As we enter the era of e-commerce, companies can stay relevant in many ways. We can safely say that all e-commerce platforms should offer trendy product offerings, crawlable and mobile-friendly site architecture, and round-the-clock customer service. The strength of the on-site search could be one of the most significant factors in retaining customers and increasing revenue.

 

Aiming to please uncompromising consumers

 

Online shoppers aren’t only tech-savvy, but they also know what they want. When they search, they expect personalized and relevant results. The site search function is one of the best tools for accommodating a fast-paced consumer. It generates millions of additional dollars in revenue and increases conversion rates by 1.8 times for consumers.

Typical on-site search engines have difficulty interpreting ambiguous search terms, correcting misspellings, and analyzing user errors. An unsatisfactory on-site search experience can quickly lead to a customer abandoning a website. According to research by The Harris Poll, in the United States, site abandonment costs retailers more than $300 billion a year.

 

The AI rescue

 

Artificial intelligence (AI) comes into play here. More and more companies are incorporating AI into their search practices. Machine learning can improve search result ranking and relevance by leveraging data such as clicks, add-to-carts, signups, conversions, and purchases.

As consumer trends change over time, AI will continually adjust search results based on past sales and a consumer’s profile. The process is similar to how Google improves search results over time – more relevant results are pushed to the top.

Most companies lack the resources to build their expertise in-house, nor do they have the same traffic on which to hone their AI algorithms. Fortunately, emerging site search providers can offer compelling on-site searches for most typical e-commerce use cases.

 

AI-powered personalization

 

AI-powered search engines can offer additional benefits such as personalization. Consumers expect a personalized shopping experience 83 percent of the time, which means a digital journey that is tailored to their needs and past shopping habits.

 

Results based on vectors

 

Vectors have been around for a while, but they’re slower than keyword-based searches and never took off. That’s changing, however, as new technologies emerge. Vectors eliminate the need for companies to create and manage synonyms and can aid in longtail searches, symptom-based searches, and more.

 

Conclusion

 

To make sure their search engines perform well without AI, companies must do extraordinary work. Most search engines use manually written search algorithms and rules. In order to operate at its full potential, a search engine needs to be constantly updated. In addition, this approach often leads to inaccurate results.

With AI-powered search, retailers can compete with global marketplaces as they improve their search practices.