Euphorion White Paper -- Why Search When You Can Find?: Advanced Search Solutions Enable Business Success

In recent years, search technology has become an important part of the World-Wide Web as more and more information is stored online. Searching web sites such as online retailers has become especially daunting to potential customers who are now tasked with navigating through complex layers of menus and hierarchies to find what they are looking for.

IDC research states that searching is by far the most common user activity on the web. Already, over a third of all Internet users spend more than 2 hours weekly searching the net. Yet 71% experience great frustration while searching.

Most retail web sites have a local search system of some kind and many potential customers go to search systems first because they find it will save them time. Indeed, over 50% of users turn to search before they depart a web site. Often it is the "last gasp" effort of loyal customers before they leave a web site, sometimes forever.



		It is estimated that poor search performance results in a loss of $50,000,000 per year for retail sites.

Retail search systems, whose sole purpose in life is to increase customer loyalty or convert a visit to a sale are one of the most important elements of a successfull retail web site. Success or failure of the search component in these systems is often the success or failure of the entire system.

The fundamental problem with most business's approach to their search systems are in their lack of clear, economic definitions of success. When they implement and evaluate the performance of their search investment, webmasters rely on the old, soft "satisfaction" measures. At best an effort will be made to gather information from users about how well they like the search feature, or how well the search results met their need.

But there is almost no effort to determine if the search system is meeting a return on investment (ROI) revenue target. There are no hard measures to determine whether the search system is actually finding what shoppers are looking for. Webmasters and site producers blindly stumble along with soft estimates of search systems' effectiveness instead of looking at what shoppers do with the results. Do they put things in their shopping cart? Do they try another search? Do they start to browse? Or do they leave the site altogether.

The result of ignoring the true intent of shoppers is extreme user dissatisfaction and disappointing economic results. Business sites on which search is critical to success are catastrophically impacted by the failure of poorly implemented search systems.

Shoppers get frustrated and leave without fulfilling their intent, i.e. buying what they are looking for. In the best scenario shoppers will contact customer support for assistance, which can dramatically raise the cost of doing business.

It is clear that a surgical scalpel is needed to cut through the clutter of items available on any major online shopping site. However the current crop of search engines are dull knives.

The purpose of search systems is to solve the fundamental problem of effectively matching a user's request with all and only the information required to fulfill the request. However a better definition of the true need for information (and therefore the result of a a successful search experience) is to fulfill the user's intent.

Intent Matching systems incorporate ways for a shopper to clarify their needs, which is often a process of informing them of what is available. Shoppers not only find what they say they are looking for, but also what they did not originally realize they need.

For example, a shopper requests a ski jacket. With a regular text search, they may see skis and ski equipment, and a large variety of jackets - including windbreakers, safari jackets and other unrelated items. Or the shopper may get no results at all because the word "ski" is not included in the jacket description.

With intent matching technology, the search returns ski jackets, plus down jackets, waterproof jackets and all-terrain jackets. If the shopper's unspoken intent was to replace their current jacket with something warmer, lighter weight and more waterproof, the search has given them a more precise list of a wider variety of options.

Secondly and more importantly, match systems help define, measure, and enhance the economic success of searches in the system. Success is measured, not by the relevance of the results, but by the actions taken by the shopper. The process is successful if the shopper acts on one or more items retrieved, i.e. saving an item to their shopping cart.

Creating an environment in which shoppers rapidly and easily convert from visitors to buyers is the most direct and effective way to ensure that the money spent on attracting visitors is fully leveraged. A well-implemented search solution has a huge impact on this conversion. Incorporating intent matching technology turns the search system into an online sales person, immediately taking shoppers to what they really want.

The system can now suggest related products, improving up-sell and cross-sell features of the site. It can even build clarifying choices and personalized recommendations where appropriate. In essence, intent matching with a good search system instills confidence within the shopper that they have found all and only what they need and leads them to act by becoming buyers.

Euphorion's in-depth knowledge of search technology draws on knowledge of the past, research into current trends, and extrapolations of future search uses.

Euphorion has created a search methodology that centers on intent matching. But Euphorion does not sell yet another software search package.

Instead, Euphorion provides strategy and implementation services to improve existing search systems. Euphorion also designs and builds customized search systems based on a variety of search packages, both commercial and open-source.

Euphorion has proven its ability to rapidly and effectively architect durable, advanced search solutions for WeddingChannel.com, Network Appliances, LeadersOnline, the Talent Alliance, and Patagonia. These companies have all benefited from Euphorion's deep understanding of search and optimizing systems to fulfill user intent.

With a growing list of clients across multiple markets, Euphorion is well-qualified to implement superior search solutions that increase your bottom line.