The most successful e-commerce companies in the world understand the power of personalization for improving customer experience and driving on-site conversions. 

By offering a powerful pipeline editor and relevance settings, our customers have an easy way to personalize results. Features like personalization, recommendations, and searchandising are a few mouse clicks away.

Let’s explore some of the why’s behind personalization and how it looks in Search.io. 

Why is search personalization important?

Companies using advanced personalization report a $20 return for every $1 spent. Consumers want personalized experiences, too: 91% of consumers say they are more likely to shop with brands that include relevant offers, information, and recommendations. 

That explains why, in the new WBR Insights report, The Role of On-Site Search in a Changing E-commerce Industry, e-commerce executives said personalization (48%) and recommendations (47%) were a top priority for their business.

Omnichannel selling and personalization 

Consumers are shopping across multiple channels, marketplaces, and devices. In one study reported by HBR, 73% of online shoppers use multiple channels while purchasing online. The newest crop of buyers, Millennials, are leading the way. 

“Our findings showed that omnichannel customers loved using the retailer’s touchpoints, in all sorts of combinations and places. Not only did they use smartphone apps to compare prices or download a coupon, but they were also avid users of in-store digital tools such as an interactive catalog, a price-checker, or a tablet. They bought online and picked-up in store, or bought in the store and got their purchases shipped.” 

And those are just a handful of the channels shoppers are using.

With so much buying data from every touchpoint, it’s no wonder that companies are investing heavily in data lakes to build personalized experiences for customers everywhere. Data is at the heart of omnichannel shopping personalization. 

Search, data, and personalization

All online activity — from site search to email clicks to price checking — is data that can be used to personalize the shopping experience.

Our customers can personalize on-site search results and content on dynamic product listing pages using omnichannel data. The order in which results are displayed can be personalized based on any number of factors such as:

• Past search history
• Past purchase history
• Interactions with store catalogs
• Browsing history
• Price checks
• Demographics (age, gender, location, etc.)

If you can measure it, it can be used for personalization. With Search.io, customers can personalize results via an intuitive, no-code UI. For example, results can be adjusted to boost customers’ favorite brands to the top. 

In the example above, you’ll note that there are 9 factors that can be used, and each is scored (weighted). The search algorithm uses the weighting to put more or less emphasis on an attribute. 

You can drag a slider to the left or right and see a real-time preview of the results. The Search.io algorithm actually performs each boost in the order it’s shown above. Adjusting the order will change the results. 

The best order is the one that drives on-site conversion and customer happiness. It will differ on every site and with every product collection. To find the best combination, customers can perform A/B tests to pick a winner. Small tweaks can make a massive impact in results. This process is how Catch boosted search conversions by more than 40%!

Product recommendations can be similarly configured. Recommendations can be one-to-one (“because you purchased X you may want Y”) or one-to-many (“customers who purchased X also buy Y”). 

There's much more you can accomplish with Search.io for personalization and recommendations — this post just touched on a few of them.

‍Try Search.io for yourself or register for an, ahem, personalized demo with our team to see how it can work for your site.