{"id":34280,"date":"2022-10-03T20:19:23","date_gmt":"2022-10-03T20:19:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bloomreach.com\/?post_type=library&p=34280"},"modified":"2024-09-17T10:15:15","modified_gmt":"2024-09-17T10:15:15","slug":"crank-up-your-ecommerce-search","status":"publish","type":"library","link":"https:\/\/www.bloomreach.com\/en\/library\/guides\/crank-up-your-ecommerce-search","title":{"rendered":"Crank Up Your Ecommerce Search With Day Zero Learnings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the fast-paced world of ecommerce, it’s essential for online stores to provide a seamless and efficient search experience for their customers. A well-designed ecommerce search engine not only helps users find the products they’re looking for, but also significantly impacts an ecommerce site’s revenue. The importance of ecommerce search cannot be overstated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An effective ecommerce search engine should be able to process complex search queries, understand natural language processing<\/a>, and deliver relevant results based on search terms. By implementing AI-powered site search solutions<\/a> and machine learning technologies, online stores can ensure that their customers receive the most accurate and relevant search results, enhancing their overall shopping experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ecommerce sites must consider the power of natural language processing (NLP) in improving their site search functionality. NLP enables ecommerce search engines to understand and interpret user searches more effectively, even when they include colloquial language or misspellings. By leveraging NLP, online stores can provide a more intuitive and human-like search experience that better understands customers’ needs and preferences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, ecommerce personalization<\/a> is an essential aspect of enhancing the search experience for ecommerce shoppers. By analyzing users’ past behavior and preferences, ecommerce search solutions can deliver tailored results that are more likely to resonate with individual customers. This level of personalization not only improves the customer experience but also increases the chances of converting searches into sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Departure Point<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Some people love a good road trip. For them, the whole point isn\u2019t the destination<\/em> \u2014 it\u2019s the journey<\/em>. Others don\u2019t want to or can\u2019t afford to take the time and enjoy the ride, and it\u2019s more about speed and expediency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently, commerce brands across multiple industries and markets have an eye on product search as their next ecommerce destination<\/a>. Product search technology addresses poor search performance, removes strain from your team, and makes room for additional ecommerce initiatives as your business scales operations. However, search is a revenue stream that many brands continue to leave on \u201cEmpty.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since implementation is complicated, expensive, and time-consuming, some solutions will tout time to implementation, but as a savvy ecommerce practitioner or leader, you\u2019re likely looking for more concrete value, such as return on investment (ROI) and\/or time to value (TTV). Now, you just have to convince your brand’s decision makers of the same<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After all, wouldn\u2019t your team rather do something right the first time, as opposed to doing it again down the road? If so, strap in for this road trip extravaganza with Bloomreach! We\u2019ll show you the way as we make a few stops along the route to ecommerce success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The First Stop to Better Ecommerce Search<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The “Black Box Roadside” Attraction<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

To break out of our ecommerce practitioner shell, we want to have some fun on this road trip and stop at some places we normally wouldn\u2019t. Let\u2019s start with a roadside attraction that piqued our interest when mapping out our route \u2014 the Black Box. In theory, the Black Box is the place to be. It promises to take the burden off of ecommerce professionals, allowing them to escape from the more mundane, repetitive tasks of their workdays. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet, we find a lot of confusion around the behind-the-scenes aspect of the Black Box.<\/strong> It\u2019s like the \u201cBlack Box Model” of computer engineering, which often faces a lot of critique in the tech community. While a black box is typically a system that can produce both useful information and extraordinary results for businesses, it\u2019s often admonished for being unclear about its internal workings and having a general opaqueness surrounding its technology \u2014 whatever that might be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Are \u201cDay Zero\u201d Learnings? <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

There are practitioners, engineers, and leaders out there, who would refer to an out-of-the-box ecommerce search engine as \u201ctoo black box.\u201d While we don\u2019t consider ourselves as a black box at Bloomreach, we recognize that our solution is optimized with a bit of magic, aka the dataset that we\u2019ve built over the past decade to best adapt to customer and buyer behavior. Bloomreach exists somewhere in the middle of the spectrum of \u201cautomated artificial intelligence (AI) solutions\u201d and \u201cself-service solutions.\u201d This means that our self-learning site search engine<\/a> is revved up from the start with numerous built-in capabilities, but it still leaves plenty of leeway for your team to scale and make decisions as they see fit. Think of our technology as a set of guard rails to help you maximize your business performance!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ecommerce Search Needs AI: A Look Inside the Box<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Now, let\u2019s get back to that very \u201cmysterious\u201d black box. In reality, Bloomreach does not consider itself to be secretive or sneaky about our AI. Why would we be? We know that our product is a customer-focused solution that will give your brand the speed <\/em>it needs to address your issues with ecommerce search<\/a> from day zero. With that being said, we want to take a moment to show you what\u2019s inside this so-called “AI black box” and how its components can provide the automation your team needs, as soon as our Discovery<\/a> solution is fully implemented: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Query-driven RPV<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Most search engines are designed to improve either conversions or revenue. Only Bloomreach is optimized for query-level revenue per visitor (RPV). Our technology evaluates each searcher\u2019s intent at the most granular level, showcasing the products they\u2019re most likely to buy first with an emphasis on the items that will make the most revenue for the business. Remember, this happens from day zero, and as our search engine works with your brand, we continually optimize our ranking algorithm based on your customer or buyer\u2019s behavior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Semantic Understanding<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Contextual knowledge is extremely valuable when you\u2019re having an in-person conversation with someone. Your tone, delivery, and body language all convey meaning to the person on the other end of the exchange. But search bars on ecommerce sites often miss out on the nuances of human speech. Thankfully, our AI will allow your search bar to decipher your products on a deeper level and present them in ways that make sense to your customer. This is called \u201csemantic understanding.\u201d<\/a> Bloomreach\u2019s search engine deeply understands both customer intent and product attributes, so we know that vanilla can be a color, an ingredient, or a scent. Our technology automatically turns this understanding into relevant results at the search query level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smart Query Relaxation<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Search results are everything to your customer or buyer<\/a>. Too little, they\u2019ll grow disinterested; too many, and they\u2019ll feel overwhelmed. None at all? Well, you might as well just anticipate that they\u2019ll bounce to your competitor at that point. If your catalog doesn\u2019t have the exact product a customer is seeking via search query, then Bloomreach will increase recall in a way that provides results, yet keeps customer intent at the forefront. This facet of our AI leverages the same query-level semantic understanding, grasping exactly which attribute to relax \u2014 be it specific brand, color, or cut type \u2014 to show more relevant results, as opposed to a page of null results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bloomreach\u2019s Net Promoter Score (NPS) is another indicator of our tool\u2019s well-developed AI capabilities and successful integration processes. Over the years, we\u2019ve undergone implementations so many times and know what to expect. To make your experience as pleasant as possible, Bloomreach leverages a team of product experts and former practitioners<\/a>, who can teach your team how to truly leverage our ecommerce search tool and ensure that you\u2019re set up for long-term success. Now that\u2019s the kind of speed that really<\/em> matters and is truly<\/em> impactful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Next Stop on Your Ecommerce Product Search Journey<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Peak of the Digital Maturity Curve<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

As you\u2019re leaving the black box roadside attraction, you\u2019ll most likely feel some sense of relief. You\u2019ve now nailed down a better understanding of Bloomreach\u2019s AI. Since you have a more clear-cut understanding of what our AI does, you might be wondering what it looks like in comparison to other ecommerce search engines on the market. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How convenient is it that our next stop on this eye-opening road trip happens to be the digital maturity curve? Not familiar with the concept? Let us chauffeur you up the long, winding road to the peak and show you all the various phases of AI maturity along the way! Afterward, we hope you\u2019ll better understand where your business should start its product discovery efforts. (Spoiler alert: <\/strong>It definitely shouldn\u2019t be Phase 0 \u2014 or even 1 or 2, which is where many of our competitors like to park.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before we get started on our ascent, we should take a look under the hood of our ecommerce search engine to make sure that everything is working properly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Four Engines of Bloomreach\u2019s Ecommerce Search<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

One of the questions you might be asking yourself right now is: Does your current or prospective product search vendor align with your business goals? <\/em>While offering search on your ecommerce website is now the industry standard, the way you lay out your search result, category, and product pages has a significant impact on key metrics in your ecommerce strategy and must be prioritized. We\u2019re more than ready to take a deeper dive into the nuts and bolts, or the \u201cengines,\u201d of a relevant and personalized search experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Optimization<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Combined with the relevance engine of semantic search, an optimization engine will cut out unnecessary tasks, automate your ecommerce merchandising workflows<\/a>, and result in a serious ROI. All the hours your merchandisers spend boosting and burying your products or creating synonyms for product attributes will be no more. An advanced ecommerce search solution can run in the background the entire time and significantly reduce redundant workflows \u2014 while still allowing merchandisers to intervene in the smart, strategic, and streamlined ways they see fit. Don’t forget that many solutions on the market require you to start from scratch and customize everything. Bloomreach provides you with the foundation, then empowers your teams to customize the last 10 to 20%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Personalization<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Irrelevant search results still plague customers today. Although many brands seek end-to-end, personalized experiences online, this promise remains unfulfilled, as personalization remains as elusive as ever. At Bloomreach, we believe that your brand\u2019s search experience should be built for the customer\u2019s or buyer\u2019s motivations behind their purchase. This means, your search bar must fully grasp consumer intent and present all relevant options on the proper channels. This personalization engine will learn from user behavior and online interactions to continue creating granular 1:1 personalization at scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customization<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Ecommerce brands require an ecommerce search tool that can be customized to their goals. A good search tool is optimized out of the box, but will also improve over time based on insights from individual user preferences and site-wide product signals<\/a>. That\u2019s the beauty of Bloomreach \u2014 our customers don\u2019t have to customize everything, and we believe that they shouldn\u2019t have to do this to reach their goals. Top-notch product search technology must be designed to handle evolving traffic requirements, API callouts, and product catalogs. No matter what size your brand is or aspires to be, the technology underneath it all serves as the ultimate customization engine for your business needs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Can Your Business Find a Place Along the Digital Maturity Curve?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve said it before, and we\u2019ll say it again: Ecommerce brands exist to meet the intent of the customer at any given moment, whether that moment occurs online or offline. These moments of intent can surface as the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n