Testing different web strategies, whether using AB or multivariate (MVT) testing, has one primary goal – optimizing a web page or digital touchpoint. Finding the optimal version of a webpage for a given audience so that it moves visitors to act, is why we test.

To employ testing effectively, you need to understand the distinction between multivariate testing vs AB testing since they each have their strengths and weaknesses. In this post, we’ll review the methodology, benefits, and limitations of AB versus multivariate testing, present a few use cases, and give you some best practices to get you started with your own testing strategy.

Difference Between Multivariate Testing vs AB Testing

A good shortcut to help remember the difference between MVT and AB testing is the former tests multiple variables on a webpage and the latter compares two (or sometimes more than 2) versions of a single page, but only looks at one element like a headline or image. Here’s a more precise explanation.

What is Multivariate Testing?

With multivariate testing, you’re comparing multiple elements (the variables) on a single page. This allows you to see what combination of page elements works the best. Maybe you’re looking at how the hero image, CTA buttons, and navigation work together to move people further along in the buying journey (for example). In this scenario, each of these elements is a variable (image, button, navigation). 

In a MVT, you’ll pick a few key items on the page, create variations for each, and then mix and match. The goal of the test is to find the most effective combination – the one that moves the needle in some way. Multivariate testing needs more traffic compared to AB testing, but it’s worth the wait to help you uncover the recipe for the perfect page (if that even exists) by seeing how – or if – the ingredients work together.

What is AB Testing?

AB testing, also called “split testing”, compares two or more versions of a web page to see which one works better. The page itself is the variable, with each page identical except for a single element – headline position, hero image, CTA text, etc. By “work” we mean achieves a goal like getting a visitor to watch a video, click on a link, or buy the featured item on the page.

Think of it as a digital face-off between two (or more) contenders. You’re basically asking your site visitors what version they like better without actually asking. AB testing is quick to set up, easy to interpret, and doesn’t need a ton of traffic to get reliable results. It’s perfect for when you want to test big ideas or small tweaks without getting lost in the weeds.

Multivariate Testing vs AB Testing Examples

Testing is important because audiences and markets are different and it’s the closest tool you have to a crystal ball in terms of knowing what resonates with people.

You’ll have your own goals and desired outcomes or actions – retailers want more sales, B2B SaaS companies want more leads, etc. But here are a few examples to add some tangibility to the “what” and “why” of multivariate and AB testing.

Multivariate Testing Examples

• Optimizing Pet Fashion: An ecommerce merchant specializing in clothing for pugs wants to sell more dog-sized Christmas sweaters. They decide to run a multivariate test on a product page. They’re testing three elements: product images (studio shots vs. action shots), color options display (swatches vs. dropdown), and customer review placement (top vs. bottom). With eight combinations to test, they testing which mix will inspire Fido’s parents to click “Add to Cart”.
• Increasing Demo Requests: A sales enablement platform wants to drive more demo requests from qualified leads. They set up a multivariate test on their landing page, tweaking the headline (“Boost Your Sales Team’s Performance” vs. “Close Deals Faster”), hero image (team in action vs. graph showing results), and CTA button text (“Get a Demo” vs. “Speak with An Expert”). As different visitors see different combinations, the marketing team learns which version mix generates the most demo requests.

AB Testing Examples

• Selling Niche Products: A craft retailer is testing some new ecommerce approaches to boost sales. They notice that the “DIY Candle Making Kit” page is getting lots of views, but sales are lukewarm. They decide to AB test the product description. Version A is the current text-heavy breakdown. Version B, a punchy bulleted list with quirky candle puns. Half of the page visitors see wordy, half see witty. Figuring out which one works helps them increase sales for DIY candle kits by 10%. 
• Driving More Trials: A marketing agency’s landing page is getting tons of traffic but few sign-ups. They suspect the page headline is the culprit, so they create two versions. Version A: “Get More From Your Media Budget Today!” Version B: “Save 20 Hours a Week on Automated Targeting – Guaranteed.” They split the traffic to the page to see which headline gets more people clicking the “Get a Custom Quote” button.

How Does Multivariate Testing Work?

To run a multivariate test, begin by identifying the elements you want to test. These are your variables. Let’s say you choose a headline, an image, and a CTA button to see how they play together on the page. For each element, you create a web page with different variations – maybe two headline options, two images, and two button designs.

The test creates every possible combination of these variations. In this case, that’s 2 x 2 x 2 = 8 different versions of your page.

When visitors land on your site, they’re randomly assigned to one of these versions. The testing software tracks how each version performs against your chosen metrics. These could be clicks, sign-ups, purchases, or whatever matters to your business. This is why you need more traffic for a MVT versus an AB test. You need to make sure the results are statistically significant. 

As data accrues, you can see what version wins and how each element contributes to that success. One of the most useful outcomes of an MVT is that it helps you understand the interplay between different page components and their impact on user behavior.

Multivariate Testing Benefits & Limitations

Multivariate testing can help you create incredibly effective web pages, but it’s complex and time consuming. That said, it also offers powerful insights. Here’s a quick snapshot of the benefits and limitations of this testing approach. 

Multivariate Testing Benefits

• Comprehensive insights about how different elements interact on a single page give you a holistic understanding of page performance.
• Evaluates multiple variables simultaneously, potentially saving time.
• Identifies the exact combination of elements that perform best, so you know where to focus your optimization strategy.

Multivariate Testing Limitations

• Requires more traffic than AB tests to achieve statistical significance.
• Can more complex to set up and analyze, especially if you’re new to testing.
• Can take longer since there are more variations being tested.
• Results can be muddled and inconclusive when too many variables are tested.

How Does AB Testing Work?

To run an AB test, start by selecting a single element to test. This is your variable. Let’s say you choose a CTA button. You create two versions of a web page: the original (A) and a variation (B).

Think of it as a digital face-off between two (or more) contenders. You’re basically asking your site visitors what version they like better without actually asking. AB testing is quick to set up and easy to interpret. You’ll also get reliable results with less traffic than you need for MVT.

AB Testing Benefits & Limitations

AB testing comes with its own set of benefits and limitations. It’s a simpler approach overall. Here are some things to consider. 

AB Testing Benefits

• Simple to set up and analyze – it’s accessible even for those new to testing.
• Requires less traffic than MVT to achieve statistical significance.
• Provides clear, actionable results by isolating the impact of a single change.
• Fast to implement – a great solution for rapid iteration and improvement.

AB Testing Limitations

• Tests one variable at a time which means you may miss potential interactions between elements.
• May oversimplify complex user behaviors and preferences.
• You’ll need to run a separate test for every element you’re optimizing.
• You lose the time advantage when you run multiple tests, since each test needs to get enough traffic to be statistically significant.

When to Use Multivariate Vs AB Testing

Choosing between MVT and AB testing depends on your goals, resources, and website traffic. Here’s a quick guide to help you decide:

When to Use Multivariate Testing

MVT is ideal if you have:

• High traffic volumes (think 100,000+ monthly visitors)
• Multiple elements to test simultaneously
• Time to run longer tests
• A desire to understand complex interactions between page elements

When to Use AB Testing

AB testing is your go-to when:

• You’re testing a single, impactful change
• Your site has lower traffic volumes
• You need quick results
• You’re new to testing and want to start simple
• You’re comparing two radically different page designs

Product detail pages (PDPs) do a lot of heavy lifting for your ecommerce website. They need to communicate as much about a specific product as they can, without the benefit of the tactile experience of in-store shopping. 

Since PDPs are often the last stop a customer makes before adding a product to their cart, they can make or break a sale. Different customers will be at different points in their decision-making process when they reach a PDP, so it’s important to have all your bases covered. The information on PDPs should answer every question a potential buyer might have – if your PDPs do this, then they’re doing their job.

What is PDP in Ecommerce?

An ecommerce product detail page is a page on a retail or brand website that’s dedicated to a single product. It’s where shoppers land when they click on an item from a detail page, your home page, a web ad, etc. to find all the specifics about an item. 

A PDP must include many elements to be effective, as we’ll expand on in a minute. This is the page that features the all-powerful “Add to Cart” or “Buy Now” button. It may also include product videos and tutorials, technical specifications, and customer reviews. An effective PDP does the hard work of selling without being too overt. It answers the shopper’s questions, checks all their boxes, and motivates them at the same time.

Product Detail Page Examples

Monetate clients include top retail brands that understand the importance of PDPs for selling products. Here are two examples from retailers who have perfected the art of PDPs using elements like product images, details, personalization, and social proof to motivate customers to click the “Add to Cart” button. 

A Jacket For Sailors 

UK brand Musto, which specializes in high-performance outdoor clothing, makes good use of the PDP for a high-performance, weatherproof sailing jacket. The PDP for their Men’s MPX GORE-TEX Pro Offshore Jacket includes all the necessary product features – is it waterproof? Check. Is it breathable? Check. How much does it cost? Well, the price is right there beneath the product title.  

Source: Musto.com

The page answers questions about the jacket’s performance in extreme conditions, its durability, and specific design features like 3-layer construction, adjustable cuffs, and reflective details. Multiple high-quality images provide a 360-degree view of the jacket and an animated GIF shows how a hood can be accessed from a pouch on the collar.  Other helpful information featured on this page include:

• A prominent “Add to Bag” button
• Fabric composition
• Size guides
• Care Instructions
• Related products via a “People Also Purchased” section

Stylish Boots That Keep Your Feet Dry

Renowned British footwear brand Clarks also makes excellent use of their PDPs. Their PDP the Clarks Nissini waterproof suede boots is designed for fashion-conscious customers who need practical autumn footwear. The page highlights the boot’s main selling point – waterproof suede – and puts all the relevant information about the shoe at the top of the page including color options, available sizes, price, and star ratings. 

Source: Clarks

Shoppers can scroll down a bit to learn more about comfort, silhouette, and details like the boot’s cushioned insole and convenient side zipper. High-quality images showcase the boot from multiple angles and a video demonstrates the boot being worn and in use. Additional information includes:

• Tags within the image the let customers know it’s available in “wide fit” and it’s a new arrival
• A prominent “Add to Cart” button
• A link to a size guide
• A button to check in-store availability
• Shipping prices and in-store pickup/delivery information
• Materials and care instructions
• Product recommendations (e.g., “We Think You May Like…”)

PDP vs PLP

Online shoppers encounter two main types of product-focused pages when they’re moving through a retailer’s website: product listing pages (PLPs) and PDPs. These pages both feature products, but they meet a different need in the buying journey. Here’s a quick comparison of each: 

Product Listing Page (PLP)

A PLP displays multiple products within a category or search results. In a physical store, it would be considered an aisle or department – The clothing, toy, and electronics departments in Target or the bread, meat, and dairy aisles in Trader Joe’s. PLPs on websites and apps give shoppers a broad view of available items via a list of product thumbnails with limited information like product name, price, and colors available. They’re crafted to help customers compare options quickly, then move them along to the PDP. 

Product Detail Page (PDP)

As we’ve covered above, a PDP spotlights a single product, offering in-depth information. It lets the shopper pick the item up (virtually speaking) and get a closer look at it. The comprehensive information provided on PDPs is meant to inform the shopper in a way that helps them decide to buy it. High-quality images, ratings and customer reviews, shipping costs, sizing information, and availability – it all works together to help the customer make an informed decision.

Product Detail Page Components

A great PDP is basically an info dump. It should answer every question a customer could possibly have about a product (within reason) and highlight the “why” of the item – why should I buy these cute boots when I already have a similar pair? Oh, because they’re waterproof suede!

Components to Include in Your PDP: 

• Product images and lots of them: Give shoppers clear, professional photos of the item from every possible angle. Even better – include a video of the item in action (being worn, used, held, etc.) According to RetailDive, 40% of consumers are more likely to purchase from a brand website when video is present.
• Product title: Include a brief, but on-point, description of the product including brand (if applicable) and its main selling point (e.g., Clarks Waterproof Suede Boots)
• Detailed product description: Your product description should be comprehensive, but you can also do a bit of selling here. Include key features, differentiators, and some unique specs or characteristics. 
• Price and availability: Cost and stock status should be front and center. 
• Offers and discounts: Is the item on sale? Is it bundled with a BOGO or other offer? Include this prominently on the PDP. 
• Size, color, type, etc: Let customers see all the variations available for a given item so they can quickly surmise if you have what they want. 
• ‘Add to Cart’ button: Ah yes, the all-important CTA, the raison d’être for your PLP. clear and incredibly obvious – it should get as much air time as your product images.
• Customer reviews and ratings: Social proof elements like star ratings and customer reviews lend credibility to your brand. They also give shoppers confidence when customers share details about fit, style, and quality.
• Related products: Provide a list of suggested products at the bottom of the PLP. Personalized product recommendations can be tied to the customer’s search history and the specific item on the PLP (e.g., if you like this, then you’ll love this).
• Shipping/return information: Make it easy to find delivery details, return policies, and shipping information.
• The specs: Certain products like computers, furniture, sports equipment, and $1000 sailing jackets should include detailed specifications to help shoppers decide if the item will work for them. 
• Labels/callouts for special elements: Adding callouts like “New!” and “Wide Width Available” is an easy way to communicate essential information that makes the product even more compelling for shoppers.

Product Detail Page Best Practices

You’ll need to do more than just throw together the above elements if you want your PDP to work well. Your PDPs need flair – that requires crafting an experience that guides shoppers smoothly towards a purchase. Here are some best practices to make them great:

1. Keep it Skimmable

Not everyone’s going to read every word on your page. Use headers, bullet points, and short paragraphs to make your content easy to skim. Put the important stuff at the top of the page and highlight the key selling points up front. Benefits like “waterproof suede” should be immediately obvious (yes, we love those boots).

2. Tell a Visual Story

High-quality product images are non-negotiable, but you should also consider how the images are presented on the page. Are they easy to view from mobile devices? Do they download quickly? Can shoppers see how the product looks in the color they want? Show products in different settings and in use. If it’s a piece of clothing, show it on a model. For tech products, close-ups of important features can help customers understand how the device works.

3. Build Trust with Social Proof

We have Amazon to thank for the ubiquity of product reviews in the customer shopping journey. Customers expect reviews and ratings which definitely move the needle when it comes to sales. According to one source, nearly all shoppers read reviews and use them to decide whether to buy an item  online. 

4. Be Ready for Mobile

Sales on mobile devices are expected to reach over $128 billion this holiday season alone, a 12.8% increase over 2023. With more people shopping on their phones, your PDPs needs to work well on small screens. Make sure images load quickly and text is easy to read on someone’s iPhone while they’re chasing after their toddler while simultaneously heating up chicken nuggets. 

5. Make Sure the Call-to-Action (CTA) is Obvious 

Your ‘Add to Cart’ must be impossible to miss. Typically, that means placing it to the right or just beneath the product “hero” image, using a high contrast box and/or color so it stands out from the background. Embed the CTA text in the button, make it short and sweet but decisive “Add to Bag” or “Add to Cart” of the always popular “Buy Now”. Consider adding secondary CTAs like ‘Add to Wishlist’ or ‘Compare’ to keep shoppers engaged if they’re not ready to buy.

Consumers love Halloween – to the tune of billions of dollars spent every year getting into the spooky spirit of the season. Americans spent $12.2 billion for Halloween in 2023 – a record-breaker.  This includes a range of items like indoor/outdoor home décor, costumes, and candy (in fact $3.6 billion was spent on candy alone). 

For retailers, Halloween marks the official start of the holiday shopping season. This year, Halloween spending will be about $11.6 billion. That’s big bucks, though it’s down 5% compared to 2023. According to USA Today and other sources, consumers are shopping early for Halloween, spending less than they did last year, and being choosy about what they buy. With such high stakes, you need an effective Halloween marketing approach to reach shoppers and help them find exactly what they’re looking for.

Halloween Marketing Ideas to Boost Ecommerce Sales & Ghost the Competition

Implementing creative Halloween commerce strategies and leveraging the right technology, is the best way to capture a larger share of the Jack-o’-lantern-shaped pie. Here are 7 Halloween ecommerce and marketing ideas to inspire you (and your customers).

1. Craft a Spooky Storefront with Personalized Landing Pages

Focus on the season from the minute someone reaches your website. For example, showcase Halloween-specific items on your home page and landing pages. Personalize this approach with layouts, imagery, and content that match each visitor’s preferences and browsing history (e.g., show some cute ghost towels to match a shower curtain someone is looking at or recommend kids’ costumes to customer who tends to buy preschool toys.)

These types of personalized experiences are powered by sophisticated AI and machine learning algorithms. They analyze user data in real-time, then dynamically adjust page elements to create a unique, engaging Halloween journey for each shopper. Every visitor will have a close-encounter of the Halloween kind that serves up the most relevant products and content.

2. Conjure Up Social Media Engagement

There are many ways to use social media to expand your reach and tap into trending conversations. Live-stream pumpkin carving tutorials or host virtual events to draw people to your store. According to the National Retail Foundation, 45% of consumers consider user generated content (UGC) when purchasing Halloween candy and food and over 60% consider ratings and reviews. 

Shareable, Halloween-themed content drives traffic to your site. Once a customer is on your website, you can pull in social proof elements like real-time popularity messaging, scarcity alerts for hot items, and trending product recommendations. These social elements create FOMO and inspire confidence at the same time by showing people what their fellow Halloween enthusiasts are buying.

3. Entice Shoppers Using a Personal Touch

Build curated product sets that are customized to each person’s preferences and behavior. This looks different based on the product category and focus of your store. A big box store might bundle costume accessories like wigs and makeup kits to match up with a witchy dress. A home goods retailer could bundle things like fake cobwebs, lawn décor, and spooky fairy lights with a main item like a giant inflatable pumpkin. 

This is a great way to upsell and cross-sell items as shoppers browse. Likewise, display personalized product recommendations based on customers’ interests and past purchases. According to NRF data, consumers plan to spend an average of $104 on Halloween items this year. By presenting curated bundles and smart recommendations, you can capture a larger share of that budget.

4. Craft Hauntingly Resonant Buying Journeys 

It’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey – isn’t that how the saying goes? Think about how the entire journey works together (from the customer’s perspective) and connect the dots. This goes beyond creating stand-alone experiences, but focuses on customizing the entire, spooky Halloween ecommerce experience.

This works best when you create customer segments so that you can create specific content and campaigns that work for a given segment. You might have a segment for “early Halloween birds” for example, where you email early-access deals versus another campaign called “Spooktacular Savers” that features exclusive discounts for budget-focused shoppers. 

5. Use Audience Analytics to Unmask Customer Insights 

Audience analytics can help you connect your customers to the right products, but not in a creepy way. Analytics tools, equipped with AI and ML, analyze purchasing data, browsing behavior, and demographic information so you can identify trends and predict what will be in extra-spooky demand.

Use these insights to inform your inventory decisions, so you stay well-stocked on potential bestsellers. For example, Capital One reports that Spider-Man costumes were trending for children last year. Look at your own data to understand what your customers want this year, then create targeted marketing campaigns that speak directly different customer segments (e.g., horror enthusiasts, hot movie characters like Beetlejuice and Coraline, etc.) Test and evaluate campaign strategies, content, and messaging to fine-tune your approach.

6. Offer Treats Without Tricks: Free Shipping and Easy Returns

Entice Halloween shoppers with a treat they can’t resist – free shipping. Test different strategies like offering free shipping on orders over a certain threshold or for a limited time. Think about the process of costume shopping from the customer’s perspective. It can be difficult to know what will fit, so make costume returns hassle-free. A flexible return policy can ease shoppers’ minds about trying new looks or sizes.

Not everyone starts their Halloween shopping early, so consider extending these offers to last-minute shoppers. By guaranteeing fast, free shipping close to Halloween, you’ll capture the 11th hour shoppers who need their items quickly, potentially boosting your late-season sales significantly.

7. Reach Those Halloween Early Birds 

We leave you with a tip for next year. While Halloween shopping may not yet be a year-round activity, it’s happening earlier and earlier, with one source calling it “Summerween.” Capitalize on the dedication of Halloween super-fans and early shoppers by creating a “Halloween Headquarters” section on your site that’s always accessible, featuring evergreen spooky products and early access to seasonal items.

Implement a loyalty program for these enthusiasts, offering points for year-round Halloween purchases redeemable during the peak season. This approach will appeal to die-hard fans while maximizing your Halloween revenue stream.

This keeps you top-of-mind with your most enthusiastic Halloween-loving customers and lets you offload your Halloween inventory throughout the year. This also makes you more likely to capture the early-bird shoppers, those people who start shopping for Halloween well before summer has ended.

It’s not unusual for online shoppers to face an overwhelming amount of choices when searching for products. Someone plugging in a search for a laptop or Bluetooth speaker might be confronted with hundreds of options. Narrowing down the search results can be difficult – even impossible – without a tool like faceted search. 

Faceted search lets shoppers refine results based on specific attributes like price, brand, size, color, shape – anything relevant. It turns a potentially frustrating shopping experience into one that’s much more intuitive and easier.

What is Faceted Search?

Faceted search is a search technology that enables users to filter and organize large lists of products from your catalog. Customers can narrow down their search results using attributes like size, color, price, and brand. Faceted search acts like a digital filing system for products – it’s a way to bucket their product results based on multiple criteria. 

Faceted search isn’t quite the same thing as a faceted search engine. The former is what consumers experience when they use filters to narrow down their search results. The latter is the technology behind this filtering system. 

The feature gives your customers an easy way to organize and display product results in a way that’s easy understand. It removes the overwhelm. Faceted search and navigation work together to create a smooth browsing experience. 

Faceted Search Examples

Here are some faceted search examples for different types of ecommerce searches: 

1. Jane’s Industrial Equipment Search

Jane, a procurement manager, needs new conveyor belts for her factory. On an industrial equipment site, she uses faceted search to filter by product type (conveyor belts), material (rubber), length (50-100 feet), and load capacity (1000-2000 lbs). This narrows her options to a few suitable choices in her search results and guides her to exactly the products she wants.  

2. Marta’s Budget-Friendly Smartphone

Marta needs a new smartphone but has a tight budget. She uses faceted search on an electronics marketplace to filter by price range ($200-$300), brand (Samsung and LG), and screen size (5.5-6 inches). This reduces her results from hundreds of potential phones to a few dozen affordable options that meet her criteria.

3. Ollie’s Nut-Free Snack Search

Ollie has severe nut allergies. He uses a grocery store’s website with faceted search to filter products by dietary restrictions (nut-free) and product type (snacks). This helps him quickly find safe, affordable snack options without spending hours reading labels in-store. It also shows him items he may not have known about.

Search Facets vs Filters

The terms “facets” and “filters” are often used interchangeably. That makes sense since they both work to make product search much easier for customers by narrowing down results. But they’re not quite the same. Let’s break them down to understand how they work in ecommerce search.

Search Filters

• Filters are broad and basic. They’re like the departments in a physical store, divided broadly by category – Women’s Clothes, Home Goods, Men’s Shoes, etc. You pick one filter at a time and each choice might leave you with hundreds of items. It’s a start, but it can still leave you sifting through pages of results trying to find exactly what you want.

Search Facets

• Facets are more precise and they let you combine multiple criteria at once.  Once you’ve entered the Men’s Shoes department in our metaphorical physical store, you’ll head over to “running shoes” then pinpoint a few by color (blue, white, etc.). Facets do this for you, letting you drill down by pinpointing size, color, price range, brand, etc. Combining multiple facets is how shoppers narrow down their search results to those items that they’re most interested in buying. It leaves them with a couple dozen shoe choices versus hundreds.

How to Implement Faceted Search

Implementing faceted search requires thoughtful integration with your existing ecommerce platform. Start by analyzing your product data and identifying key attributes that will serve as facets. You’ll need to create a system to index this data, making it searchable. 

Many ecommerce platforms offer built-in tools or integrations for faceted search implementation. Remember, faceted search isn’t a one-time setup. You should routinely analyze customer behavior and search patterns then refine and improve your facets based on how needs and behaviors change.

Faceted Search Best Practices

When implementing facets, visualize the search experience from your customer’s perspective, then keep the following best practices in mind:

• Choose relevant facets: Pick attributes that are the most meaningful for your retail category and your customers. For example, Price, condition, and display type makes sense for laptops while Brand, Carrier, and Model make sense for “cell phones.” Think about how your customers search and start there. 
• Keep it simple: Don’t overwhelm users with too many options. Stick to the most important facets. You can always add more later based on user behavior.
• Use clear labels: Make sure your facet labels are easy to understand. Avoid jargon or technical terms that might confuse shoppers.
• Allow multiple selections: Let users choose more than one option within a facet (e.g., multiple colors, sizes, etc.) This gives them more control over their search results.
• Show the number of results: Display how many items match each facet selection. This helps users see that they’re getting closer to finding what they need.
• Create a mobile facet strategy: Mobile screens get crowded quickly, so facets should be chosen with extreme care. Select the most popular facets to start with and consider using expandable menus to save space on smaller screens.

Searching for information on a company’s website should be a simple process – a visitor enters a query or keyword into a search tool and the system retrieves (relevant) results. But a lot can go wrong after a user hits “search”. Being bombarded with irrelevant results, getting no results at all, encountering outdated information – these are roadblocks that prevent customers from finding information and products quickly.  

Intelligent search engines alleviate many of these issues by using AI to help the system understand the intent of a user’s search query. Machine learning algorithms rank content more accurately, then produce search results that are relevant based on the context of the searcher.  There are a few different processes that work together to make an intelligent search engine smarter than a traditional one. This guide is meant to help you understand how intelligent search works and, importantly, how it differs from traditional search.

What is Intelligent Search?

Intelligent search combines several AI technologies that work together to enhance search capabilities and improve search results. Smart search engines like Google combine machine learning, natural language processing (NLP), user data, and search context (location, recent searches, etc.) to retrieve tailored results for the searcher.

This personalized approach to search adds context and intent into the search process, allowing users to search for information in a way that’s more natural to them and more accurate than keyword search alone. Advanced algorithms in smart search tools leverage machine learning to rank web pages based on relevance and quality. Intelligent search can handle queries that are ambiguous, misspelled, and complex, and still produce accurate, relevant, and personalized results.

How Does Intelligent Search Work?

Intelligent search uses leveraging AI and machine learning to understand user intent and context. Here’s a breakdown of the features involved in making it work:

• Better interpretation: NLP interprets complex, conversational queries. This is how the intelligent search engine can go beyond simple keyword matching and better understand user intent. It can process natural language queries, understanding them as a human would.
• User context: These tools use entity recognition to identify specific people, places, or things in queries, a process known as Named Entity Recognition (NER). This is a component of NLP. The system also learns from user interactions to provide personalized results.
• Advanced ranking: Advanced indexing and knowledge graphs analyze content so that it can be ranked appropriately. This is a data-heavy process which helps the search engine understand user behavior and patterns so that ranking is matched to learned patterns of user behavior. Vector search may also be used to measure similarity between queries and documents.
• Contextual understanding: Semantic analysis is used to understand relationships between words and concepts. This understanding allows the search engine to serve up more comprehensive and appropriate answers compared with old-school keyword search.
• Improved relevance: Relevance scoring algorithms rank information accurately, continuously learning and improving based on user feedback and interactions.
• Information integration: Intelligent search can integrate with multiple data sources and formats, providing a unified search experience across various platforms and databases.
• Simplification and refinement: Features like faceted and filtered search, query suggestions, and auto-completion further refine the search process and help users find information quickly.

Examples of Intelligent Search in Action

Intelligent search focuses on reducing irrelevant information, understanding the context of a user and their search, and smarter ranking of content which equals more relevant results. Here are three examples of what that looks like from the searcher’s perspective: 

1. Dealing with Limited Information

A shopper searches for “light summer dress”. The search engine understands this could mean lightweight fabric or light in color and produces a selection of pastel-colored dresses in fabrics like cotton, linen, and bamboo. It uses the shopper’s browsing behavior and past purchases to inform the results it produces, displaying sizes and styles they’ve shown interest in. Smart filters allow the shopper to drill down based on color, dress length, and brand. 

2. Understanding Context  

A customer types “seqwuin collar” into an online pet supply store’s search bar. Despite the typo, the system recognizes the misspelling of the word “sequin”. Since this customer has purchased supplies for their tiny dog in the past, the search engine  presents a range of style variations and collar options all aimed at small dogs. Someone’s pooch is going to look fabulous. 

3. Recognizing Entities

A customer service rep searches “return policy electronics over 30 days.” The system understands that this is an employee and pulls information from the company intranet. In this case, a word document that contains the specific policy for electronics returns beyond the standard 30-day window. The user also sees suggestions for related information like exceptions, required documentation, and refund processing times.

Intelligent Search vs. Traditional Search

Traditional search engines are simply not up to the task of producing the kind of relevant and customized results that consumers have come to expect. Here is a side-by-side comparison of the old versus the new:

Traditional Search – Keywords Rule

• Traditional search engines look for content that matches the keywords or phrases exactly as entered (or as closely as possible). Type in “wild bird supplies in Springfield” and you’ll get results that match those exact words – but you might miss out on that hidden birding boutique term “wild” on their website. Traditional search uses a one-size-fits-all approach, delivering the same results to all users without nuance or personalization. 

Intelligent Search – Context Rules

• Intelligent search uses AI to understand what the intent of your search – what you’re really looking for – even if your query isn’t perfect. Type in “wild bird supplies in Springfield” and you’ll get results for nearby stores that sell birdseed and supplies. Results may also include stores that don’t have the phrase “wild bird” anywhere on their website and will be ranked based on your specific context (e.g., location, past search behavior, etc.)  

Benefits of Intelligent Search 

By now we hope we’ve made it clear that intelligent search is an upgrade from the keyword-driven search engines of yore. It offers many benefits that go beyond simply finding information more quickly. Here are some advantages to present to your CEO when making the case for investing in a smarter site search experience. Intelligent search is better than traditional search because it:

1. Makes Search Easier

No one (but especially shoppers) likes sifting through pages of irrelevant and overwhelming results. Smart search engines solve this problem by using AI and machine learning to find the most relevant content and products based on user data. These tools analyze search patterns, user behavior, and contextual clues to deliver precise results, often anticipating user needs before they’re even expressed. Their advanced ML algorithms them make sure the most relevant results are presented to the searcher.

2. Gets People in a Buying Mood

Window shopping is great, but sales are better. Intelligent search showcases the right products based on the context of the shopper and where they’re at in their unique buying journey. By understanding user intent and past behavior, a smart search tool can surface items a shopper is more likely to purchase, even if they’re not explicitly searching for them. This subtle nudge can significantly boost conversion rates.

3. Supports Your Employees

Intelligent search is a powerful tool for employees, allowing them to quickly find relevant documents, data, and resources. It learns from each interaction, which means it gets better as it ingests more data. Results get even more useful over time and employees find the information they need to do their jobs with less time spent digging through files and switching applications in the eternal quest to find the right answer.

4. Uncovers Useful Insights

Your search data is a puzzle waiting to be solved. By examining search patterns and user interactions, intelligent search reveals trends, preferences, and pain points you might have missed. These insights can drive important business decisions and processes like product development, marketing plans, and customer service approaches. 

5. Scratches That Personalization Itch

Customers want to be recognized no matter where they happen to be in their buying journey – or what touchpoint/device they’re using. Intelligent search remembers user preferences, understands context, and adapts accordingly. Smart search can adjust to a returning customer looking for their favorite brand or a first-time visitor exploring your site. Each search experience becomes uniquely relevant to the searcher.

The era of uniform, one-size-fits-all marketing is gone. Recent research from Salesforce and PwC highlight how consumer expectations for relevant, personalized experiences are high. Salesforce reports that over 70% of consumers expect personalized interactions from companies, while PwC notes that half of consumers have no problem sharing some data with companies in exchange for personalized services and experiences.

Individualization in marketing, also called 1-to-1 personalization, is increasingly becoming the best way to meet this expectation. Understanding what individualized marketing is, how it differs from personalized marketing, and the benefits it offers can help you craft an individualized marketing approach that keeps your customers happy.

What is Individualized Marketing?

Individualized marketing is a marketing approach that drills down to the specific customer. It’s a way to create hyper-personalized experiences. It relies on technology that uses advanced data analysis and AI to understand each customer’s specific preferences and behaviors. Using this data, a personalization platform or system can tailor content, offers, and interactions across different customer touchpoints and channels. 

Each person feels truly understood along a multi-faceted and increasingly complex buying journey. This is much more thorough than using someone’s name in an email or sending them a shopping cart reminder. Individualized marketing gives you a way to anticipate needs and respond in real-time, creating a one-on-one conversation at scale.

Individualized Marketing Examples

Here are some examples of what individualized marketing looks like across different buying journeys:

1. A Coffee Journey Tailored for Mark

Mark loves his morning brew. His favorite coffee brand tracks his purchases and browsing history. They notice he’s been exploring new roasts. When Mark visits their site, he sees personalized recommendations for bold, single-origin beans. They even offer a customized subscription based on his taste preferences.

2. Sarah’s Eco-Friendly Jeans

Sarah cares about sustainability. Her go-to clothing retailer remembers this. When Sarah visits their website, she sees product recommendations for eco-friendly denim and links to articles about the brand’s sustainable practices. They also send her email updates about their green initiatives. When Sarah visits a physical store, the staff looks up her account at checkout and can apply rewards to her purchase. 

3. Tom’s Fitness Journey, Supported by Tech

Tom’s smartwatch brand knows his workout habits. They use this data to offer personalized training plans and nutrition advice. When Tom browses their app, he sees product recommendations for gear tailored to his favorite activities. They even adjust his motivational notifications based on his typical active hours.

4. Emma’s Curated Bookshelf

Emma’s online bookstore remembers every page she turns. They analyze her reading habits and preferences. Now, Emma receives curated book lists that match her tastes. The store adjusts its homepage to showcase new releases from her top authors and in her favorite genres.

Difference Between Personalized and Individualized Marketing

Personalization and individualization are both tailored marketing strategies, but they’re not identical. Here’s a breakdown of each to help clarify what differentiates the two approaches: 

• Personalized Marketing – A segment-focused approach that relies on customer data to create tailored messages for specific segments. “Millennials in urban areas” or “frequent buyers of organic products” are examples of segments or groups of like-minded audiences. It’s a couple of steps up from mass marketing, but still relies on broader customer groups.
• Individualized Marketing – Think of individualized marketing as next-level personalization. It looks at each individual customer by using advanced AI and real-time data analysis. It recognizes that Sarah, a vegan athlete, is shopping for running shoes and offers her eco-friendly sneaker options. Or it could adjust Arpad’s music streaming homepage based on his current mood and location. It adapts to different touchpoints and channels, making each customer experience relevant and unique. 

Individualized Marketing Benefits

Individualized marketing helps you meet rising customer expectations about the kind of high-quality digital shopping experiences people crave. Here are some of the perks of getting personal:

1. Boosts Customer Loyalty

Relevant experiences create stronger connections with customers. Shoppers that feel understood and valued tend to come back. That’s a recipe for strong brand loyalty and relationship building. 

2. Increases Conversion Rates

It makes sense that products and content that aligns with a shopper’s preferences, make them more likely to buy. Just ask Nespresso. They used Monetate’s Product Finder to create an interactive coffee quiz that informed personalized product recommendations for each customer. This resulted in an 18% increase in conversion rate for recommended coffees. 

3. Optimizes Marketing Spend

Perhaps one of the biggest benefits of individualized marketing over broader approaches like mass marketing and personalized marketing is that it allows for more precise ad targeting. You can focus your ad dollars on the messaging, channels, and audiences that yield the best response. It’s an efficiency that can significantly improve ROI.

4. Enhances Data Utilization

Individualization makes the most of your customer data. It turns information into actionable insights. Every interaction becomes an opportunity to learn and improve future engagements.

5. Drives Innovation

As you gather more detailed customer insights, you can spot trends early. This data can inform important strategic approaches for your business. Product development, service improvements, marketing approaches, and merchandising strategies become much more proactive. You’re no longer just reacting to customer needs – you’re anticipating them.

 

Unifying commerce channels into a single commerce journey should be the highest priority of every retailer and brand. Per Salesforce’s 2024 State of the Connected Customer report, about three-quarters of the over 14,000 customers they surveyed said they “expect to do anything online that they can do in-person or by phone.” And digital engagement is significant across all age groups.  

Over half of those surveyed said they prefer to engage digitally with brands, with Millennials the most likely to say this at 65%, followed by Gen Z at 61%. More than half of Gen X respondents said they prefer to engage digitally as did a healthy share of Boomers (nearly 40%). 

It’s clear that consumers are comfortable conducting business via digital channels, incorporating the internet into buying journeys that routinely meander from physical to digital and back to physical spaces. This guide is a roadmap for helping you understand unified commerce and how it differs from its close cousin, omnichannel commerce. We’ve included some benefits of this approach and important steps on how to create a unified commerce strategy.

What is Unified Commerce?

Unified commerce is the process of combining all your sales channels, data, and backend systems into one unified commerce ecosystem. Unified ecommerce creates a fluid shopping experience that goes beyond offering customers multiple ways to shop, but instead looks at the multi-faceted shopping journey as a single experience. 

It connects your commerce infrastructure in a way that allows customers to start their journey on one channel and finish on another without hiccups. It’s the next step after omnichannel (we’ll explain why in a minute). Unified commerce banishes silos. When done right, shopping feels consistent and personal for each customer, regardless of where they start or end their buying journey.

Unified Commerce Examples

Shopping journeys vary from customer to customer and category to category. They also shift based on the consumer demographic and other factors like season and consumer type (B2B vs. B2C). Here are a few unified commerce examples to help illustrate how a successful unified commerce journey might look:

1. Scoring a Perfect Social Media Fashion Find 

Clarice spots a jacket she loves on TikTok. She taps to view product details and saves it to her wish list. Later, she visits the brand’s website where she finds it easily and adds it to her shopping cart. She doesn’t buy it yet, but the next day she receives a personalized email with a coupon code for free shipping. This inspires her to return to the website and complete her purchase of the jacket. 

2. Ordering Office Supplies on the Go

While commuting to work via bus, Brad, browses an office supply retailer’s app. He adds items to his cart, but doesn’t complete the purchase since he needs approval from his manager. Once at work, Brad adds a few more items to his order (after checking in with his team), finalizes the order, and selects same-day delivery. The app notifies staff at the closest retail store. They fulfill the order and deliver it to the business. Quick, easy, done.

3. Buying Groceries for The Family 

Several members of the Smith family add groceries to their weekly order via multiple touchpoints and devices including the store’s mobile app, the website, and a voice assistant. Once the order is ready, Mom completes it on her computer and schedules pickup for later that evening. Dad gets a text via the mobile app that the order is ready and picks it up curbside on his way home from work.

Omnichannel Vs. Unified Commerce

The above examples make it clear that the way people shop has changed significantly compared to just a few years ago. Each journey is slightly different too, but all are easy to complete and seamless from the customer’s perspective. These kinds of unified buying journeys can only happen when retailers integrate back-end systems like inventory management, CRM, and order fulfillment – moving from an omnichannel to a unified ecommerce approach. There are distinct differences between the two which are important to clarify:

Omnichannel = Multiple Channels, Separate Systems

• Omnichannel commerce includes various ways to shop – both online and off. It may include your website and mobile app, but also your physical stores, social media shops, online marketplaces, the local flea market, etc. With omnichannel, some channels may operate independently which means that data can’t flow between them. Your in-store inventory may not sync with your online inventory or what’s available at the local farmer’s market. 

Unified Commerce = One Integrated Platform

• Unified commerce removes the silos from the commerce picture by connecting channels and back-end systems into a single platform. Inventory, customer data, and transactions can then sync in real-time across every touchpoint your customers use to shop. The result is a single connected shopping journey with channels that talk to each other and data that’s updated in real time. Customers can start shopping from any channel or device that’s convenient and receive personalization and recognition no matter how they shop.

Key Benefits of Unified Ecommerce

Unified commerce is part strategy and part technology. It’s an all-in approach to transforming how you operate, that offers some tremendous benefits including that it:

1. Meets Customers Where They Are

Shoppers can manifest their journey in the way that works best for them. Maybe they’ll start on their favorite social media platform, pop over to your website, and finish in-store or maybe they’ll do most of their browsing and buying from your website, but schedule the order for curbside pickup. Regardless of the specifics, unified commerce is one smooth experience that removes frustrating roadblocks and gaps between channels. 

2. Inspires People to Stick Around

When shopping is easy and personalized, customers remain happy. They’re more likely to complete their purchase, make repeat purchases, and recommend you to their bestie. Unified commerce creates the kind of customer-pleasing experience that builds lasting relationships.

3. Oils All the Moving Parts

As we’ve touched on above unified commerce removes the pesky data silos that make it impossible for people to switch from channel to channel. It connects your inventory, customer info, and sales data so all the different parts of your ecosystem are talking to each other. Access to real-time data including inventory updates allows for better inventory management, more accurate forecasting, and gives you the ability to adapt quickly to change. 

4. Supports Smarter Decisions

With all your data in one place, you get a clear picture of your business. You can spot trends and understand what customers need in a given season (or moment). This equals more informed decisions across every department. You can build effective strategies around things like merchandising, messaging, and inventory management. 

5. Allows You to Get Personal

Unified commerce gives you a 360-degree view of each shopper’s journey. This deep understanding of your customers lets you personalize the buying journey in ways that resonate for every customer and segment. Offer tailored recommendations, personalize offers, target ads, and get to know what people need. Customers want to be recognized no matter what real or virtual door they enter – unified commerce makes this possible. 

Implementing a Unified Commerce Strategy

Unifying your commerce infrastructure is an all-in approach that requires careful planning and commitment across your entire organization. Here are some steps to walk you through what’s involved:

Step 1: Assess Your Current Setup

Take stock of where you’re at right now in terms of your channels, technology, and infrastructure. Look to identify gaps and pain points (from the customer’s perspective). Mapping out the customer journey can help here since it sets the foundation for what you need to support  an effective unified commerce strategy.

Step 2: Choose Your Technology and Integrate

Investigate unified commerce solutions and select a platform that can integrate all your sales channels and back-end systems. Look for features like real-time data synchronization, AI and machine learning to fully leverage that data, and robust integration tools and API features that allow you to easily connect third-party platforms into a single ecosystem. Connecting systems including inventory management, CRM, order fulfillment, accounting is necessary because it’s what unifies the shopping journey, allowing data to flow seamlessly between all parts of your business.

Step 3: Train Your Team

Remember how we said unified commerce is an all-in approach? That means you’ll need to inform, train, and support managers and staff. Everyone should understand the new system and approach, including how it impacts their roles.  Comprehensive training and top-down support from executives work together to facilitate smooth adoption across your organization.

Step 5: Test and Refine

Before full rollout, test your unified system thoroughly. Start with a pilot program, gather feedback, and make necessary adjustments. 

Step 6: Monitor and Optimize

Once launched, keep a close eye on performance metrics. Review data and analytics to glean insights that let you fine-tune your strategy. Change is the only constant, as the saying goes. Continuously revisiting your unified commerce approach – and the technology that powers it – is what keeps things relevant and systems humming along smoothly.

Numbers are powerful, particularly when it comes to understanding how well your website connects with customers – or if it connects at all. Certain website metrics like unique visitor count, total visits, and pageviews form the foundation for this understanding. 

Among the many metrics available, “unique visitors” stands out as a key performance indicator, helping you gauge how effective your website is at reaching your customers and keeping them engaged. Analyzing your unique visitors can uncork the mysteries of your website by providing you with some very interesting intel that we’ll review (via specific examples) shortly.

What is a Unique Visitor?

A unique visitor is a user who accesses your website within a specific timeframe – month, quarter, year, or any other period you specify. They’re counted only once within this timeframe, even if they return multiple times. The “unique visitor” metric is like a digital headcount that gives you a baseline of the number of people who drop by your website each month or quarter or year. 

If someone visits your site multiple times in a day, week, or month, they’re still tallied as one unique visitor. Use the unique visitor metric to measure your website’s reach and popularity. It’s also a helpful measure of what content and features are working (or not) based on how many visitors are engaging with the different sections of your site. 

Examples of a Unique Visitor

Here are a few examples of how the unique visitor metric can help you better understand website performance: 

• New customer engagement: A new customer discovers your fashion brand’s website through a Facebook ad. They visit the site, browse several pages, and leave. Later that day, they return to check prices and add a few items to their shopping cart. The next morning, they return and complete their purchase. Despite three separate visits, this new customer counts as one unique visitor for that month.
• Weekly visitor insights: A tech brand’s website sees 1,000 visits in a week. However, their analytics show only 750 unique visitors. This means some users returned multiple times. The difference helps the brand understand user engagement and the effectiveness of their content in encouraging repeat visits.
• Conversion rate analysis: An online-only DTC sustainable goods retailer had 10,000 unique visitors last month. Of these, 300 made purchases. They can use this information to determine their conversion rate for the month (Total Purchases / Unique Visitors X 100 = Conversion Rate). In this case, the website had a 3% conversion rate from unique visitors to buyers, a number that helps the brand understand how well their website turns new visitors into customers.

Difference Between a Unique Visitor and a Visitor

It’s common to use the terms “visitor” and and “unique visitor” interchangeably, but they’re not the same metric. Understanding the difference allows you to interpret how well your website turns first-time visitors into repeat customers. Let’s break it down:

Unique Visitors

• Unique visitors represent individual users who access your site within a specific timeframe. Each person counts only once, regardless of how often they return. 

Visitors

• The Visitors metric includes every visit to your site, including repeat visits from the same user. This number is always equal to or higher than unique visitors. For example, if your site receives 1,000 visits in a week but only shows 750 unique visitors, it means some users are returning multiple times.

How to Identify and Calculate a Unique Visitor

You’ll need a website analytics and tracking platform to identify unique visitors and get insights from visitor activity. Most analytics tools use IP addresses and cookies to identify individual users. When someone visits your site, they get a unique identifier which can be a cookie, registration ID, unique user ID, or other identifier.  

Subsequent visits from the same device or unique registration ID don’t count as new visitors. Your analytics tool of choice calculates the total unique visitors by tallying these distinct identifiers for whatever timeframe you specify. While the method isn’t perfect since people often use different devices to access a website, clear cookies, or browse in “incognito mode”, it remains a dependable way to track and count unique visitors.

Unique Visitors vs. Total Visits vs. Pageviews

Unique visitors, total visits, and pageviews are three metrics that, together, give you a good sense of your website’s baseline performance. Is it reaching people? How many people? Are they returning? What content are they viewing? Let’s break them down:

Unique Visitors

• To reiterate, the “unique visitors” metrics refers to  the number of distinct individuals visiting your site in a given timeframe. Each person counts only once, no matter how often they return.

Total Visits

• This metric includes every visit to your website, including repeat visits (e.g., people who have returned within the timeframe you’re tracking). If a user visits ten times in a month, that’s ten visits. It’s always equal to or higher than unique visitors.

Pageviews

• Pageviews tally how many times your web pages are viewed. One visit can include multiple pageviews if a user browses several pages. It’s a good place to start when you’re trying to understand the popularity of website elements and content (e.g., product pages, category pages, blog posts, etc.) 

These metrics offer valuable insights about your site’s reach, return visits, and overall engagement. Use them to fine-tune your content strategy, discover friction points on your website, and better understand how your customers navigate the buying journey.

The digital buying experience typically starts out with a search – on Google or a marketplace like Amazon or on a brand’s website. But regardless of where a customer begins the buying journey, they expect the search function to be easy to use and produce relevant results.  

Many ecommerce sites fall short at meeting these very straightforward and understandable expectations. A study by Baymard found that 42% of ecommerce sites fail to achieve “acceptable ecommerce search UX performance.” Baymard looked at various different query types when evaluating UX performance including exact product names, thematic search queries (e.g., printers, jackets, etc.) and abbreviations/symbols. 

This widespread shortcoming presents a major opportunity for online retailers who can dramatically improve product discovery and boost shopper engagement simply by optimizing their site search functionality. Below, we explore five key strategies to turn your ecommerce site search engine into the effective – and efficient – product search tool that your customers demand.

Tips to Improve Your Site Search Results

In the context of great UX, site search must go beyond simple keyword-matching functionality. It’s a capability that’s baked into how we use the internet and is the starting point to finding information or products or answers when someone goes online. 

From a shopper’s perspective, that translates to relevant and accurate search results, an easy-to-find (and use) search box, and search functionality that works well across devices, channels, and screen sizes.  

Here are five tips that will make your site search results smarter, more intuitive, and incredibly relevant for shoppers:

1. Get AI and ML Involved for More Relevancy

AI and subsets of AI like machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) dramatically improve site search in a few important ways including:

• They enable personalized results: AI uses data and machine learning to personalize search results and improve these results over time. ML algorithms increasingly get better at matching the right products with a specific searcher which means they save shoppers time and the results they produce are more likely to resonate.
• The can decipher search intent: NLP allows the search engine to match results to user intent even when a search query doesn’t exactly match a product name or description in your catalog. For example, someone searching for “fall decor” on a home goods website may get a list of autumnal-themed products (glass pumpkins, felt wreaths, Thanksgiving table decorations, etc.)
• They add semantic enrichment: This feature automatically adds synonyms, adjusts for plurality, and normalizes common attributes like colors and measurements. It helps shoppers find what they’re looking for even if they use different terms than what’s in your product catalog (e.g., a search for “sofa” would also return results for “couch.”)
• They adapt in real-time: ML analyzes in-session behavior like clicks or queries to refine results based on real-time behavioral data. For example, if a shopper clicks on several blue items after searching for “shirts,” the engine might prioritize blue shirts in subsequent searches.
• They prioritize results based on the user: By leveraging historical customer data and current browsing patterns, the search engine can prioritize results based on an individual’s search behavior and preferences. A frequent purchaser of organic products might see those items ranked higher in their search results.

2. Filter and Refine Results with Faceted Search 

Faceted search is a great way to boost ecommerce ROI because it allows shoppers to limit results to specific criteria or product attributes. Facets and filters are valuable when you have a large product catalog (a.k.a., Amazon, Target, etc.). It’s also a boon to mobile searchers because it focuses results on what matters to the searcher versus forcing shoppers to scroll through a bottomless list of products.  

You can set facets to what makes sense for you and your customers – size, product type, color, season, brand, etc. Start by identifying the product attributes and categories that matter most to your customers and incorporate them into your facet strategy. 

3. Make Sure Search is Mobile Ready 

Site search needs to keep mobile shoppers engaged and happy. You’re dealing with much smaller screens and the likelihood of many more distractions including notifications, texts, and calls. Start by making the search bar prominent and easily accessible on every page. 

Features like auto-suggest speed up query input on smaller screens, reduce errors, and make it easy to narrow down the list of products in the search results. Combine this with facets and filters and you’re well on your way to getting the right products in front of customers quickly. You can also use visual elements to enhance UX on mobile. For example, display clear, tappable product images in search results and use a high level of contrast for the search bar. 

4. Personalized Product Recommendations Makes Search Easier

Personalized product recommendations draw from real-time and historical data to display personalized recommendations which can include trending or best-selling items alongside search results. They work by analyzing search patterns, past buying behavior, and in-session behavior to personalize recommendations for each visitor. Advanced NLP makes this approach even more effective since it allows shoppers to search for products even if they don’t know how to spell something or don’t know exactly what they want. 

Relevant suggestions can be presented as a list or bundled into groups (e.g., “Complete the Look” for fashion or “Frequently Bought Together” for categories like technology and home improvement). This may inspire your customers to purchase items they weren’t initially considering and can be an effective way to increase average order value. 

5. Implement Robust Error Handling and “No Results” Strategies

Even the best search engines sometimes fail to produce results, leading to the dreaded “no results” pages or a list of irrelevant products that can be incredibly frustrating for shoppers. To reduce or eliminate the possibility of “no results” pages, a site search best practice is to make sure your site search tool can handle typos and misspellings intelligently. 

In place of a “no results page,” consider displaying related categories, popular products, or search suggestions to keep users engaged. Think of every query as an opportunity to learn about a customer’s needs and preferences. Analyze “no results” searches regularly to identify gaps in your product catalog or potential improvements in your search algorithm.

B2B buyers and sellers have embraced the benefits of ecommerce, with B2B ecommercxe sales surging to $2.1 trillion last year, up 17% from 2022. This growth reflects a fundamental change in a B2B buying journey that once occurred primarily offline.  

Now B2B buyers, many of whom are millennials, are turning to digital channels to research and purchase goods and services. These digitally-savvy buyers expect the same kind of intuitive digital experiences they enjoy from the consumer ecommerce experiences they get with top digital marketplaces like Amazon, ebay and Walmart. But B2B ecommerce is complex. According to McKinsey, buyers use, on average, ten channels to interact with suppliers. They blend digital and traditional touchpoints across this very complex B2B buying their journey – a journey that typically involves buying groups of about 6 to 10 people.  

For B2B sellers, the bare minimum for establishing an ecommerce presence involves launching or updating your online storefront. But to meet digitally-savvy buyers, you need a B2B ecommerce software platform that can connect the digital buying ecosystem so that it’s as seamless as it is personalized and relevant.

What is B2B Ecommerce?

B2B ecommerce is the online sale of products or services between businesses. It includes your website as the primary selling channel. It can also include any online touchpoint that B2B buyers use to research, source, and purchase products. According to Gartner, top B2B ecommerce channels include, in this order: the supplier’s website, social media platforms, search engines, interactive tools (provided by the supplier), and customer portals.

Having the right B2B ecommerce software is an important part of managing the digital buying journey because it connects these online touchpoints together. It may also handle inventory and order management, website search, customer support, and act as a virtual showroom and selling tool.

Advantages of B2B Ecommerce

Convenience, diversity of channels, and digitally-driven, self-propelled purchasing experience of B2B ecommerce are driving more buyers online. Here are some important reasons that sellers must embrace B2B ecommerce as part their B2B selling strategy: 

1. It Simplifies the Complex B2B Buying Process

B2B ecommerce simplifies buying and supports the growing demand for self-service options from buyers. Most B2B buyers want to bypass reps completely, tackling bulk of the buying journey on their own. Ecommerce makes this possible. Large investments on technology and equipment typically involve multiple decision-makers and require intricate approval processes, making self-service options a necessity. Moving a large part of the buying journey online supports the way today’s B2B buying groups operate – fitting neatly into hybrid workplaces and across distributed teams. 

2. It Lets You Reach Customers Anywhere

Having a digital presence breaks down geographical barriers. Your products become accessible to a global audience, 24/7. This expanded reach means you’re attracting new customers, while testing and expanding into markets you couldn’t tap into before. You’re able to serve customers across different time zones and regions that wouldn’t be possible with a physical presence alone. In fact, you may not even need to have a bricks and mortar location at all.

3. It’s Incredibly Efficient

The technology that powers B2B Ecommerce saves time by automating certain (non-value adding) tasks. For example, AI and machine learning algorithms can recommend products based on customer information and browsing behavior, automating the process of upselling and cross-selling. Chores that once consumed your sales team’s time (e.g., contact management, content creation, appointment scheduling) can be automated. This translates to better overall customer experience – your customers get their orders quickly and with fewer snafus.

4. It Makes the B2B Buying Journey More Relevant 

B2B buyers are crunched for time, being pulled in about a thousand directions at once. Ecommerce platforms make it possible to personalize and tailor digital buying with data and AI that refines search results and guides the buying journey with personalized content based on the buyer (e.g., product recommendations, pricing, and messaging). This type of curated buying experience is essential in the B2B buying environment. It helps buyers find what they need faster and makes them more likely to purchase.

5. It Supports Informed Decision Making

Data is the foundation of B2B ecommerce. Platforms like Monetate process tremendous amounts of data including past purchase history, browsing behavior, sales and service interactions. This information is used to feed the machine and teach it how to deliver more relevant experiences. This data can also be used to better understand the B2B buying journey and optimize that journey accordingly. Spot trends, predict demand, and remove obstacles based on insights gained from the data you collect. 

6. It Never Sleeps 

Ecommerce is an always-on channel and that means your B2B ecommerce site is always open, ready to take orders. Round-the-clock availability is a major benefit for global businesses. Your customers can place orders anytime and at their convenience, which checks the self-serve box and improves the B2B customer experience. No more waiting for office hours or playing phone tag.

7. It Cuts Your Expenses 

Since B2B ecommerce is virtual, it reduces – even eliminates – the need for physical showrooms and large sales teams. This, along with the combined savings of the other benefits we mentioned, contribute to an overall reduction in operational costs. From more efficient order processing to reduced time spent fixing human errors to self-service options that save money on customer support – the savings add up.