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CSM of the Month: Mark Lawson on Analysys Mason

Posted by Mark LawsonJune 19, 2013Navigation, Newsletter, Site Search

This article is part of our monthly “CSM of the Month” feature, in which an SLI Systems Customer Success Manager discusses a current client example.

One of the more interesting projects I’ve been involved in recently is with Analysys Mason, a research and consulting firm who provide detailed articles to their global client base on all issues that relate to the telecoms, media and technology (TMT) sectors. While a large percentage of SLI’s customers are online retailers, we also work with publishing sites like Analysys Mason, the New England Journal of Medicine and Dilbert.com.

Analysys Mason is a great example of how SLI’s site search and navigation technology helps publishing sites improve the user experience and increase the number of page views per visitor. In fact, since implementing SLI they have seen a 21% increase in page views and a 24% increase in unique page views. The average time on site has also increased.

One of the reasons for these improvements is that SLI’s page load times are much faster than Analysys Mason’s previous search. This allows users to more quickly find the articles they’re looking for and leads to an overall better user experience.

Analysys Mason has a vast Knowledge Centre of research articles it has prepared. When I first started working with Analysys Mason, one of their unique needs was to show each user a different set of results based on their specific subscription IDs. This allowed them to have different tiers of subscribers – those with a free account who have more limited access to research, and those paid subscribers who have full access. Now that SLI brings back the correct results for each user based on their login credentials, Analysys Mason is able to make the tiered subscription model work for them.

In the below screen shot, you can see how the Knowledge Centre appears to those who are not logged in. In the left-hand column, the radio buttons under the Access section allow you to refine results based on free or paid content. In the results section, articles that are limited to logged in users display the note Subscription Required.

Analysys Mason also uses SLI’s synonyms tool for search, as it has helped them to expand their vocabulary without having to edit the content database. As an example, a search for ‘MEA’ will pull up results for Middle East and Africa, even if the acronym MEA does not show up in the article title or summary.

By tracking the search terms used on its site through SLI, Analysys Mason is also able to pinpoint specific trends in searches. These analytics allow them to improve upon results for poor search phrases, as well as to know what research papers people are looking for.

Analysys Mason is also very pleased with the search suggestions that automatically appear under each product. This feature is powered by SLI’s Learning Search technology, which directs a user to a related set of results if they can’t find the article they are looking for straight away.

Anyone who has searched for articles on a publishing site knows the frustration of finding nonrelevant results, as well as the satisfaction of finding exactly what you were looking for. I’m happy to work with Analysys Mason to ensure that their customers have a great search experience and spend more and more time on their site.

Find Your Way Out of Any Paper Jam with This Online Store

Posted by Dawn MortensenJune 3, 2013Conferences, eCommerce, Navigation, Site Search, Success Stories1 comment

This is third in a series of success stories on eCommerce sites that are growing their business with advanced site search. Also in this series, read about Party Supplies Delivered and Vermont Teddy Bear, and see live presentations of these stories at the SLI Theater at IRCE June 3-6.

Jam Paper & Envelope, a top source for paper crafts, creative giftwrap and all other things paper-related, has been featured in Real Simple, Martha Stewart Living and Country Living Magazine, among others. With its flagship New York City store, a successful online retail operation, and two other store locations, the paper company has been able to succeed both in the brick-and-mortar and eCommerce worlds.

JamPaper.com offers more than a million variations of specialty envelopes, paper, cardstock, gift cards and other paper goods, with 70% of its sales going to businesses that place large orders for marketing promotions, weddings or other events. The business started two generations ago and has remained in the family, with grandson Andrew Jacobs leading the effort to create the eCommerce site. Jam Paper first went online in 2004 and the site traffic is growing steadily.

“Our initial site search was rudimentary,” Jacobs said. “But since we’ve started online we’ve been constantly working on improving.”

One of the challenges for JamPaper.com was to help their users find the exact product they wanted among the enormous number of items and pages. Envelopes, for example, are one of their most common searches, but envelopes can come in 50 colors and 50 sizes – with many small variations for each. Since they improved their site search and navigation, Jam Paper has made the following improvements so users can more easily find and purchase the exact product(s) they want:

Made site search results more relevant and incorporated sales data into search results tuning so the most popular items come up higher in results.
Added synonym suggestions to improve the results on search terms that previously turned up with poor results.
Incorporated Rich Auto Complete to auto-populate suggestions based on popular search terms and take users directly to the product page.
Analyzed and restructured data internally to improve search results.
Added merchandising banners to search results pages.
Used A/B testing to identify additional improvements that will increase conversions.

By analyzing their search data on an ongoing basis, Jam Paper continuously improves their online user experience. The impact on online sales is “crawling upwards and keeps getting better,” Jacobs said.

At IRCE in Chicago June 4 and 5, Andrew Jacobs will be at the SLI Theater to share the tips and tricks he’s learned for improving Jam Paper’s eCommerce site search, navigation and SEO. Stop by Booth #501 to meet him or to get a free site critique from the SLI Systems team.

Other SLI Theater presenters include Steiner Tractor, Envelopes.com, Samuels Jewelers and ReNew Life. See the full schedule of presentations here.

A Beary Good Success Story: Vermont Teddy Bear

Posted by Dawn MortensenMay 28, 2013Conferences, eCommerce, Navigation, Site Search, Success Stories

This is second in a series of success stories on eCommerce sites that are growing their business with advanced site search. See live presentations of these stories at the SLI Theater at IRCE June 3-6.

Ever heard of a Bear-Gram^®? How about a Pajama-Gram^®? The same company that sends both types of cuddly gifts to more than 150,000 customers each year is Vermont Teddy Bear. As an 11-time Platinum Honoree in BizRate.com’s Circle of Excellence awards, Vermont Teddy Bear is among the world’s best online stores in Ease of Ordering, On-Time Delivery, Product Selection, Customer Support, Repurchase Intent and Overall Satisfaction, according to millions of BizRate customers.

Since 1981, Vermont Teddy Bear has offered high-quality, U.S.-made bears in the style of the original Teddy Roosevelt Bear from 1902. The bears can be personalized and are delivered overnight in a special box complete with air hole, game and candy treat (in case the bear gets bored or hungry on the way to its new owner, says the company).

As the word about Vermont Teddy Bear’s BearGrams first spread through radio ads in the ‘80s, the company expanded to include PajamaGram, which delivers gifts of cozy, quality pajamas, as well as CalyxFlowers, which delivers bouquets and other floral gifts from growers around the world. The sister companies have operated successful online retail operations for well over a decade.

Partnering to Increase Online Sales

Vermont Teddy Bear has its own team of eCommerce experts who work with partners to optimize their online reach. Since early 2008, Vermont Teddy Bear has used SLI Systems to improve the brand’s site search, navigation, mobile commerce and search engine rankings. At PajamaGram.com, SLI Learning Search ensures that the most popular products – as well as those the company specifically wants to promote, like their family set pajamas – are those first displayed in relevant search results. SLI Learning Navigation pages also make it easy for visitors to shop for pajama gifts by size. The result? More families and gift-givers finding matching pajama sets in the right size.

Vermont Teddy Bear’s Director of eCommerce Operations, Victor Castro, will showcase the business’ online successes at the SLI Theater, booth #501, during the Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition (IRCE) in Chicago June 3-6, 2013. See our full lineup of scheduled feature presentations, or just stop by at 3:30 on June 5 or 6 to see Victor. Wearing your pajamas is optional!

Reason to Party: 203% More Conversions

Posted by Dawn MortensenMay 20, 2013Conferences, eCommerce, Navigation, Search Conferences, SEO, Site Search

This is first in a series of success stories on eCommerce sites that are growing their business with advanced site search. See live presentations of these stories at the SLI Theater at IRCE June 4-6.

Every eTailer knows this: You can’t get people to buy what they can’t find.

In the online party supply world, for example, a consumer has dozens of choices for where to buy a $250 life-sized Dr. Who TARDIS. If your site doesn’t appear high in Google results for this item – or if your customers can’t find the science fiction party supplies on your site – then your conversion rates will be as unpredictable as is the TARDIS’ ability for accurate time travel.

PartySuppliesDelivered.com is one among dozens of online party supply stores. With more than 4,000 products and the backing of parent company Mattress USA, PartySuppliesDelivered.com had a couple great things going for it. But there was one major problem: Customers could not find what they were looking for.

The party supplier’s original site search technology was the default search included with its eCommerce platform. It ranked search results only by the number of times the search term was found in the description, instead of ranking search results by relevance. This limited approach led to skewed results and frustrated potential customers.

To solve this problem, Party Supplies Delivered put its search function and site navigation into the full-service care of SLI Systems. As customers began to find more relevant results for their searches, the business improvements were remarkable; the bounce rate dropped 40 percent, page views increased by 132 percent and conversions went up by 203 percent. Key features like focused category pages, rich auto-complete and user-generated SEO are among the changes that are turning the business around.

“Now when customers drill into a subcategory, they really browse around; pages per visit are up 111 percent. This increases their average order too,” said Ian MacDonald, VP of eCommerce & Marketing for Party Supplies Delivered.

To learn more about how advanced site search and navigation technology helps Party Supplies Delivered, read their case study. If you’re coming to IRCE, stop by the SLI Theater at booth #501, where you can see a live demo from our customers including Ian from Party Supplies Delivered – plus get a free site critique. We look forward to seeing you there!

Technical Ability Matters – Don’t Overlook Advanced Site Search

Posted by Terry CostaApril 3, 2013Navigation, Newsletter, Refinements, Rich Auto Complete, Site Search

Changing to a new eCommerce platform is a huge investment, not only in dollars, but time spent integrating your site and training your team on the new features and functions. When you’ve just spent so much time and money upgrading to a new platform, it’s easy to see how adding site search would seem like little more than an additional expense.

But failing to upgrade your eCommerce platform’s search is like upgrading your ski clothes without buying better skis – you may look and feel better, but your technical gear won’t perform well. Upgrading the core search ability of your site can lead to better overall performance and higher conversions.

While platforms do many other things well, they don’t offer specialized features that focus on making your search shine. It’s a fact that visitors who use site search are more likely to convert. So if search is so important, shouldn’t you be paying more attention to it? When you’re looking at your platform’s site search, it’s important to ask a few questions to make sure you’re getting the most out of it.

Are your search results as relevant as they could be?

Advanced site search and navigation improve the quality of search results based on customer shopping behavior and click-throughs, re-ranking products based on popularity. Can it dynamically build SEO pages that continually update to reflect the most popular searches on your site? Pages like this can work toward improving your organic Internet search results rankings.

Are there opportunities for customization?

No two sites are alike, and search features should reflect that. It’s important to implement the features that will appeal to your customers, and make their experience on your site uniquely tailored to their shopping behavior. Don’t let a lack of innovation stifle your site’s growth.

Does your platform share the latest features and best practices with you?

The eCommerce landscape changes quickly and having the best features can make your site stand out from the rest. It’s beneficial to have a partner that understands industry best practices and suggests improvements to site features.

Do you have access to reports and analytics?

The reporting data you get from site search is filled with important insights that can help you understand your users and better target their needs. Having access to the top search terms, poor results and top converting pages can help you anticipate new trends or better promote the most popular search queries.

Does your platform have A/B testing?

Can you make fact-based decisions on the value of certain features, designs, or buttons? A/B and multivariate tests can produce surprising results, because not all customers behave in the same way. In some tests, we’ve seen conversion rates increase when using grid view, while others increase with list view. Since every site is different, you shouldn’t trust a general “rule” – but test it for yourself.

Do you have a dedicated, responsive customer support team?

Having a single point of contact can mean the difference between personalized, responsive service and being continually frustrated from lack of response. Making sure you have strong support will give you time to focus on other business priorities.

If the answer to any of these questions is ‘no’, then I’d suggest taking a good look at what your current site search is really providing you. A good site search will give fairly accurate results and have a few bells and whistles. A great site search will not only deliver relevant results, it will give you crucial insights into what drives your customers and actionable ways to proceed. Additionally, it shouldn’t be so overly complex that you won’t use it.

If you’d like a hassle-free solution and a solid team behind you to help you grow your site, give us a shout at discovery@sli-systems.com. We’d love to hear from you.

3 Ecommerce Navigation Errors to Avoid

Posted by Sasha ButkovichFebruary 26, 2013eCommerce, Navigation, Navigation Tips

Guest Post by Sasha Butkovich of Ecommerce Outtakes

There are plenty of potential errors to be made in ecommerce navigation, and you’ve probably seen them all at one point or another in your own online shopping experiences. But what are the biggest “Don’ts” when it comes to navigation? Here, we’re taking a look at the top 3 mistakes we commonly come across in ecommerce sites. Avoiding these errors is a key step toward creating a great experience for online shoppers.

1. Confusing or insufficient filters and refinements

Some shoppers come to a site knowing exactly what they want, while others come to browse. Every ecommerce site should be able to cater to both shopping styles. One huge factor that can really help (or hurt) in this area is the filtering or refinement options. Making sure there are enough clear and relevant options to help customer narrow down their results is key! Unfortunately, this is a feature that’s very common for ecommerce sites to get wrong.

Take a look at this example from Capezio, a well-known brand in dance shoes and apparel. Throughout the pages of this ecommerce store, there’s a huge lack of filters. For instance, here’s the ballet shoes page. The seasoned dancer will likely come to this page knowing what they need, but for a new dance mom or dancer, this would be a frustrating experience. There aren’t any filtering or sorting menus anywhere! You can’t filter out child or adult, men’s or women’s, size, or even price. Also, many of these shoes are available in several colors, but you can’t tell from this page. Having those filters and refinements would definitely help in an instance when a parent might need to find black ballet shoes for their child’s recital, for example. Without filtering options, shoppers may become overwhelmed and leave the site.

2. Non-intuitive design

It goes without saying that nobody wants a boring website, and that ecommerce sites should be unique expressions of the brand. That’s definitely a good thing, as long as it doesn’t come at the expense of complicating the navigation. Site design should be intuitive for the shopper. It should be easy, almost instinctive, for them to figure out how to get around and find what they’re looking for. Many sites adhere to a basic format (category tabs along the top, filters and refinements on the left, etc.) which has become habitual for online shoppers. This doesn’t mean you can’t deviate from the formula, but bear in mind the impact it can have on the user experience!

Here’s the website for a German shoe company called Trippen. Right from the home page, it’s hard to see where you’re supposed to go. In fact, if I hadn’t already known that this was an ecommerce site, I might not have even figured out that I can purchase things here. I happened to hover my mouse over the little “Welcome!” link in the upper right corner, and then I could see the menu of shopping options. It’s not a great idea to keep your store hidden if you want people to buy things! Make it easy and intuitive.

3. Inaccurate search function

Browsing is one thing, but a helpful site search is just as, if not more, important. When shoppers come to your ecommerce site with a product in mind, the search should help them get to it as quickly as possible. Using Rich Auto Complete within the search function is a great feature. By offering up suggestions for keywords and products, a search like this can definitely increase the speed and accuracy of the search process. Some ecommerce sites however are still not there yet, and it’s a shame.

Take for example clothing retailer Forever 21. Although the search function on this site does suggest keywords as you type, the results aren’t very clear. Here, I searched for “red jeans,” and the first 10 results that appeared weren’t even red. Many of them might have a red color option on the product page, but it might be confusing for a shopper not to see the image of the item in the color they’re searching for. It takes more time to click through each product to find out if they come in red, and some people may not want to invest that time. Even providing swatches of the other available colors on this results page would be a step in the right direction. If the search function provided more accurate results, Forever 21 might generate more sales.

These three errors are some of the most common mistakes in ecommerce, but you can avoid them. Keep filters and refinement options relevant, feature a design that’s intuitive and simple, and make the search function as accurate as possible. If you have that, your ecommerce site is well on its way to great, user-friendly navigation.

Sasha Butkovich is a contributor to the Ecommerce Outtakes blog, which aims to improve usability and the ecommerce experience one blog post at a time. To read ecommerce tips and news, and to submit your own site for a free review, visit EcommerceOuttakes.com.

Cache’s Kevin Metz and SLI’s Shaun Ryan on the Power of Refinements

Posted by Kemberly GongFebruary 12, 2013eCommerce, Navigation, Navigation Tips1 comment

If there is one key takeaway from the Internet Retailer Web Design and Usability Conference, it’s that eCommerce sites must be responsive to the increased sophistication of customers by offering better user journeys, more helpful features and creating safe, more satisfying experiences that meet or exceed customers’ expectations.

Kevin Metz, VP of e-commerce for Caché and SLI Systems CEO Shaun Ryan launched into an exciting discussion at IRWD 2013 about how faceted navigation does just that by allowing customers to find and refine large groups of products by helpful parameters. This in turn can lead to increased conversions and average order value.

In their discussion, “Take search beyond words: Develop a multi-faceted refinement strategy to deliver more sales”, Metz said Caché uses several refinements, such as color swatches, material, level of embellishment and occasion that allow shoppers to narrow down selections to the most applicable group. Through the use of these refinements, their search usage has increased by 42 percent, and they’ve seen an 88 percent increase in conversion rates from those who use search.

He also said that because they design and manufacture their own products, their specifications and attributes allow a richer browsing experience.

“Our merchants take great care in defining attributes and characteristics,” said Metz. “We were able to mine that data and integrate it and serve it up to the consumer,” offering richer search criteria for customers to search.

Ryan also discussed other common SLI-powered faceted navigation features, such as selection sliders, images on facets and effective improvements in the logic of bread crumb trails, which all help create a unique and streamlined browsing experience. Facet sliders let users manually change variables they are searching for, such as price or size ranges, dimensions or ratings. Facet images can help give a visual break to a page full of text and improving the logic of breadcrumb trails can help users travel throughout a site more easily.

These and other navigation features can help give greater leverage in putting top categories front and center for customers and add richness to the way we search and browse for products.

Tablet Browsing Made Easy

Posted by Kemberly GongJanuary 30, 2013eCommerce, Mobile/Tablets, Navigation, Site Search

Does it really come as a surprise that eCommerce purchases on tablets is outpacing smartphones? No, probably not. Though they share the same mobility and ease of use as smartphones, tablets are a natural fit for online browsing with larger screens and better displays that mimic the catalog experience but add much richer functionality. Going a step further, tablets are also starting to gain traction in home computing.

Many eCommerce sites are faced with the challenge of providing the best user experience based on the type of device their customers are visiting from. Smartphones require pages that are optimized for quick loading times on small screens, and links that are easily clickable for large fingers. Tablets, being larger in size, are just made to be used for browsing and shopping.

Tablets offer a catalog experience, amplified – a richer experience offering interactive displays with video, specifications and reviews, social sharing features and non-traditional page layouts, and still also have the opportunity to lead buyers to checkout. For example Boden’s outfit maker feature allows an outfit to be tried on using a tablet before being purchased, and is an engaging way to show clothes in an interactive way.

Other sites have interesting layouts that feature larger images or easy ways to navigate through to find products. It’s always important to keep in mind that shoppers using tablets don’t have a keyboard and mouse to help speed the browsing process. Designing the experience so it’s easy to find products with a few taps on a screen will please your customers and may inspire them to return to your site.

Practical Ecommerce just featured 15 excellent iPad-friendly sites, which you shouldn’t miss.

We believe we’ll start to see more tablet-optimized sites coming soon. Tablets – iPads specifically – took the lead in mobile holiday shopping in 2012, and offer an ideal platform to facilitate browsing, exploration and ultimately purchases.

Do you shop using a tablet? What features do you like most?

Surprise! Older Shoppers are More Likely to Purchase Online

Posted by Kemberly GongNovember 9, 2012eCommerce, Merchandising, Navigation, Site Search

A surprising fact was just reported: older consumers are most likely to make holidays purchases online this year.

The study, conducted by Velaro, highlighted some interesting facts that online retailers should keep in mind this holiday season when running promotions and thinking about their target audiences.

The study found that 20 percent of shoppers ages 55-64 and will do some portion of their holiday shopping online, which was the highest percentage from any age group surveyed, followed closely by shoppers age 45-54 (19 percent).

Comparatively, shoppers aged 18-24 were least likely to do holiday shopping online. This is an interesting statistic because it’s often assumed that younger shoppers are more technologically savvy and have a higher tolerance for complicated sites to complete transactions.

So, what does that mean for online retailers? When considering an older audience, it’s important to keep in mind that excellent usability and ease of finding products and navigating through your site will be essential to helping your users make purchases. It’s also helpful to make sure your merchandising shows customers the hottest products and special promotions, such as free shipping and free returns, in a variety of ways such like merchandising banners, ribbon overlays and highly-visual pages full of product images.

Additionally, if you are selling electronics, gaming, apparel and other products aimed at the 18-24-year-old demographic, it might helpful to modify your online marketing strategy and aim promotions at parents, not young adults.

Excellent site usability is necessary for all sites – those targeted toward younger demographics may actually have older shoppers accessing them.

Overall, the trends look good for online retailers; 53 percent of respondents said they intended to do at least 25 percent of their holiday shopping online, and some studies are predicting that holiday shopping this season will be up 15 percent overall from last year.

What are your thoughts on the holiday shopping season so far? Please leave your comments below.

How Women are Shaping eCommerce

Posted by Kemberly GongOctober 12, 2012eCommerce, Merchandising, Mobile/Tablets, Navigation, Site Search

Traditionally, men have led in purchasing in the eCommerce space, buying digital media, computers and other consumer electronics. However, as more eCommerce sites have expanded their reach to apparel, beauty and items for the kids from clothes to toys and party supplies, the number of shopping transactions by women has outpaced men in most areas.

Though women and men each make up approximately half of internet users, women today account for 58% of all online purchases, and decide 83 – 87% of consumer purchases. According to research from comScore, women spend more money online than men in all but three categories: electronics/computing, event/movie tickets, and flower/greeting cards/gifts.

Women drive the majority of purchases on many sites such as Zappos, Gilt Group, Etsy and Groupon. Additionally, eCommerce companies that focus on a female audience, such as e.l.f. Cosmetics, Boden, Stella & Dot and One Kings Lane are growing quickly.

The rise can be partially attributed the wider availability of products and shopping experiences that women want. Fashion has seen the biggest growth in the past year and is now one of the largest product segments. Other areas that have seen tremendous growth are health & beauty and food, DIY & household products.

And women in the United Kingdom are taking their eCommerce purchasing a step further and leading the market in mobile purchases. Research conducted at OgilvyAction into the mobile behavior of 1,000 UK consumers found that 56% of women own a smartphone, as opposed to 51% of men. It also showed that one in six women had made a purchase on their mobile phone, compared to one in nine men.

Though smartphone ownership among US women has now exceeded that of men, they still fall behind men in mobile purchasing. But as the rise of user-friendly mobile commerce sites continue, it will be interesting to observe the new trends that emerge.

And just as the types of products bought by men and women vary, shopping patterns between genders also vary. Men tend to prefer shorter shopping experiences by searching for what they are looking for and buying the product. Men are more likely to intensely research the product page and read all product details, while women quickly scan the product page and continue browsing other products. Women also tend to search by brand instead of searching by product.

Which prompts the question – are you doing all you can to tap this group of consumers?

To counter these differences in behaviors, it’s wise to ensure that your site is able to be searched and navigated in a variety of different ways. An effective search box that gives extremely relevant results can lead customers right to the product they are looking for. On the flip side, having a navigation that is full of useful refinements allows for a browsing experience that easily narrows down the best products but still allows for a visual and highly-engaging shopping experience. By providing multiple avenues to access products, you’ll create a shopping experience that will appeal to women and men alike.

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