Effective search engines are vital to the success of an e-commerce website. People, in general, are more accustomed to using search functions over sifting categories. Those who use search engines are often sure with the purchase they intend to buy and thus represent a potentially lucrative site demographic. Ensuring that the search engine function works for them requires understanding their needs and the problems they frequently encounter.
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| Image source: searchengineland.com |
An effective search engine narrows down what the customer’s search terms to items from the store’s inventory that they may be interested in. A search engine must be capable of identifying specific items from the often heavily generalized words used in some search engines.
One of the main troublesome aspects of using search engines in e-commerce sites is that, far too often, the links that turn up are usually not very relevant to what the customer is looking for. In many cases, the search results lead to either poorly matched selections or redundant entries. Because of this (and the fact that customers balk at having to sift through too many pages), it is vital for search engine algorithms to properly identify the target search term
Although many searches utilize vague terms, others are oddly specific. Website search engines should accommodate not only occasional typographical errors as many are prone but also the jargon and numbers used to identify them.
Search engine algorithms should be refined to produce accurate results closer to the terms mentioned in the search. E-commerce developers such as Walmart Labs look at the many intricate ways they’ve optimized site results. One protocol allowed company partners’ selling similar entries to simplify their search results by providing identical products from different sellers into a single entry.
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Abhishek Gattani is the head of search at Walmart Labs. Learn more about him and his career from this page.
