Shopify Search - new Shopify App and Discovery
When the audience comes to your store, studies have shown that those using the Search Bar to find your products are 2-3 times more likely to purchase than casual browsing. Your search box is an essential function on your Shopify Store, with carefully well-chosen product descriptions the search terms used by your customers will show up on the Shopify search results page. This may seem obvious, however, there are "product descriptions" and "great product descriptions" - that make the search work for your business.
Shopify Search Improvements
While it is a crucial function for your target audience to have a search bar on every page, Shopify development is working on enhancing the current functionality in search and discovery, as well as developing an enhanced Shopify App that will take it further. The expectation is that the features and benefits of this new Shopify App will bring advanced search capabilities, and help you sell your products.
Search and Discovery - how important is it.
A study has shown that if you have a poor search experience, 85% will have a poor perception of that brand. This means that the search has to cover your full site content, including product images, and product titles, and have effective product descriptions. Potential customers are impatient and will use the search function to get to what they are looking for quickly. However, if you execute your content architecture in a way that is searchable and enables the user to find their products quickly - you will gain an advantage over the competition.
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Present to the user which products will show up first on the Shopify search results page.
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Raise the bar on customer satisfaction, and enhance brand loyalty.
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You can build on the search results on recommended products that are related to the search.
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With a good experience, the customer's chances to return are higher.
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Convert more leads into customers.
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Increase your sales, your basket size will show up to 2.6x while using the search button over the browsing visitor.
Search vs. Discovery
Shopify Search gives speed and when well executed on the content, will deliver a results page that will be in tune with the customer's expectations. While we have covered the benefits in conversion, Discovery features help boost the basket with "Complete the look", "Other shoppers also bought", and "Related products" while selecting the product you searched. Discovery is secondary to Search, the user has to find the right product and fit to then enhance their purchase.
Tips to enhance your search functionality
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Ensure relevant results: You must cover the synonyms to ensure you have a well-rounded search when a user enters those variations in the search bar. When describing a color such as yellow, cover gold/amber/lemon/honey as synonyms. The use of "power words" might be in the title of the product, and synonym words being in the body of the product description will enhance your search.
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Ensure you use tags and filters in your products so that customers can refine their search and get to the specific product. The product features can enhance the search with a good product description, but tags and filters are important in large ranges and collections.
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Upselling and cross-selling with Discovery features are important to consider as previously mentioned.
Shopify Search App
The release of this App will be at the end of the summer of 2022, and a limited number of merchants will have access to it. The new Shopify Search App will include the following features:
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Search analytics in identifying "poor or no results" from customer searches. You can then add the synonyms they are using to your accepted search terms. This will map your customers' words to your stores' descriptions, without having to redo your content.
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Category and search filters enhance the search bar, giving the user more granularity for a better search outcome.
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Use product boosts to recommend top-selling items within the search results.
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Improve your cross-selling with better Discover features.
Summary
Your Shopify Store's aim is to convert as many customers and raise the basket value of each instance. With these goals in mind, the Search bar and your content architecture have to serve your audience with word searches that are in tune with your industry, your customers, and how are the products used. All these carry "keywords", and have to have synonym keywords to ensure that the variations within the search are connecting the right results. It isn't as straightforward as it may sound, given the synonyms need to be researched and added. Creating punchy product titles makes a good impact as long as you consider searchability. If you need assistance or advice on how to set this channel, feel free to reach out to us at wish@thegenielab.com
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