Best Practices to Increase e-Commerce Search Usability

Do you want to increase online sales? If so, you need to follow the best practices to increase e-commerce search usability.

The search feature to look for keywords in e-commerce sites is vital. But having one that is not that usable is the same thing as having none.

So, if you have your e-commerce website, making sure you have a useful search feature is vital. But, how can you do that?

Let us dig deeper into that in this article.

Best Practices to Increase e-Commerce Search Usability

Visible Placement and Usable Design

First off, do not hide your search bar. Put it somewhere that is visible and easy to spot the moment visitors go into your website.

As per one study, most users expect to find the search bar in the top right or top middle of the screen. Because if you hide it, many would assume you do not have one.

Then, make it usable. Show the whole box and give suggestions. Like “search for brands, products, categories.” This should away once shoppers start to type.

Allow Search Anywhere

Next, it is vital to let shoppers search anywhere they are. Even on the results page. Thus, making it easier for them to look for more items.

Also, they can edit or add more details to what they are looking for. All without the need to type everything again.

Or even going back to the home page again only to make another search. Which can be a hassle especially for mobile users.

Offer Auto-complete

Another effective way of making it easier for shoppers is offering auto-complete. With this, they can choose from the dropdown menu even when they only typed in a few letters.

Thus, it does not limit your shopper’s search to only one category. And they can even find other helpful suggestions they hadn’t thought about.

Offer Autocorrect

Your search feature should allow errors and offer an autocorrect. Customers do make typos sometimes.

So, if you have this feature, you lessen the chance of showing a ‘No Results’ page. This can put off customers. Or make them miss the items they are looking for that you do offer.

Also, it gives out the impression that your site is smarter than others.

Give Synonym Results

Shoppers will not call your products the same way that you do. Some will call sneakers trainers. So, you should be able to give out these results.

Thus, you can build a synonym control tool. What it does is it gives the same results even if customers do not call it the same way you do.

For example, they may type in “men’s mittens.” So, your search feature should be able to show the right results even if you call your product “men’s gloves.”

Increase the Usability of Your e-Commerce Search

So, these are the best practices to make sure your e-commerce search is usable. Which of these is already present on your site? And which are not?

If you follow these practices, your site will benefit so much.