As they click into the search box… a good practice is to show their previous search history, and possibly popular searches.   As they start typing… You can show suggested searches, categories, and/or products.   Mispellings The auto-suggestions and results should account for common misspellings. For example, if they type ‘dreses’ it should suggest results […]

For stores with 50+ products Having either a category filter (when searching) or search filters in the results page is especially important for stores with over 50 products or so. Some searches can be incredibly broad. A simple one-word search like dress or computer can return hundreds and possibly thousands of results on your standard […]

If a user searches for a product your store doesn’t have, showing an empty page is the worst thing you could possibly do. It leads them nowhere and causes frustration. Frustration can make them bounce from your store. Include some of the following components Alternate products similar to one searched for Category suggestions based on […]

Window shopping Customers don’t end up buying every single time they visit your store. More often than not, they come in, look around, and for any number of reasons leave without making a purchase. In most cases, they’re just window-shopping, if browsing products on an e-commerce store can be called that. Sometimes, they may be […]

Search expectations 72% of ecommerce sites fail to meet search expectations and returning irrelevant search results is where many of them go wrong. Unless a user is specifically looking for a page such as your returns policy or one of your categories, then they’re looking for a product.   Most searches are for a product […]

Show the correct thumbnail 12% of users search using a color keyword. The thumbnails of products in search results should show the variation that matches the color they want.

For example, if you search for “red shirt”, the color filter should be set to “red”.   

You have four options Option 1: Give an auto-complete option to search in the current category Option 2: Auto-update the search field to the current category (Search Scope) Option 3: Search in the current category by default, but add a dropdown in the results page to change the scope of the search Option 4: Add […]

When searching… When users are searching for Returns, Shipping, Order Tracking, and such, they should be redirected to hat page.   Adidas When you type in for example ‘returns’, it automatically redirects to the Returns page.  The problem though is that it first shows the search results page with no results and after a couple […]

Clear context Users need to know at all times where they are on the site. Mentioning the keyword they just searched for makes it clear to them what they’re looking at.