SITECORE SEARCH SOLUTION

Sitecore Search Solution is a collection of advanced search tools that will improve the overall experience for your online customers. Finding the right information quickly is key for any online business or information system, and that is precisely the focus of the search features.

Our response to this challenge is a selection of key search features, most of which are essential to the majority of web installations on the market. By addressing not only technology, but also the interaction between clients, market strategy, user behavior, and social media, we are able to offer a variety of tools that are developed, and can be implemented when required.

Sitecore Search Solution is a powerful yet simple tool and can be implemented in a single day by your webmaster. Alternately, we can install the solution, making it a completely turn-key solution.

Sitecore Search Solution focuses on five core areas:

• Improving the search experience that you provide
• Accelerating content integration for better searches
• Easily aligning search functionality with your sales strategy
• Fine-tuning web content priorities based on actual user behavior
• Strengthening your brand’s identity by linking search to social media

1) IMPROVE THE SEARCH EXPERIENCE THAT YOU PROVIDE

Advanced search offers several business-critical benefits. Firstly, effective searches can accelerate the sales process. A faster sales process will increase conversions, as customers will be able to find the products they are looking for more easily. Furthermore, fast, precise, and successful searches improve your customers’ overall satisfaction with your site, and increase its perceived reliability.

Sitecore Search Solution qualifies your customers search through the following:

Facetted search helps customers narrow their search through a managed dialogue that involves filtering by category, price, color, availability and other attributes, and by asking questions based on data, such as data from your CRM system, for example.

Type ahead suggests queries as soon as visitors start typing. For example, if a visitor types LEGO, the search field will provide a long list of options, such as LEGO Atlantis, LEGO Basic, LEGO Friends, LEGO City, and so on. You can decide if you want to include prices and a BUY button.

Dynamic rich media type ahead suggests search results with rich media elements that can include suggested product shots, prices, the address of a local retail outlet, and other support options.

Did-You-Mean generates spelling corrections, and highlights bestselling brands and products.

Targeted offers presents offers related to the visitor’s query terms, either in separate promotion boxes, or as part of the search results. For example, a summer campaign might appear at the top of the page when the visitor types “summer” or “picnic”.

Each of these features reduces the number of clicks required for a customer to find relevant information and products. Just imagine how that will improve your online store's conversion rates, and increase basket size!

2) ACCELERATE CONTENT INTEGRATION FOR BETTER SEARCHES

There is a convenient and effective way to tell the whole story of your products.

When visitors search your online store, they expect to find products that have been promoted in recent campaigns, yet campaigns often describe products differently than the more factual way in which you present the products in your store. To increase conversion, while also improving brand identity, you can enable visitors to search for and find products based on your campaign wording. To do this, you need to integrate your search index with campaign material typically stored in an e-mail campaign, or similar system.

Other information visitors expect to find when searching for products can include details about loyalty program rewards, stock availability, customer reviews, previously purchased products, “other visitors also viewed/bought this product”, and more. All this information is typically stored in your ERP system, product information system (PIM) or inventory management system, and also needs to be integrated with your search index.

3) EASILY ALIGN SEARCH FUNCTIONALITY WITH YOUR SALES STRATEGY

Sitecore Search Solution is easy to install and can be integrated by a website developer or a content editor. Changes take effect immediately, with no need for data reloading, testing, or server rebooting.

With just a few clicks in the browser-based administration module, you can dynamically manage what your customers see when they search your website. The plug-in allows you to align search engine results on your site with your company’s new sales strategy, special promotions, brick and mortar activities, and can significantly reduce time-to-market for new campaigns.

All of this is done via a set of easy-to-use tools:

Easily Configurable Facets. Quickly define and order the facets (attribute boxes) that your customers use to filter products. For example, you might choose one set of product attributes for LEGO products (category, brand, and price) and another for children’s costumes (type, size, and price).

Advanced ranking models. If you would like to promote products with high profit margins, paid sponsorship and/or high stock availability, this tool does the job. Simply add these three sales parameters to the ranking model, and it will determine the exact order in which your products will appear on the results list.

Prioritized search results. Let's you decide which products will appear at the top of a customer’s search results list.

Special promotions. This tool allows you to promote products that are related to a search, either in a separate promotion box, or as part of the search results themselves. For example, when selling roller blades, you might also want to promote your safety gear.

Search redirects to brand stores. If you would like to improve brand awareness, you might want to show some of your products (LEGO, Clinique, Nike, etc.) in the context of their own brand stores, each with its own unique look and feel.

Keyword matching. You can match the way your visitors use language with the language used on your site. For example, visitors searching for “mineral water” could be shown “sparkling water”, or vice versa.

Replacement products. When certain products are no longer in stock, you can direct visitors to replacement products, instead.

Competitive product matching. If a visitor types a competitor’s model number or name into the search field on your site, you can display equivalent products.

4) FINE-TUNE WEB CONTENT PRIORITIES BASED ON ACTUAL USER BEHAVIOR

In the world of e-commerce, you are only as good as your intelligence.

Sitecore Search Solution comes with a search intelligence component that gives you valuable intelligence on how users behave on your site. The component works by providing access to a number of predefined statistical options, such as “zero result queries” or “frequent queries”.

Zero results queries lets you know what queries your site is unable to answer, so that you can add new information, add synonyms to your dictionary, or define replacement products (new product versions or products with similar functionality).

Frequent queries statistics keep you informed about which searches are most popular on your site, allowing you to improve conversion rates and drive up revenue by customizing campaigns to feature these and related products.

5) STRENGTHEN YOUR BRAND'S IDENTITY BY LINKING SEARCH TO SOCIAL MEDIA

Effective integration with social media sites is key in an effective digital media strategy. A Facebook “like”, or a review of one of your products on Twitter or your company blog should lead to your website and enable easy localization of the product. But this often proves difficult to achieve, as people tend to use more emotive language on social media as compared to an online store's product description.

The tweet shown below reads “Happiness in your windowsill”, and in fact, people tend to remember emotive lines like these better than fact-based information. So, while they might not be lines from the product description, they are powerful tools that can help brand and sell your products.

The connector framework built into Sitecore Search Solution enables you to integrate content from Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and more into your web store’s search functionality. With such content enriching your own online presence, you will find yourself in a much stronger position to amplify your message and build your brand identity across channels.

Once up and running, the connector framework enables your website developers or content editors to maintain content matches with a minimum of effort, and with no need for IT specialists.