Customers using online retailer Cutter & Buck’s previous search results page were converting at a low rate. Since the company has a complex array of apparel products – from women’s wear to men’s, including embroidered sports apparel – it needed a strong search partner that handles issues and improves results.
Cutter & Buck contracted with Visual Sciences Inc., and has begun using the recently launched Visual Sciences Search 5.0, an on-demand site search product that standardizes workflows and presentation templates.
“Visual Sciences Search has transformed that part of our Web site,” said Jay Allen, catalog and Web marketing manager at Cutter & Buck. ” Our conversions from search are now significantly higher than the average site conversion. We receive customer compliments because of the quality of the results and the ability for consumers to drill down into their results. And now with our ability to advertise [complimentary] products, we’re seeing even better results from our search pages. In fact, our results are so good that we’ve begun pushing [our] paid search [page] click-throughs to our Visual Sciences search results pages.”
Because of corporate policy, Cutter & Buck could not share actual numbers. However, customers using its search pages now convert at over two times the former rate.
Visual Science Search 5.0 optimizes performance of Web site search results by applying new features, such as geographic searching, targeted presentations and related content or product information in the context of the search results.
” Since site search is the primary method used by visitors to interact with the organization’s Web site, their experience has to be compelling, intuitive, accurate and relevant,” said Brian Sullivan, SVP of search and content solutions at Visual Sciences. “The enhancements introduced in Search 5.0 ensure that our clients can offer that experience to their visitors and support their other channels.”
These are the main enhancements to Search 5.0:
Auto Complete helps avoid spelling mistakes and demonstrates the breadth of content on the site before a search is submitted. Suggested queries guide site visitors toward a more successful search experience.
Recent Searches ensures that visitors have an intuitive experience allowing them to easily return to previously reviewed results sets without going back to the search box and starting over. Providing simple, familiar links helps keep the customer engaged by providing both simple paths to stay within the experience.
Targeted Presentations enables sites to tailor the display of results to match the query, the context of the search or the results returned. In some cases, consumers want it to simply provide a text-based list of results. In others, they want it to show more information.
When the results contain variations that can be better represented with pictures, Search 5.0 can display a product gallery of those results. When there is a single result, it will show the product with additional related information.
Customers may use a Web site to evaluate and research a business’ products. But for any number of reasons, either because they are security-conscious or they want to put their hands on the product before buying, they would rather purchase in a store. By using Geographic Search, they can find a store near their home or office.
Personalize Alerts lets visitors save their search criteria and allows the business to contact them through a personalized e-mail when new content is available on the site that matches their interest.
