If customers can’t find a product within a search or two, they’ll assume you don’t have it. If that happens again for another product they’re looking for, the customer will likely leave entirely with the takeaway that you don’t meet their needs.

The average eCommerce transaction has 4.41 items in the cart, but if they have trouble finding even one of them, potential customers might leave entirely instead of converting. But the problem isn’t always about available products — it’s often about how data is structured, searched, and displayed.

eCommerce search enrichment aims to solve this problem by leveraging additional data about the user, like past searches, intelligently applying filters, and benefitting from enriched product data.

The result: potential customers will easily find what they’re looking for, and if you don’t have it, they’ll still find the closest equivalent you offer. And yet, 71% of sites require users to search by the exact phrasing or industry jargon the site uses, which potential customers won’t always know.

So, how can search enrichment benefit your entire eCommerce business? Keep reading as we break down the moving pieces of search enrichment and the rewards it brings to eCommerce stores and marketplaces.

What is eCommerce Search Enrichment?

At its core, eCommerce search enrichment aims to provide accurate, personalized results to visitor searches that encourage clicks and conversions. The nuts and bolts of search enrichment require enhancing each listing’s data, adopting the right search technologies, and intelligently leveraging user data.

When done successfully, visitors have a much lower chance of believing you can’t meet their needs if you can. And even if you don’t have exactly what they want, they’ll be recommended instead if you have any similar products.

Core Components of eCommerce Search Enrichment

eCommerce search enrichment helps customers find what they’re looking for, but the behind-the-scenes components aren’t simple. Rather than basic search technologies based mainly on keywords used for searches, search enrichment leverages the following methods to fine-tune results:

• Product data enrichment: Data enrichment in marketplaces calls for strengthening each product’s tags, description, attributes, and other necessary details to help search engines provide more accurate results. Thanks to new tools that streamline and improve every listing’s data, this practice doesn’t have to be a time-intensive manual process.
• Personalization and recommendations: Treating every search as it exists in a vacuum leads to static, possibly inaccurate results. Instead, leveraging available data about the user, including past searches, previous purchases, and individual information like clothing size, can go far in displaying applicable products every time. Recommendations are also included in search results based on the same data.
• Visual search: Computer vision has come a long way, and along with it, visual search has become increasingly popular and often expected. A picture is worth a thousand words; sometimes, searching with an image or screenshot is easier than figuring out how to search for it with text.
• Multisearch: Multisearch calls for letting customers search however they like. This capability includes visual search and extends to texts, voice, or even video. As a result, searching for the right product can be much easier and even fun. You’ll also enhance the accessibility of your store to those who may need or prefer extra options beyond text.
• Automatic product filters: A dropdown with product filters is a powerful way to help users sort through a large catalog of products. Making a wide range of filters available is necessary — you can go a step further with automatic filtering based on user data. For example, if you sell apparel, you can automatically filter out products that are too large or small. You won’t waste user attention on products that simply don’t make sense for them.

Business Benefits of eCommerce Search Enrichment

What benefits can your business expect after enriching searches? While an ongoing process, there are several valuable rewards you’ll likely experience soon after you get started. So, let’s break down the top business benefits that make search enrichment well worth the time and resources. 

Enhance Customer Experience

Easily finding what you’re searching for begins the customer journey with a frictionless experience of finding what they’re after. With that positive start, they’re ready to click through to the product listing and learn more about your product.

What about without search enrichment? You risk requiring the customer to search repeatedly to find something that should’ve appeared the first time. They might get frustrated and leave, and if not, you’re still fighting an uphill battle to win them over.

Boost Conversion Rates

Visitors who can quickly find what they’re looking for are primed to make their purchase. It’s like if you’re hungry on a road trip and there’s a fast food restaurant right off the highway — it’s easy to become a paying customer.

Extending that metaphor, what if you have to drive all the way into town and look around for a restaurant with a drive-through, and then you start wondering if there even is a good option for you in the area. You’ll pretty quickly head back to the interstate.

A frictionless experience of finding what you want naturally leads to continuing the buyer’s journey and becoming a customer. There is no need to look elsewhere to find what you need because you already found it. 

Gain a Competitive Advantage 

Competition in the eCommerce space is increasingly challenging. Enterprise eCommerce search enrichment is a significant competitive edge, where winning a customer often means higher value carts and repeat business.

However, the competitive edge isn’t just for enterprises; stores and marketplaces of all sizes will be more appealing than the rest when offering a seamless search experience. Search enrichment creates a better user experience, helping convert and retain customers while keeping them away from competitors. 

Best Practices for Effective eCommerce Product Data Enrichment 

One critical component of search enrichment is product data enrichment. Managing and enhancing all available product data effectively allows searches to parse structured and unstructured data.

So, let’s explore vital best practices to manage and optimize product data to help enrich user searches.

Start with Best-Selling Items

What are your main products, which are the cornerstone of your revenue? These products are an ideal starting point for enriching product data with optimized descriptions, rich tagging, and keyword-rich details.

Additionally, look for any missing or incomplete data in these products, which can harm search results and off-site indexing. Flesh out product data with every possible data point to give users and third parties the best chance of understanding everything you offer.

From there, move down your product catalog based on sales volume, carefully optimizing the same product data relevant to the individual item and category.

Prioritize Data Management and Integrations

A strong policy for how eCommerce product data is captured and managed is critical to search enrichment success.

• Create processes for high-quality data capture, storage, and optimization. New products should follow these processes, and any products should have updated data.
• Sanitize data to make sure all recommendation and search algorithms work effectively with the entire catalog. Data sanitization, or cleaning, requires removing outdated, incorrect, or incorrectly structured data, creating uniformity. 
• Integrate and automate data management when possible. If configured correctly, automation can sidestep human error and significantly improve efficiency in mundane, repetitive tasks.

Additionally, APIs are able to get a wealth of eCommerce data from outside sources to complement your own data. Implementing the right data integration platform like Cluster gives you access to consumer preferences, market trends, competition pricing, and future predictions. 

Understand User Preferences

One powerful utility of search enrichment is delivering personalized results, which requires product data enrichment tailored to meet the needs of specific audiences. Evaluate your existing customers or leverage third-party data to align specific tags and product metadata with audience segments.

Your segments will vary based on your market but should typically align with expected preferences. For example, if you sell sporting goods, customers who search for sport-specific equipment should be shown more items related to the same sport. 

As you enrich product data in alignment with these segments and preferences, you’ll create more intelligent recommendations and search results. 

eCommerce Search Enrichment is Critical to Stay Competitive

If visitors can’t find what they want on your site, they’ll go to your competitors next. And you’ll be fighting an uphill battle to win them over if they find what they’re looking for from the competition.

eCommerce search enrichment calls for going beyond the legacy methods of exact keyword queries and leverages the latest technologies behind advanced personalization, product data enrichment, and multi-search capabilities.

Cluster is an industry leader in product data enhancement, market data integrations, and core search enrichment utilities. Our expertise and significant data estate in the eCommerce industry allow us to offer powerful insights that keep you ahead of your competition.

Are you ready to take your site searches and user experience to the next level? Contact us today to learn more about how Cluster gives you the tool to boost conversions and retain happy customers.