Do you know what impresses the user when they visit an eCommerce website? Don’t say it’s the product they might be the most interested in, because it definitely does! But, here we are talking about user experience. If you provide a best-in-class user experience to site visitors, they will be your hot customers.
Now, you might wonder what the aspects of user experience are. Honestly speaking, it’s a vast topic, but we can make it short for you. One of the major aspects you can cover in user experience is search autocomplete.
It saves user’s time on an eCommerce site and guides them exactly where they wish to go. The search box is relatively a very small piece of any eCommerce website but a very significant part. By implementing some of the best practices and developing an effective autocomplete feature, you can actually unleash its full potential and benefit from the numerous amazing ways it affects the business results.
We developed the above-mentioned opinion over a period of time, of course, and have some eye-catching statistics to discuss as well. Go through the article to get an in-depth idea of the whole thing, but first, let us learn and dive deeper into what is search autocomplete?
What is Search Autocomplete?
If we understand it with an easy example, you might relate it. The most common example of search autocomplete that comes to anyone’s mind as they think of it is Google. Whenever you start typing your keywords into the Google search, thousands of suggestions like what you are typing begin appearing, and it so happens that most of the time, the first or the second suggestion is what you are looking for. That is how powerful the Google search algorithm is, and that is one of the reasons we prefer Google search engines the most.
Search Autocomplete makes it easier for you to look for various products or similar products available on the eCommerce website. As you search, a search autocomplete API fetches the results you are expecting or anything similar.
Here we have a pro tip for you! If you have several verticals in your business then you can display them along with the keywords searched to make it simpler and more effective for your end-user. From our experience, we know that businesses that use verticals as filters in the search autocomplete have a higher conversion ratio as compared to those that do not.
For example:
If you are looking for something like an apron and you get thrown to have a look in the dresses section, then you would easily get frustrated. But at the same time, if you have options to select from aprons in the kitchen or aprons in dresses then you would know where to head to.
As a customer, your browsing journey will become easier; hence you would prefer shopping from the website.
How can search autocomplete benefit your eCommerce business?
As experienced search experts in this domain, we have noticed that more often than not the search bar is either ignored while planning for the business’s website or taken into little consideration. There is confusion in planning and finalizing the budget component for the search bar as well. And all this is because we have little to no idea as to what a stunning conversion rate search bar paired together with search autocomplete has got to offer.
Let us first discuss all the advantages that come with implementing search autocomplete:
- Promotes an outstanding and effortless user experience.
- Helps businesses dive deeper and understand the customer journey at the beginning.
- Helps in drawing attention to new product additions.
These benefits put altogether help us form a very clear picture. Now let us have a look at the best practices which help deliver optimum results:
- Ensure that search autocomplete is fast and hence efficient:
As a customer whenever you type in something and the suggestions take a lot of time to load then you would obviously not like to stick around and leave the website. Similarly, if the suggestions are unrelated or meaningless to what you are looking for then you will not waste your time on the site. Hence fast and efficient search autocomplete is a must. - Add further suggestions to your search recommendations:
Most businesses do have a product catalog in their search autocomplete but they do not have return and policies or a contact us. Adding these services to the backend database of the search autocomplete will enhance the customer experience for all the good reasons. Hence, this should be considered.
- Use autocomplete suggestions to recommend the products on sale:
Whenever you have a sale going on it is wise to program the auto-correct to suggest products (which of course the user is looking for) and land them on the page of the sale. This will result in a customized yet smooth and user-friendly experience. This will also help you to draw the customer’s attention to the offer which you are currently running and increase the chances of conversion.
- Design and develop customized search autocomplete suggestions:
You can design your autocomplete suggestions depending upon where the customer is currently in the sales funnel, tailor them according to the user behavior, their geographical location, or maybe according to the current market trends also. This will result in a customized user experience and hence elevate the conversion rates.
Having looked at the benefits and tips of having search autocorrect let us now have a look at the Frequently Asked Questions or the FAQs of the same:
How do you implement Google search suggestions?
With Google Search suggestions you can ensure a smooth user experience. You can also customize it according to your preference by turning off certain suggestions or removing autocomplete predictions that you would not like to appear.
What is Google Suggest?
Google Suggest or Autocomplete is a feature within Google Search that generates predictions as the users search and eventually saves them a lot of time and effort.
How do I create an Autocomplete Search?
Though Autocomplete has become so popular in the last few years, most of the time it is very poorly designed. Hence implementing a good UX design and hiring a good UX designer for the same is of prime importance. You have to ensure that it is quick, relevant, and saves the users a lot of their time.
What is Google Auto Suggest?
Google Autocomplete is of extreme importance for Search Engine Optimization or SEO activities since it shows a lot of similar predictions to what the user might be looking for and the higher the frequency the more atop the suggestion appears.
Have a look at https://www.expertrec.com/api/#api-Search-search for more details.
Having learned about Ecommerce Search Autocomplete, we are sure you must now be convinced about the essence of it. If you are looking for some more suggestions or would like to implement the same you can contact us at https://www.expertrec.com/. We, at Expertrec, look forward to hearing from you!
