Everlast Worldwide Inc., a manufacturer, distributor and wholesaler of boxing and fitness equipment, increased e-Commerce conversion rates from 0.15% to more than 1.5% since implementing site search capabilities from SLI Systems in 2014.
A big part of the motivation for improving site search functionality came when the brand noted that only 1% of site traffic was using the search functionality delivered through its previous e-Commerce site experience. Everlast sought ways to optimize site search in order to improve e-Commerce merchandising capabilities and promote products effectively, according to Mike Ebert, E-Commerce Director of Everlast Worldwide.
With the SLI solutions in place, Everlast now has:
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An average of 1.5% to 1.8% of shoppers converting on the site, compared to regular traffic conversions of approximately 1%;
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10% of e-Commerce revenue attributed to site search;
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10% of visitors using and engaging with site search;
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An approximately $10 higher average order value (AOV) from consumers who use site search; and
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Lower bounce rates (31%) for shoppers who use site search, compared with 48% for people who don’t.
“Adapting to a changing marketplace is no small task,” Ebert said in an interview with Retail TouchPoints. “To remain relevant to today’s boxing enthusiasts, we recently identified a major obstacle: our e-Commerce site experience was not matching the high quality of our products. Customers could not easily find the products they searched for — even the simplest items like ‘red boxing gloves’ didn’t serve up any boxing gloves, and of course we have loads of them.”
The site visitors who don’t engage with the search option use Everlast’s navigation shopping experience, which begins at the top category levels of boxing, mixed martial arts and fitness equipment and narrows all the way down to size, color and price.
Everlast’s new search function uses SLI Learning Search technology, which is designed to learn from visitors’ site search activity and click-throughs to deliver the most relevant search results. In addition, the site offers SLI Rich Auto Complete, enabling shoppers to view the items they want in an easy-to-click drop-down menu that comes up when they type the first letter into the search bar. The feature is designed to decrease the time consumers spend searching and increase the number of products they see. A third feature, the SLI Merchandising Console, enables the site to showcase products in a more segmented manner.
Search Analytics Improve Merchandising And Marketing
“Analytics within search also provide us with the knowledge we need to plan successful marketing and merchandising campaigns,” Ebert said. “For instance, with the ability to create banners on results pages and promote specific products, we are now able to merchandise to two separate customer groups — the longtime customer base of boxing enthusiasts, and a new group of customers looking to add boxing to an overall fitness routine.”
Everlast is aiming to take its search knowledge beyond the e-Commerce site and transfer it to another channel: mobile. The boxing equipment retailer expects to launch a mobile app in fall 2016.
“While our retail approach is increasingly focused on e-Commerce, we also cannot ignore the mobile revolution,” Ebert noted. “I just read that in the first quarter of 2016 a whopping 45% of online traffic came from smartphones. Similarly, 50% of Everlast’s traffic comes from tablets and smartphones, so we built our site with responsive design to offer the same great experience to all of our mobile shoppers.”
