Think about the last time you searched for an item of clothing or an accessory online. If you’re like 93% of digital shoppers, the experience started out in a search box of your favorite retailer or brand site with a few keywords that felt relevant to your desired purchase. Seconds later, a surge of results flooded the browser with in-feed sponsored ads, retargeting ads from social channel interactions on the side bar and organic results. The long journey to purchase begins as you try to navigate thousands of results across channels.
Simply put: search experiences are not enjoyable. Shoppers like finding the perfect dress or sneakers, but searching for them is a cumbersome task. The exhausting process of refining keywords, checking off filters and comparing product descriptions in order to make a purchase has taken the joy of shopping and made it a headache. While the methods of shopping have evolved over the last two decades, the search experience has been pieced together from outdated practices.
Century-Old Practices
The digital age revolutionized where we shop and what we buy (digitally native brands are nothing to ignore), but the ways we search and find products online date back to the 1930s with a few notable advances in search experiences added over the course of the last 60 years. The three major components to our “modern” search experience are: faceted or filtered search, keywords and page rank. Each has its own impact on how consumers navigate digital search experiences.
Faceted or filtered search: The use of filters based on predetermined groupings to organize data and identify relevant information originates from the Colon Classification system developed by an Indian academic in 1933. The intent was to help scientists and librarians find the right information without spending hours (or days) looking for a specific study or book. Faceted search dominates e-commerce sites — the sidebar where shoppers check boxes to attempt to narrow down search is the modern day Colon Classification system.
Keywords: Depending on the source, some say the use of keywords dates back to the development of search engine optimization (SEO) in the early 1990s, but the concept of weighing specific terms based on relevance and term dependency was developed in the 1960s by scientists at Cornell University. Today, the search box across channels requires consumers to know exactly what they are searching because the use of keywords is the preferred way for businesses to classify their product.
PageRank: It’s the only component of today’s search experience that is actually relatively new. Google incorporated PageRank into search results in 2000. PageRank factors in the trustworthiness and the amount of web links directed to a result to determine what shows up in any given search. This remains a factor when using the search box — it’s why SEO, building backlinks and domain authority is a billion-dollar business.
But none of these components consider how humans intuitively shop for clothing or accessories. Each time a consumer decides to purchase something online, they are gambling with the search box. The experience is outdated, and consumers are facing a myriad of challenges whenever they shop.
Two Challenges
Now that we’ve established the origins of today’s search experience, it’s time to understand how it impacts consumers as they shop on digital channels. Remember how I asked you to think about the last time you shopped online? How did you feel when your browser flooded with options? Chances are, you experienced one of the two (or maybe both) challenges and frustrations your shopper feels every time they search: choice overload and “FOBO.”
Choice overload is when it’s impossible to narrow down search for unique shopper needs. A simple search for “little black dress” generates over 30,000 results on Amazon. Try narrowing down that with faceted search by selecting options only for “sleeveless” and “solid” pattern: 8,000 results. Every time you attempt to narrow down the search result, it’s still insurmountable. This is why over 54% of consumers are overwhelmed by the amount of choice available.
Choice overload becomes even more untenable when the average shopper looks at four to five sites before making a purchase; cross-referencing reviews, pricing and user-generated content to decide if that item will fit their body type or style. Shopping for apparel is a highly personal activity, but the experience of digital shopping can isolate a shopper when their needs are properly addressed through outdated search components.
FOBO, or fear of better options, if when a consumer worries, “What if I didn’t find the perfect product?” The consumer cousin of FOMO, the fear of missing out, is the feeling that there is something better available. It paralyzes our ability to make a decision. The rise of digital native brands that are hyper-focused on quality and niche products coupled with legacy brands gives shoppers more options than ever, but it also makes it harder to pick the right item.
If you’re exhausted thinking about how daunting searching online for products, then you should know it is possible to solve all these problems. Delivering a superior search experience that consumers will enjoy requires leveraging conversational search.
Conversational Search
The old way of shopping, when you went into a store and a salesperson would ask a few questions to narrow down options to the most relevant to your needs and requirements, is the model of a consumer-centric experience. That salesperson with all their knowledge and experience could anticipate and understand what you wanted; it was authentic and personal. If you expressed any moment of discomfort with an option, they would select a better option. It allowed shopping to be an enjoyable experience. Conversational search helps fix the human experience that is lacking in the search experience I’ve outlined in this article.
Conversational search is the ultimate way to convert consumers by leveraging AI to optimize every step of their journey. Rather than using keywords or faceted search, the consumer is asked a series of needs-based questions to narrow down choices to five to 10 options, not thousands. Think about that last shopping experience again — let’s use the black dress example. You are asked, “Where will you wear this item?,” and each next question helps reduce the amount of options until you answer the final question, “What color do you prefer?” And there it is: the perfect little black dress that you will wear over and over again.
The AI aspect of conversational search understands and predicts what the customer needs to increase conversion and customer satisfaction. It uses data and insights from other shoppers’ experiences to curate the best options for you. In turn, brands and retailers ascertain valuable insights into their consumer, like product performance, channel efficiency and buyer profiles.
Consumers deserve a better search experience, and AI-driven conversational search is the only way to deliver it.
