Getting started with on-site product search
It comes up on almost every project, usually later than it should. A short on-ramp to on-site product search for teams who have not touched it before.
In e-commerce every friction point has a price attached, and the arithmetic is unusually easy to check. Write the reasoning down alongside the decision, because the reasoning is what changes first.
What it costs to ignore
People who use search convert at a much higher rate. The reasoning matters more than the rule, because the rule has exceptions. If two people in the business would answer this differently, that gap is the actual problem.
Your first week
- Find out what is already in place
- Handle typos and synonyms or they leave empty-handed
- Change one thing and measure it
Log zero-result searches, they are a product roadmap. The cost of getting this wrong is rarely visible on the day it happens. Assume whoever inherits this will have half your context and none of your patience.
What this looks like day to day
Small percentage changes matter here because they apply to every order, every month. Three things worth confirming about on-site product search before you move on:
- Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
- Log zero-result searches, they are a product roadmap — and you know whether that is true here
- There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped
If you want a second opinion on how yours is set up, ask.