Shopify’s default search is a handy tool for customers to easily find products in an e-commerce store. However, the default search is missing one important functionality – it does not support searching by SKU in the auto-suggest or live search results. This can negatively impact the shopping experience for customers who know the SKU of the product they want. Here, we will discuss how Expertrec custom search helps overcome this limitation of Shopify’s default search functionality and improves searches on e-commerce stores.
Lack of SKU Search Support
Shopify’s default search box is designed to search the titles, descriptions, and tags of products. However, it does not recognize SKUs as a valid search criteria. So, if a customer types in a product’s SKU in the search box, it will not generate any auto-complete suggestions or live search results. This leads to a poor user experience, as customers often know the SKU of a product instead of its title. Not being able to search by SKU can result in unnecessary browsing and abandonment of shopping carts in some cases.
Expertrec to the Rescue
Expertrec custom search is a powerful alternative to Shopify’s default search that solves this issue of missing SKU search support. Expertrec indexes the SKU field of products alongside other metadata. So, when a customer types in an SKU in the Expertrec powered search box, it returns instant auto-suggestions as well as live search results containing that product. This delivers a much smoother search and discovery experience for customers as they can easily find products by SKU. With Expertrec, retailers don’t have to lose potential sales just because customers know the SKU but not the title of a product they want to purchase.
Frontend Enhancements
Apart from SKU search, Expertrec also enhances the frontend search experience in several other ways compared to Shopify’s default search:
- It loads search results at lightning-fast speeds of under 100ms due to superior search indexing and AI-powered ranking. This largely improves perceived performance.
- The robust autocomplete feature based on previous queries helps guide customers to relevant results with just a few characters.
- The intuitive live filters/facets empower customers to find the exact variant of a product through attributes like size, colour, etc.
- Mobile-optimized responsive design ensures search works seamlessly across all devices, including voice.
- Personalized search leverages each customer’s browsing and purchase history to surface more relevant products.
Thus, Expertrec creates a more helpful, consistent, and engaging search experience for customers throughout their shopping journey compared to Shopify’s limited default search.
Backend Administration
On the backend, Expertrec gives store owners extensive control over optimizing the search experience:
- Products, as well as blog posts and pages, can be included to deliver a unified search across all site content.
- Search ranking and relevancy can be customized according to business goals, like promoting featured collections over others.
- Detailed search analytics provide actionable insights into what customers search for and how to enrich site content further.
- A real-time dashboard helps monitor search performance and proactively improve the experience.
- Powerful schemas support advanced search capabilities like fuzzy matching, wildcards, etc.
- API integrations allow building customized solutions on top of the search framework.
Thus, Expertrec not only solves the basic problem of SKU search but also helps retailers derive more value from their search and truly improve conversions.
Multilingual support
Expertrec allows retailers to index and search products seamlessly across 30+ languages. This is a critical capability for merchants selling on a global scale. In contrast, Shopify search only supports the base store language by default. Expertrec provides a consistent search experience for an international customer base.
Personalized search capabilities
Expertrec leverages AI/ML technologies to deliver truly personalized search. Based on individual customers’ browsing history, purchase patterns and more, it can surface the most relevant products at the top for each searcher. This improves search conversions. However, Shopify’s core search does not have this intelligence. Expertrec understands customer preferences dynamically to recommend products visitors are most likely to buy.
Conclusion
Expertrec custom search is a feature-rich alternative to Shopify’s default search that can significantly enhance customer experience in e-commerce stores. By addressing limitations like the lack of SKU search support, Expertrec provides a faster and more comprehensive product discovery platform for shoppers. The powerful control panels also assist store owners to continually optimise, measure, and improve their site search. Migrating to Expertrec’s customization-heavy platform ensures online stores can deliver a best-in-class search experience and maximize sales conversions.
