25 Reasons Why Top Retailers are Focusing on Search

Find Out Why An Improved Share of Search Can Lead to Higher Conversions

Introduction

According to PwC’s February 2023 global survey, consumers’ concerns about inflation and the wider macroeconomic climate have realigned shopping habits. The importance of prices/offers today has significantly increased as shoppers turn to the digital shelf for the best offers and promotional deals online. The same PwC report says that 43% of consumers surveyed plan on increasing their online shopping in the next six months. 

With this growth in eCommerce, we know that it has become critical for brands to be available digitally. But simply having an online presence isn’t enough. Success in eCommerce can only come if a product is visible to the customers. And the strongest way to increase visibility, and thus sales, is to capture a higher share of search.

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The Global eCommerce Market, 2023

To start things off, lets take a look at the state of the eCommerce market in the US and globally:

1. One of the biggest eCommerce markets, the US reached around 268 million digital buyers in 2022, and this number is expected to reach nearly 285 million by 2025.
2. Amazon is the top online store in the US with $125.8 billion in net sales in 2021; Walmart is second with $46.5 billion; Apple is in third place with $26.1 billion; Target and Home Depot take the fourth and fifth positions with $19.8 billion and $18.4 billion in net sales respectively.
3. Almost 50% of people shop online because of the convenience of free delivery. 
4. Worldwide online retail sales are projected to surpass $7.4 trillion by 2025. 
5. It’s projected that eCommerce will make up 22% of global retail sales in 2023.
6. 63 percent of shopping occasions begin online. 

How Search Drives Conversions

Almost half of all product searches worldwide begin on Google- making every search a crucial opportunity for conversions and visibility for brands. .

7. When people use the on-site search and find what they are looking for, conversion rates are nearly double.
8. When visitors do a search, the conversion rate of Amazon shoots up from 2% to 12%, 1.1% to 2.9% for Walmart, and a 3x boost for Etsy. 
9. Site search optimization has shown a 43% increase in conversion rates, as per case studies. 
10. Searchers account for roughly 40% of total revenue on some websites. 
11. As a direct result of site search technology, 50% of retailers said that they saw an increase in revenue (this number was significantly higher at 93% for companies with advanced site search).
12. 39% of purchasers are influenced by a relevant search.
13. 12% of users will bounce to a competitor’s site after an unsatisfactory search.
14. Consumers who use search are 2.4x more likely to buy. Searchers also drive more revenue as they spend 2.6x more across mobile and desktop as compared to those who don’t use search. 

Paid Vs Organic Search 

It is important to understand the distinction between Paid Search and Organic Search- and how to leverage the best results with the best ROI from each Here are some important statistics to best inform and optimize your search strategy for your brand: 

15. Approximately 39% of worldwide eCommerce traffic comes from search – with 35% of traffic being organic and only 4% of it through paid search ads.
16. 60% of marketers say that inbound marketing, such as growing SEO/organic presence, is their highest quality source of leads.
17. 88% of marketers with an SEO strategy will increase or maintain their investment throughout 2023.
18. 70-80% of all searchers ignore paid ads and focus on organic results only.
19. 15% of Google queries have never been searched before.

Current eCommerce Search Trends

Finally, to understand how to optimize an effective search strategy for modern shoppers, it is crucial to track and understand digital search trends and online buying behavior. 

20. 65% of global eCommerce customers prefer product information written in their native language.
21. 75 percent of consumers’ search queries each month are brand new (Salesforce, 2018). This goes to show that when people are browsing online, they’re actively searching for new products. 
22. 79 percent of online buyers shop at least once per month (IPC, 2022). In addition to that, 49 percent of online shoppers shop online once a fortnight, and 22 percent claim to do so every week.
23. Over 4.5 billion global internet users are using online search, while online product searches amount to the start of 87% of shoppers’ journey. 
24. 43% of users on retail websites go directly to the search bar. 
25. 64% of people use search to address the “I-want-to-buy-moment”.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the importance of online search and share of search in retail cannot be overstated.  As inflation and worldwide layoffs rapidly change buying behavior and the growth of eCommerce, it’s important for online retailers to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and technologies to remain competitive. By focusing on their search functionality, online retailers can ensure that they are “being found” and visible online. In turn, this ensures that they are driving traffic to their website while also creating conversions.

Leveraging search for higher conversions, optimizing product pages for the digital shelf, and repricing products based on competitor and market dynamics help brands and retailers build  a strong competitive advantage. Intelligence Node offers all these solutions under one roof to ensure that brands and retailers never lose out on the opportunities offered by the constant and ever changing markets today. To know more, book a demo with Intelligence Node today!