Search Hooks for Shopping Tuna
November 26, 2010
The outcome of a new survey presented in “More than half of top e-retailers personalize search results” details that 55% of the top e-retailers polled use technologies such as natural language processing, web analytics, mixed media searches, relevance ranking and segmentation tools to provide customers with more relevant search results. These e-retailers are dubbed ‘best-in-class’ in contrast to their peers, who fall into either an ‘average’ or ‘laggard’ category based on key performance indicators like net profit margin.
It isn’t headline news that employing more advanced search functions will aid in increased business. Notice that while 55 percent of the top e-retailers are using said technologies, the survey also shows that “44 percent of average performers and 15 percent of laggards personalize search results based on customer or customer segment purchase history.” With only a 10 percent difference between the top and average performers, could there be a stronger relationship in the results?
The article goes on to say:
“Top-performing e-retailers also do more with the search information they get. 73% have a process to disseminate results from search to relevant departments throughout the organization, such as marketing and merchandising. 32% of all other retailers surveyed had such a process in place.”
I’m inclined to believe that while offering a satisfactory shopping experience chock full of search bells-and-whistles will never hurt, the stats allude to a win for the marketing department, not the IT department.
Sarah Rogers, November 26, 2010
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