Junge Frau sucht mit Taschenlampe unter dem Bett

Develop your merchandising platform now!

How to optimise your search function in just a few steps

The goal

Boost your conversion!

There are many different types of search queries and all of them can end with an empty search result. But this is not the way to tap the full potential of your search. There are the simple searches, and there are some more difficult ones. Do you already know all the types and sorts? Are you curious about what you can distinguish in the queries, and how you can classify them?

Sportler im Sprint

Insight

Optimise your search!

To present relevant search results to a user, it is necessary to know the context. If the last products viewed were summer dresses, should the online shop really show men's clothing in the next search result?

It is important to meet the expectations of your customers, whilst increasing your conversion rate.  Onsite Search offers enormous potential as one of the most used tools in online shoppping. But what does it depend on? And how well does your search score in the check? Just find out for yourself. In our checklist we have summarised 10 of the most important success factors of a coordinated search function for you.

Content of the checklist:

✔ Integrated Rating: Make an initial self-assessment of your search function immediately!

✔ Search optimisation made easy: How can you regulate the search? What are the adjustment screws?

✔ Which hurdles do you have to overcome in search optimisation?

✔ Find out whether your search function correctly understands customer queries!

Grafik - Durch eine Lupe vergrößerte Statistik, Team analysiert die Anteile

Increase your online turnover sustainably

An empty search result is frustrating for your online shopper. The store operator is equally frustrated because he loses sales. With every improvement of your search function, you will meet your customers' needs. With outstanding search, you not only inspire your customers, but also sustainably increase your online turnover.
72% of online searches do not meet customer expectations

Customer expectation

72% of online searches do not meet customer expectations.
30% of online shoppers leave the shop after an unsuccessful search, although the product is available

Search success

30% of online shoppers leave the shop after an unsuccessful search, although the product is available.
Searching customers buy 2 times more often than regular visitors

Shopping basket

Searching customers buy 2 times more often than regular visitors.
72% of online searches do not meet customer expectations

Customer expectation

72% of online searches do not meet customer expectations.
30% of online shoppers leave the shop after an unsuccessful search, although the product is available

Search success

30% of online shoppers leave the shop after an unsuccessful search, although the product is available.
Searching customers buy 2 times more often than regular visitors

Shopping basket

Searching customers buy 2 times more often than regular visitors.

Study

We have examined 60 leading online shops for you.

The main focus of the "Search & Merch" study was the question of how you can turn every visitor to your online shop into a customer. You will find the revealing results summarised in our whitepaper.

  • We will tell you where the most common Onsite Search errors occur in search queries and show you how to avoid them.
  • Personalised search results - What are the requirements for search functions in online shops?
  • How can you use your search function as a merchandising tool?
  • Getting the most out of your search and thus increasing your conversion - How does the KPS Search Transformation approach work?
Interview mit Julian Drees

Interview (German)

Searchandising with Julian Drees

Opportunities for onsite search

We reveal where the most common onsite search mistakes occur and show you how to avoid them. In the interview, Julian Drees explains how to use your search function as a merchandising tool and how to get the most out of your search to increase your conversion.

We would be happy to advise you on your individual Searchandising solution. Please contact us!

Contact

Image for the article intro information

Julian Drees, Senior Consultant KPS

show less show more

More Insights

Everything that is important and becomes important.

Mann mit Mundschutz hängt Schild an die Tür: 24 Stunden online geöffnet

Instant Insight

Click & Collect helps retailers in the Corona pandemic - and beyond

We should be able to ENJOY shopping again. The solution is called Click & Collect.

"A short time-to-market solution is crucial. One of my customers also faced this challenge before Christmas. The food retailer Globus Warenhaus wanted to create the possibility for its customers to shop via Click & Collect virtually overnight. And we did it, taking only two weeks. A great experience that I would like to share." – Felix Jungermann
Young woman with mobil

Instant Insight

How does this Generation Z really think?

By 2026 the Generation Z will become the largest consumer population in the US and in Europe we will face a very similar transformation. At this moment, Generation Z (born between 2000 and 2015) is in the early stage of graduation or of joining the workforce and they are about to become wealthy consumers. Retail and e-Commerce need to find a way to address and reach this new consumer group in order to turn them into buying customers. Are you prepared for this new generation of customers?

Before we look at what can be done, we must first understand their behavior and how they differ from today’s customer base.
Kunde wird online durch verschiedene Stationen zum Shop geführt

Instant Insight

Does your customers location improve his experience in your online shop?

Looking at e-commerce trends, personalization is probably the single most important topic in the online business today. Personalization includes many different aspects such as individually tailored, local newsletters, personalized promotions in mailings including complex recommendation systems in the online shop that process customer data and behavior to show him or her the right set of products at the right time.

Privacy settings

We use cookies on our website. Some of them are essential, while others help us to improve this website and your experience. With your consent, we use cookies to analyse the usage of our website.

We also use cookies for marketing to help us measure the success of our marketing efforts. In the settings you will find detailed information about the individual cookies, and you can refuse the use of cookies.

You can change or revoke your selection at any time on any KPS.com page in the footer under Privacy Settings.

Essential Cookies

Essential cookies enable basic functions and are necessary for the proper functioning of the website.

Cookie Banner

  • Cookie Name: kps-privacy-settings
    Value: PrivacyLevel_0#a
    Storage Duration: 4 weeks
    Description: This cookie is required to save cookie settings. It is a purely technical cookie.

HubSpot:

  • Cookie Name: __hs_opt_out
    Storage Duration: 6 months
    Description: This cookie is used by the opt-in privacy policy to prompt the visitor to accept cookies again. It is set when you allow visitors to disable cookies. It contains the string "Yes" or "No."

  • Cookie Name: __hs_d_not_tracking
    Storage Duration: 6 months
    Description: This cookie can be set to prevent the tracking code from sending information to HubSpot. It contains the string "Yes."

  • Cookie Name: _hs_initial_opt
    Storage Duration: 7 days
    Description: This cookie is used to prevent banners from being displayed every time visitors access your website in strict mode. It contains the string "Yes" or "No."

  • Cookie Name: __hs_cookie_cat_pref
    Storage Duration: 6 months
    Description: This cookie is used to capture the categories a visitor has consented to. It contains data about those categories.

  • Cookie Name: __hs_gpc_banner_dismiss
    Storage Duration: 3 months
    Description: This cookie is used when the Global Privacy Control banner is dismissed.

  • Cookie Name: hs_ab_test
    Storage Duration: Until the end of the session
    Description: This cookie is used to ensure that visitors see the same version of an A/B test page they were shown previously. It contains the ID of the A/B test page and the ID of the variant selected for the visitor.

  • Cookie Name: __cfruid
    Storage Duration: Until the end of the session
    Description: This cookie is set by HubSpot's CDN provider in accordance with its rate-limiting policies.

  • Cookie Name: ___cfuvid
    Storage Duration: Until the end of the session
    Description: This cookie is set by HubSpot's CDN provider in accordance with its rate-limiting policies.

  • Cookie Name: ___cf_bm
    Storage Duration: Until the end of the session
    Description: This cookie is set by HubSpot's CDN provider in accordance with its rate-limiting policies.

Functional cookies

Functional cookies are used by third parties or publishers to display personalised advertisements. They do this by tracking visitors across websites.

Google Analytics

Cookie Name: _ga
Storage Duration: 2 years
Description: Used to distinguish between users.

Cookie Name: _gid
Storage Duration: 24 months
Description: Used to distinguish between users.

Cookie Name: _gat
Storage Duration: 1 minute
Description: Used to throttle the request rate. If Google Analytics is provided via Google Tag Manager, this cookie is named dc_gtm<property-ID>.

Cookie Name: hide-cookieinfo
Storage Duration: 30 days
Description: Cookie set for querying the cookies.

HubSpot

Cookie Name: __hstc
Storage Duration: 6 months
Description: The main cookie for visitor tracking. It contains the domain, the user token (hubspotutk), the first timestamp (of the first visit), the last timestamp (of the last visit), the current timestamp (for this visit), and the session count (increases with each subsequent session).

Cookie Name: hubspotutk
Storage Duration: 6 months
Description: This cookie tracks the identity of a visitor. This cookie is passed to the HubSpot software when submitting a form and is used for deduplicating contacts. It contains an opaque GUID to represent the current visitor.

Cookie Name: __hssc
Storage Duration: 30 minutes
Description: This cookie tracks sessions. It is used to determine whether the HubSpot software needs to increment the session count and timestamps in the __hstc cookie. It contains the domain, the number of page views (viewCount, increases with each page view in a session), and the session start timestamp.

Cookie Name: __hssrc
Storage Duration: End of session
Description: Whenever the HubSpot software changes the session cookie, this cookie is also set. It determines whether the visitor has restarted the browser. If this cookie is not present when HubSpot manages cookies, it is considered a new session. It contains the value "1" if present.

External media

Content from video platforms and social media platforms is blocked by default. If cookies from external media are accepted, access to this content no longer requires manual consent.

LinkedIn Tag

Cookie Name: bcookie
Storage Duration: 365 days
Description: Browser Identifier cookie to uniquely identify devices accessing LinkedIn to detect abuse on the platform and for diagnostic purposes.

Cookie Name: bscookie
Storage Duration: 365 days
Description: Used for remembering that a logged-in user is verified by two-factor authentication and has previously logged in.

Cookie Name: JSESSIONID
Storage Duration: Session
Description: Used for Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) protection and URL signature validation.

Cookie Name: lang
Storage Duration: Session
Description: Used to remember a user's language setting to ensure LinkedIn.com displays in the language selected by the user in their settings.

Cookie Name: lidc
Storage Duration: 1 day
Description: To facilitate data center selection.

Cookie Name: sdsc
Storage Duration: Session
Description: Signed data service context cookie used for database routing to ensure consistency across all databases when a change is made. Used to ensure that user-inputted content is immediately available to the submitting user upon submission.

Cookie Name: li_gc
Storage Duration: 180 days
Description: Used to store consent of guests regarding the use of cookies for non-essential purposes.

Cookie Name: li_mc
Storage Duration: 180 days
Description: Used as a temporary cache to avoid database lookups for a member's consent for use of non-essential cookies and used for having consent information on the client side to enforce consent on the client side.

Cookie Name: UID
Storage Duration: 720 days
Description: Cookie used for market and user research.

Cookie Name: UserMatchHistory
Storage Duration: 30 days
Description: LinkedIn Ads ID syncing.

Cookie Name: AnalyticsSyncHistory
Storage Duration: 30 days
Description: Used to store information about the time a sync took place with the lms_analytics cookie.

Cookie Name: lms_ads
Storage Duration: 30 days
Description: Used to identify LinkedIn Members off LinkedIn for advertising.

Cookie Name: lms_analytics
Storage Duration: 30 days
Description: Used to identify LinkedIn Members off LinkedIn for analytics.

Cookie Name: li_fat_id
Storage Duration: 30 days
Description: Member indirect identifier for Members for conversion tracking, retargeting, and analytics.

Cookie Name: li_sugr
Storage Duration: 90 days
Description: Used to make a probabilistic match of a user's identity.

Cookie Name: _guid
Storage Duration: 90 days
Description: Used to identify a LinkedIn Member for advertising through Google Ads.

Cookie Name: BizographicsOptOut
Storage Duration: 10 years
Description: Used to determine opt-out status for non-members.

Cookie Name: li_giant
Storage Duration: 7 days
Description: Indirect identifier for groups of LinkedIn Members used for conversion tracking.

Cookie Name: oribi_cookie_test
Storage Duration: Session
Description: To determine if tracking can be enabled on the current domain.

Cookie Name: oribili_user_guid
Storage Duration: 365 days
Description: Used to count unique visitors to a website.

Cookie Name: ln_or
Storage Duration: 1 day
Description: Used to determine if Oribi analytics can be carried out on a specific domain.

Cookie Name: ar_debug
Storage Duration: Session
Description: Supports Google attribution reporting API integration to mitigate signal loss.

Lead Forensics

Cookie Name: __lfluuid
Storage Duration: 10 years
Description: The _lfuuid cookie allows a website to track visitor behavior on the sites on which the cookie is installed. Tracking is performed anonymously until a user identifies himself by submitting a form.

Changing privacy settings

Imprint

Data protection statement