highest returns from their Web site search applications.

2. Make continuous improvements. Nearly 60 percent of those responding to the survey by the Aberdeen Group said they saw benefits, like such as improved customer satisfaction and streamlined processes with the introduction of ongoing fine-tuning of the search and navigation process.

3. Search tools must be customer-friendly. You have to realise that people are bound to spell words wrong or make other mistakes while using your search application. So make sure your search tools use "natural language processing", can recognize misspelled words and include a customised dictionary and thesaurus. Otherwise, so the report says you could be losing sales when a search comes up empty.

4. Mine the data you get. You can learn a lot about your customers wants by seeing what they type into the Search box. It can tell you if about their browsing preferences, buying habits and much more. Plus you could use the data in your SEO too.

For a free copy of their report, go to www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?spid=30410627&cid=3910

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