How can you manage product choice overload with site search?

Choice overload, known as the paradox of choice or choice paralysis, defines how humans get overwhelmed when they have many options.

The concept is especially relevant for all merchandisers, including ecommerce sellers.

The abundance of choice often leads people to decision fatigue. In short, it makes it more difficult for shoppers to decide about the purchase, and they are less satisfied with the final decision.

As an ecommerce business owner with a wide product assortment, you can effectively manage product choice overload using a site search.

Here’s how.

Why should you manage product choice overload?

Product choice overload can have negative consequences for both customers and businesses. The phenomenon can cause fewer conversions, higher bounce rates, and reduced customer loyalty.

That’s why managing product choice overload can make your products more relevant to shoppers, the shopping decisions more satisfying, and the user experience with your e-shop more fulfilling.

To achieve this, implement an effective site search.

By leveraging the power of site search, you can help your customers navigate the overwhelming number of product choices and find exactly what they are looking for.

How to manage product choice overload: 5 Tactics

#1. Introduce faceted search

Faceted search is a powerful feature that allows users to refine their search results based on specific attributes or facets such as price, brand, color, size, material, etc.

This way, users do not have to scroll through the endless product list. Instead, they can filter only the products they are interested in.

Narrowing down the choices quickly makes it easier for users to find the needed product.

#2. Provide auto-suggest feature

Auto-suggest is a search feature that suggests products or search queries as the user types. This feature immediately offers possible search terms without having to type out the complete search query.

These suggestions can help customers find the right words or phrases to express their query, avoid typos or spelling errors, and discover new or popular products.

The major benefit of this feature is that it specifies and narrows down the search term, minimizing the number of possible product options.

#3. Personalize search results

Use the site search to deliver user-relevant product suggestions and effectively manage product choice overload.

By tracking user behavior, preferences, and search history, ecommerce businesses can deliver personalized search results to their customers.

This feature filters out irrelevant products (like dresses and skirts for male shoppers) and suggests only user-relevant ones. This reduces the number of possible choices and makes the search more smooth.

#4. Get to the core of users’ search intent

Another way to manage product choice overload is to get to the core of the users’ search intent. That is, deliver precisely the product the user is looking for.

To do that, site search can use natural language processing (NLP) to interpret complex queries, such as “blue dress under $100”, and show relevant products that fit the criteria.

Site search that understands human language can process abstract and long-term keywords and deliver query-matching results.

Showing related products can also help manage product choice overload. By displaying similar products to the one the user is viewing, ecommerce businesses can help users to compare products and make a more informed decision.

Highly-relevant product recommendations make the shopping experience more enjoyable but can also increase sales by encouraging users to buy more products.

LupaSearch - your site search partner to manage product choice overload

Ready to improve your site relevance and effectively manage product choice overload?

Partner up with LupaSearch and encourage website visitors to convert.

LupaSearch is an AI-driven ecommerce site search solution that leverages Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning to deliver fast, relevant, and personalized results.

On average, businesses that introduce LupaSearch notice an 8X increase in conversion rates.