E-commerce

E-commerce search not performing too well for many retailers

Photo by istock.com

March 31, 2022

Three-quarters of retailers are failing when it comes to effective e-commerce search which is likely prompting shoppers to leave sites without purchasing and abandoning carts.

That's a prime finding of a Klevu benchmarking report that rates top retail online stores including Vera Bradley, Pink Lily and Perry Ellis.

The 75% of sites in North America are unable to convert shoppers due to an inability to understand natural language and shopper's intent, according to a press release.

Furthermore, more than half were unable to handle misspellings by shoppers, with 75% missing out on additional sales through relevant product recommendations.

Vera Bradley Canada received the highest rating for best product discovery experience across all benchmarking criteria.

Complicated search queries are on the rise as more consumers rely on voice search on mobile. Understanding shoppers' intent is critical for e-commerce retailers to remain competitive as the spending landscape becomes more complex due to inflationary pressures and consumers use more complicated search queries to try to find what they are looking for online.

When sites understand online shoppers' intent in the same way a human sales associate might, online retailers' conversion rates have been found to be four to six times higher, according to the release.

"It's clear that major retailers need to work harder to ensure that their e-commerce experience meets consumers' expectations," Nilay Oza, CEO and co-founder of Klevu, said in the release. "As the e-commerce market in North America continues to become more competitive and inflation causes consumers to tighten spending, the e-commerce sites that are able to quickly offer shoppers exactly what they are searching for will be the ones to continue to gain market share."