Top 5 eCommerce Internal Site Search Pages
by Mike Calabrese. Posted on November 12th, 2007 in Online Conversion
How important is having an effective internal site search? Our preliminary data shows us that approximately 5% of visitors use the search function; and that’s on sites where the search box isn’t prominently featured. Even so, 5% is a big hole…and there’s lots of money to be found in it. I’ve picked out what I see as the top 5 internal site searches on the web today You should use these as a benchmark – take what these eTailers have done right and implement it into your own site…You’ll be surprised at the results 
See my top picks below:
1. REI
Outdoor Gear & Clothing retailer REI takes the cake. Their site search enables you to sort your results by several different variables, including: relevance, bestselling, brand a-z, brand z-a, price low-high and price high-low. Furthermore, they have a custom banner that shows up based on keyword searches and has a link to special offers – see my examples below and click on the images to enlarge:
A search I ran for “jackets” brings up a Mountain Hard Wear banner, a popular outdoor winter coat brand:
A search for “winter boots” brings up a banner ad for what look like Ugg boots:
2. Home Depot
Hardware and home accessory giant Home Depot has an untold number of products in a broad range of categories on their web site; a powerful and relevant search is essential to their success. They separate their search results to the number of products found and the number of articles found; very useful if you’re looking for more information. They also give you 8 different sort options and define a number of price ranges you can shop by.
Click the image below to enlarge:
3. Ace Hardware
Ace Hardware has a very clean and organized search results page. The product results are displayed in a grid style complete with crisp images, shipping features and user ratings. A number of filters in the left hand column allow you to refine your search results even more.
Click the image below to enlarge:
4. ABT Electronics
ABT Electronics search results have everything you want in a search – both as the site owner and the user. They have the product name, image, price and add to cart button all displayed in the results. They let you refine your search by category, manufacturer or price and in the left hand column they offer you their most popular searches, most popular categories and most popular brands. ABT also gives users the option to view their search results in a list view or a grid view – see both below:
List Version
Grid Version
5. Drugstore.com
In terms of layout, Drugstore.com’s site search doesn’t win the award for best looking, but functionally-speaking, it’s got everything you need in a search on the results page – the ability to refine results in multiple ways, customer review ratings (5-star system), price listing, in stock/out of stock status, buy button, multiple sort functions and a choice of how many results you want to view per page.
Click the image below to enlarge:
Know about a better site search? Share it with us in the comments below:
3 Comments
Crowdstormer Says:
I think the key to having a good internal search function is giving customers choice, for example the ability to sort by different criteria, and making things clear and simple – it’s a similar principle to other aspects of e-commerce – such as the registration or checkout processes on a site. People like to feel like they’re in control of the shopping process.
Kathleen Riordan Says:
I’m upset to see drugstore.com listed as number 5 on your list of the top five sites for internal search function. I’ve always found it to be extremely easy to navigate and always produces rather specific and simple search results – definitely better than Ace Hardware’s site. Even still, what a great top five list! Keep up the good work Mr. Calabrese!
Chang Says:
Hi,
Does any one know any affordable ecommerce site search solution?
Chang