Why Retail Search Was Introduced?
In a joint survey conducted by Google Cloud and the Harris Poll, 94% of US consumers quit a shopping session on a Retail website as they don’t receive accurate results. In the US. alone, US retailers lose a whopping $300 billion every year.
With Retail Search, retailers worldwide can include this search feature on their websites so that they can make their website search robust and effective. Retail Search includes the same technology as the search engine that emphasizes user intent and context.
Google Retail Search empowers Retail websites for even the broad search term query, thus, reducing, search abandonment which is a phenomenon in which users search for a product on a retail website but can’t find the product. They usually, leave the website due to poor search experience or either start changing terms that lead to poor user experience. This is what’s proving to be costly for retailers online which is largely why Retail search was introduced.
Some of the major reasons why Google Retail Search was developed because:
1. User Intent
Our search habits have evolved. Earlier, it was about searching the precise terms. But as people started relying more on Google, they started searching for longer, broad-term search queries or even for closely related search terms. It became essential for the search engines to start understanding the search intent of a user and accordingly, present search results.
However, on retail websites, shoppers still struggle with search. They often have to type the perfect search query to get relevant results. Therefore, traditional search techniques don’t work for contemporary Retail websites.
No individual likes going through the hassle of changing search queries just to get relevant search results. People want that search engines should understand their intent, and present relevant results quickly. Moreover, searchers expect personalized product recommendations.
With Google Retail Search, it’s now possible to offer advanced search to users that can make it easy for them to discover new products. Advanced search technology is based on machine learning and artificial intelligence that combines marketing and data science insights, well equipped in understanding search intent.
2. Better Website Experience
Online retailers can now build shopper-centric search experiences with the Google Retail search. With this search functionality, retailers can optimize their websites for better search functionality, meanwhile, the user can enhance their experience of using a Retail website.
Merchants can conveniently fine-tune what customers see, add custom tags, and filter by availability. This benefits merchants by increasing their engagement, conversions, and revenue. With an enhanced website experience not just the user but even merchants are benefitted.
Moreover, with retail search, Retail property owners can integrate data into their existing tools to analyze search performance with the help of Google Analytics, Tag Manager, and BigQuery.
Some of the ways through which retail search increases user experience are by:
Advanced query understanding that displays better results from the broadest search queries, including non-product searches as well.
By utilizing semantic search for effectively matching product attributes with website content for quick, relevant product discovery.
Providing optimized results based on user interaction and ranking models to meet particular business goals.
Increasing privacy and security that ensures retailer data is protected with robust access controls to deliver to the point search results on their properties.
How Much Has It Benefitted Businesses?
Poor retail experience can lead to huge losses for businesses. However, some of the early adopters of the Retail search have seen some positive results. Lowe’s, Fnac Darty, Pernambucans, are among the companies that have chosen Google Retail Search and have reaped the benefits. Several other retailers have benefitted from the Google Retail search such as American giants IKEA and Macy’s.
IKEA experienced a 2 percent growth in its global order average value by getting a deeper sense of consumers’ needs. Macy’s has also experienced improved CTR or Click Through Rate¸ and sales with Google Search Retail.
Good search experiences on a Retail website have indicated a higher conversion rate, and brand loyalty, with 69% of customers buying additional items after a positive experience.
Thus, Google Retail Search reduces search abandonment. Retail search resolves this issue and improves customer experience leading to better sales and revenue.
Conclusion
Google Retail search is part of Google’s Cloud’s Product Discovery Solutions, which is a collection of tools to enhance retail operations. These solutions help to streamline shopping experiences and address changing consumer demands.
With advanced technology, retail search helps retailers sell more by understanding user search intent and providing an optimum search experience. Since every retail website is not Amazon with a robust proprietary search engine, known as Amazon A10, a retail website can benefit largely from the newly introduced, Google retail search engine. Therefore, retail websites should quickly add this search engine to their website for business growth.