A frequent online shopper is often found saying:
I couldn’t find my product!
Still no results!
What should I type to find my product!
And so on…
As an eCommerce merchandiser, it is really not valued if you run a strict rule in the house.
Type as I say, or you get no marks.
In an eCommerce business, almost 30% of the search queries give zero results.
Imagine, shoppers stumble around your eCommerce website, searching for their desired product. But when they type their search query on the search bar and hit it, they find a cute smiley face asking sorry for there are no search results for them!
No one likes rejection, right? And displaying a no results page is almost like conveying to the shoppers that your needs are not with us. As per human psychology, they would never return and instead find a site that would cater to their needs.
So, as an eCommerce merchandiser what should you do to optimize low recall and zero search results? Let’s have a look at some of the use-cases:
- Provide enough synonyms: When you know a product has numerous variations to its name, then provide synonyms for the same. Leaving a site because I received zero results when I typed ‘Flip-flops’ instead of ‘slippers’ is such a no-no! Therefore,
– Deliver results for every query whether or not you have it with you.
– Don’t judge shoppers by their geographical location.- Create enough vocabulary for your products from the catalog to match them correctly.
So, the next time when I type ‘rugby ball’, they know I am searching for ‘footballs’.
- Did you mean: Shoppers often get zero search results when they don’t spell the product name correctly. This might be out of fast typing or genuinely not knowing the exact spelling of the product. And expecting shoppers to know the exact spelling and name of the product is a little off.
Therefore, when they misspell a word, throw a ‘Did you mean’ with alternatives close to the product name.
Make sure, they find their intended query out of the two or three options you suggest. This makes their journey easier rather than the process of searching the exact spelling, copying, pasting, and then marching towards buying the product.
- Give the shoppers a way out: Sam, saw a hoarding while driving uptown which caught his attention. It was a men’s face cream, which was paraben-free with charcoal elements. Sam was intrigued and as soon as he reached home, he took out his laptop, opened up a site, and typed the exact words as he saw on the hoarding. But to his amazement, he found no results!
He was disappointed and left the site without making any purchase. But when he typed the same query on another site, he found related products.
Though his query generated no results, he found five other links that were closer to his intended product query. And voila! He did find his product just by a different name for online sales. If you give your shoppers such suggestions, they feel included and welcomed.
- Graceful fallback: Shoppers come searching for ‘Rolex’ watches on your site. You carry some luxury watches but not ‘Rolex’ brand watches. So, instead of showing them zero results, direct them to some luxury watches that you carry. They would surely not be disappointed.
- Filter ‘Out of Stock’ products: Never leave an ‘Out of Stock’ product in your catalog. Keep a track and filter out ‘Out of Stock’ products to avoid displaying zero results to the shoppers for the same.
Not just these use-cases but you can find a number of use-cases to optimize ‘Zero-Results’. Hiring a data scientist to solve your site problems with NLP is an option but not a feasible one as it might take money (a lot of it!), resources, as well as time. So, with Unbxd you can find all your solutions optimizing your low recalls and zero search results effectively.
You can read more on the Art and Science of Optimizing for low recall and zero search results in the White Paper, we recently published. You can share your thoughts by writing to us at marketing@unbxd.com
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