Search merchandising is one of those underrated site search elements that businesses, once they introduce it to their ecommerce store, regret they haven’t done earlier.

An advanced, hyper-relevant, customizable site search can influence around 40% of all online purchases.

Therefore, businesses that do not use search merchandising in their-commerce stores miss great sales potential.

So, what is search merchandising, and what search merchandising practices should you try in 2023?

What is search merchandising?

Search merchandising (often shortened as searchandising) curates search results to promote certain products and track how shoppers interact with those offers.

You can apply data-driven strategies to organize and present products in a way that maximizes their visibility and relevance to the customer. This way, you can reach business goals and KPIs and ultimately drive more sales.

Usually, advanced ecommerce search solutions (like LupaSearch) support this feature and allow you to exploit searchandising as one of your business success reasons.

How can search merchandising boost conversion rates?

The main goal of searchandising is to provide customers with a seamless and personalized shopping experience that leads to increased engagement, customer satisfaction, and ultimately, more sales.

Therefore, maximizing product relevance wins you two aspects here.

First, you significantly improve usability and overall user experience for a shopper. Secondly, not only will you sell more, but you will also build a community of loyal customers who will be more likely to return to your e-shop in the future.

That’s the beauty of search merchandising. It advances the interests of both sides - the website and the shoppers.

Best search merchandising practices in 2023

Ready to kickstart your ecommerce success by applying the most effective search merchandising practices?

Here are the five best practices you should incorporate into your ecommerce sales strategy today.

1. Decrease the number of “No Results” pages

The most fundamental search practice is to avoid directing users to a zero-results page. Whether or not your store has the product the user wants, you should offer something similar.

One of the best search merchandising practices is to decrease the occurrence of “no results” pages by adding synonyms. Synonyms can help customers find what they are looking for, even if they use different search terms.

Adding synonyms helps customers find the products they want and reduce the likelihood of them abandoning your site.

2. Squeeze the most out of the trending search queries

Another essential search merchandising practice is to exploit the most popular and currently trending search queries.

By analyzing customer search behavior, you can identify the most popular search terms and apply the findings to optimize your search results.

Boosting what’s trending and hiding what’s least relevant can help you create a more personalized search experience and ensure your customers find what they are looking for.

3. Highlight what you want to highlight

And that includes highlighting new arrivals, discounts, special products, categories, or something else critical for your website visitors to notice.

Rank those products (or their bundles) higher on the search results page and ensure the users notice them. Use this strategy to increase sales and improve customer engagement.

4. Add promotional or informative badges

Promotional badges are an effective way to improve your search results’ relevance, provide information, or encourage users to buy.

By including badges such as “discount,” “new arrival,” “free shipping,” “last chance to buy,” and others, you can create a sense of urgency and encourage customers to make a purchase.

Use promotional badges to highlight special offers, point out essential information, and increase sales.

5. Personalize search experience

Data suggest that around half of shoppers spend more on websites that personalize user experience. It is because personalization highly improves search relevance, increases customer satisfaction, and creates trust.

Analyze customer behavior and preferences and provide personalized search results tailored to each customer.

Conclusion

Use search merchandising to maximize your search results, improve customer engagement, and drive sales.

Applying the five best search merchandising practices can tremendously change the way your website meets shoppers’ needs. Ultimately, you should notice a rapid increase in your conversion rates. And that is the goal here.