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Top Costumes for Halloween 2015: Ready to Feel The Force?

Posted by Aparna GrayeCommerce, Press, Site Search

Don’t be surprised if you have Princess Leia, Darth Vader or Yoda knocking at your door this Saturday, looking for treats. Star Wars mania is in full swing and is dominating the 2015 Halloween costume craze, as Hollywood blockbusters are again leading the costume trend this year.

SLI Systems Halloween DataData from SLI Systems found Star Wars is an unmatched force with nearly 37% greater interest than Minions – the next closest film. In fact, this Halloween season, consumers conducted twice as many costume searches for Star Wars characters than Frozen characters, which were the most-searched costumes in 2014. Anticipation of Star Wars: The Force Awakens is clearly attracting new generations, adding to decades of loyal fan numbers.

The top 5 most-searched movie-themed costumes of 2015 were:

  1. Star Wars (combines searches for Leia, Darth Vader and other characters)
  2. Minions (includes searches for Despicable Me)
  3. Frozen (includes searches for Elsa, Olaf and other characters)
  4. Marvel Universe (includes Hulk, Thor, Ironman, Spiderman and other characters)
  5. Maleficent

 

As noted in a recent Multichannel Merchant article, SLI studied site search activity across e-commerce costume retailer websites based in the U.S., Canada and Australia, analysing a total of more than 10 million consumer searches taking place between Sept 1 and Oct 20, 2015.

The SLI data team compared the most popular site search terms across costume retailer websites using our Learning Search® service and found interest in current events as well. For instance, searches for ‘Trump’ increased significantly, with 33x more searches than the same timeframe in 2014. The data also revealed, the search term “Trump” was 38% more popular than “Ironman”!

Here are some of the additional findings from SLI’s 2015 Halloween Costume Site Search study:

  • The top three most popular non-movie searches in order were: witch, pirate and zombie
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle-related searches remain popular but missed the Top Five movie-themed list, coming in 6thplace
  • Supergirl (and Superwoman) was 3.5x more popular than Trump and nearly 5x more popular than Ironman, the least popular Marvel super hero this season
  • Spiderman was the most popular Marvel super hero
  • Maleficent saw 3x the searches compared with (Princess) Leia

So if you haven’t already bought your Halloween costume for Saturday, there is still time. You can either buck the trend or join the legion of fans who will pay homage to the Star Wars franchise.

May the force be with you!

Infographic: 6 Mobile Merchandising Tips for the Holidays

Posted by Dawn MortenseneCommerce, Infographic, Merchandising, Mobile, Mobile/Tablets, Press, Site Search Tips

mobile merchandising tips holiday 2015

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This latest infographic by SLI Systems was also published in Multichannel Merchant on September 10.

SLI Receives Magento Partner Award and Other 2015 Accolades

Posted by Eileen ElameCommerce, Press, Site Search, Success Stories

SLI Receives Magento’s Highest Partner Honor

Last week at Magento Imagine, SLI received the “2015 Magento Technology Partner Spirit of Excellence Award for North America.” The annual award recognizes partners who have delivered exemplary service to Magento clients. Evaluations are made across a number of critical elements such as commitment to quality deployments, merchant satisfaction, growth, penetration in emerging markets, innovation and strategic planning.

Magento is the provider of the world’s fastest growing e-commerce platform. We are thrilled to partner with them in providing SLI Learning Search Connect™ as an easily downloadable Magento extension.

Magento Spirit of ExcellenceRetail Innovator 2015

Also in 2015, SLI has received other distinctions stemming from the company’s dedication to achieving high ROI for its customers and its commitment to exemplary service for its partners. This follows a record year of awards for SLI, which received a total of 10 awards in 2014 for technology, customer-use scenarios, and customer support. We are proud to acknowledge these accolades for 2015 (and it’s only April!).

SLI Customer Wine Enthusiast Receives Retail TouchPoints 2015 Retail Innovator Award

Wine Enthusiast’s CMO Glenn Edelman was named a winner of Retail TouchPoints 2015 Retail Innovator Award. Wine Enthusiast uses SLI Dynamic Product Banners™, which automatically displays banners with items related to a visitor’s original web search on product pages. Edelman will be recognized at the Retail Innovation Conference, June 16-17 in New York City.

“With SLI Dynamic Product Banners, visitors are more prone to stay and buy from our site rather than clicking back to Google where they could end up on a competitor’s site,” said Edelman. “In fact, when visitors interact with the banners, we see a 48% increase in revenue-per-click and a 14% increase in conversion rates. The banners also have a real impact on lowering bounce rate from the site’s landing pages.”

Read more about their success in our Wine Enthusiast case study.

SLI Customer Lakeshore Learning Recognized by eTail West for Search Excellence’

Lakeshore Learning, supplier of school supplies for preschools and elementary classrooms, was named a 2015 finalist in eTail West’s Best-in-Class Awards for ‘Search’ innovation and excellence. By implementing a rich set of features and refinements by SLI, Lakeshore Learning has been able to improve its site’s customer experience and offer personalized products relevant to shoppers.

As discussed in our Lakeshore Learning case study, the company used SLI Learning Search™ and SLI Site Champion™ to make even more of its content easy to find.

“Multi-faceted search allows customers to quickly narrow down hundreds of products and still maintain a clean and robust search experience,” said Sam Sarullo, VP of E-commerce at Lakeshore Learning. “Personalizing the site to draw people into areas most helpful for them has been a big improvement. Since implementing Learning Search™ we have seen double-digit online revenue growth, while average order values went up 30 percent and conversion rates rose nearly 19 percent.”

Site Champion™ dynamically creates SEO landing pages based on actual user searches that are indexed by Google and other Internet search engines. Lakeshore Learning has seen a return of $127 for every $1 spent on SLI Site Champion.

To learn more about how SLI provides award-winning results for customers like Harry & David and Sports Authority, check out more of our case studies and video testimonials.

Time to Rethink Holiday Promotions Timing

Posted by Eileen ElameCommerce, Press, Reporting and Analytics, Site Search

When it comes to holiday shopping, peak shopping days and times are experiencing a dramatic shift that could impact the timing of critical promotions. Consumers are shopping on days that were previously considered taboo for this type of activity, such as Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. It’s time for retailers to take note to ensure they don’t miss big opportunities to reach their buyers when they are actually shopping.

boxing day image 1

In Australia, it is well known that Boxing Day (the day after Christmas) is the peak shopping day of the year. Yet, according to a new SLI study, many consumers are starting their shopping on Christmas Day. SLI researched e-commerce site activity across 100 Australian retailer sites, analyzing 20 million queries over the month of December. Online shopping activity peaked at 8:00 p.m. AEDT on Christmas Day and 10:00 a.m. on Boxing Day. While Boxing Day exhibited 49.6 percent more activity than Christmas Day, the spike in shopping activity on Christmas night is certainly a new trend worth exploring.

In the U.S., similar shifts in shopping behavior occurred. Most notable was a spike in shopping activity at 10:00 p.m. EST Thanksgiving Day, the night before the renowned Black Friday. There was also a spike in shopping activity on November 30, the night before the busiest U.S. online shopping day, Cyber Monday. To gather these results, SLI studied e-commerce site activity across 500 retailer websites in the U.S. (100 were Internet Retailer Top 1,000 retailers), analyzing 45 million queries during Thanksgiving week.

image peak US shopping hours 2

Consumers (increasingly online night owls) are beating retailers to the punch on unexpected days and times. By timing key promotions accordingly, savvy online retailers can take advantage of these new opportunities and have a jump on their competition in 2015.

Effective Design Options You May Have Overlooked

Posted by Dawn MortenseneCommerce, Press, Ratings and Reviews, Site Search, Site Search Tips, Success Stories

Earlier this week, eConsultancy posted the article: 25 Effective Design Patterns for E-commerce Site Search Results. The article highlights great examples of search relevancy, site design and refinement options that help smooth customers’ path to find, and purchase, the items they’re looking for.

Five of the e-commerce sites spotlighted in the eConsultancy article are clients of SLI Systems, including Sutton’s Seeds, Abe’s of Maine, Boden, Lovehoney and B&Q. We’ve worked with these companies to implement effective site search solutions, using design options that many retailers overlook.

Abes Filtered Reviews 23apr14Abe’s of Maine – Filtered Reviews

Camera and photography retailer Abe’s of Maine stands out because of the way the company highlights reviews within search results. Not only can visitors view reviews in search results, but they can also set filtering options so they can find reviews that discuss aspects of camera equipment that are most relevant to them. Wine Enthusiast is another SLI client that offers the capability of reviews filtering. In both cases, the reviews filtering option gets a lot of use and tends to result in higher conversions.

 

Boden Refinements 23Apr14Boden – Effective Use of Refinements

Boden offers a comprehensive set of filtering options, including Category, Sub-category, Top-rated by Age, Top-rated by Size, Price Range, Color and more. The results page also lists search suggestions at the top, offering visitors alternate search terms to try. The Help and Style & Fit tabs across the top give shoppers more options for finding the right items according to personal characteristics like size and shape.

By making these improvements in site search, Boden has increased customer engagement and conversion rates for search. Read more in this Boden case study.


Lovehoney – Capitalizing on Trends

Lovehoney used search to its benefit by recognizing a fast-growing trend among fans of the book “50 Shades of Grey.” Long before the book became a mainstream success, the team at Lovehoney.co.uk noticed the search term was frequently used on their site. The company immediately capitalized on the emerging trend by creating custom product landing pages for searches related to “50 Shades of Grey.” By reacting quickly, Lovehoney not only boosted sales but also struck a product licensing deal with the “50 Shades” franchise. Now they are the exclusive retailer of the popular branded items. Read more in this Lovehoney case study.

Following Best Practices Leads to Profitability

What’s not discussed in the eConsultancy piece is that effective site search pages often generate higher per-visit and average order values, while reducing bounce rates. After implementing improvements with SLI, Boden’s search users became worth about 215% more per visit than non-site search users. Lovehoney experienced a 16% increase in average revenue per visit.

If your site search solution isn’t improving your e-commerce sales, you might want to take a close look at more examples of search done well. In addition to the examples in the eConsultancy article, you can find more than 20 case studies at sli-systems.com/customers/case-studies.

Come See Us at IRWD 2013

Posted by Terry CostaConferences, eCommerce, Press

Join us at the Internet Retailer Web Design & Usability Conference next week in Orlando. We’re talking usability and web design next week. Ryan Hennig from Miles Kimball is doing a presentation on Feb 12 at 9:00 am on the Top 10 Usabilty Challenges. Shaun Ryan, SLI Systems CEO and Kevin Metz VP of e-commerce at Caché will be presenting also Feb 12 at 1:30pm.

You won’t want to miss their presentation, “Take search beyond words: Develop a multi-faceted refinement strategy to deliver more sales”. Learn their best-practices for improving the online shopping experience through refinements and search facets, and hear new ideas for future innovation and improvement.

We will be holding an event on Monday evening from 7:15 pm – 8:15 pm in the Ballroom Commons, just outside from the Expo and Session halls. All attendees can try to ride a YikeBike! Never heard of a YikeBike? Well come see for yourself. There will be food and beverages provided.

Don’t forget to stop by our booth and learn how you can easily increase your site conversions with optimized site search and navigation. We’ll be at Booth #301.

See you there!

SLI Systems’ Clients make the Internet Retailer Hot 100

Posted by Kemberly GongPress

This month our clients American Bridal, BodenUSA, and DogIDs all made the list of the Hot 100 companies, as featured in Internet Retailer magazine (purchase required to view full list). The list includes the top 100 eCommerce sites which are going above and beyond to create innovative features that will draw in new users.

In a time when more people are shopping online than ever before, having an online store alone does not thrill customers. Online retailers must create a distinction between themselves and competitors by offering better features to make shopping easier, more informational and engaging. The sites featured within are all doing something that sets them apart from their competitors.

BodenUSA.com was featured for its Quick Shop tool, which lets catalogue recipients quickly enter catalogue product codes to find it online. They were also recognized for their outfit maker tool, which allows shoppers to virtually try different clothing pieces on models and create outfits that can be added to the cart and purchased.

Boden’s Outfit Maker feature

American Bridal, a site for wedding favors and gifts, was featured for its floating search box which also displays discounts. The feature has helped increase average order values for the customers that use it.

DogIDs, a site for pet leashes, collars, accessories and furniture was featured for its visual tools that allow users that are personalizing a dog tag to see what it will look like before it’s engraved.

All of these tools improve customers’ ability to find the products they need and made an informed decision before their purchase.

We’d like to congratulate all of the companies featured in the Internet Retailer Hot 100 list, and look forward to the many new innovations in eCommerce in the coming year.

SLI Systems Named in Top 100 NZ Tech Companies

Posted by Kemberly GongAbout us, eCommerce, Press

SLI Systems was just ranked in the TIN100 report, which catalogs the top 100 technology companies in New Zealand. The ratings rank companies by revenue, an analysis of market sectors, a New Zealand company ownership review, in depth statistics of the current financial times and the impact on the industry.

We’re honored to be part of the list of impressive companies, and we look forward to continuing to contribute to the tech industry in New Zealand. Since the company’s inception 11 years ago, the core premise behind SLI Systems has remained the same: to help businesses give their customers the best website search experience possible and to take care of them every step of the way.

We have kept that goal in focus through the years, and we think it’s paid off: we have a large group of clients who enjoy and advocate for our product and our service, and we continue to grow every year by leaps and bounds. We’re continually looking at ways to improve our products and expand into new regions so we can offer our technology to a wider base of eCommerce companies. This has allowed us to grow our engineering and product management team in New Zealand and open offices around the world to serve our customers. We just hired our 100th employee and we’re still going strong.

The TIN100 Report is a quantitative study of New Zealand’s leading internationally-focused technology businesses in the areas of Hi Tech Manufacturing, ICT and Biotechnology. To qualify for the award, companies must meet a number of criteria, including originating in and retaining a meaningful presence in New Zealand. According to the report, in 2012 the leading 100 companies had revenues of NZ$7.2Billion and offshore revenues of $5.2Billion.

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