Why You Shouldn’t Ignore On-Site Search While Planning Your Replatforming Project

At Klevu, we realize that some brands feel they should delay integrating an optimized on-site search on their site. One reason for this? A replatforming project on the horizon, taking up bandwidth and putting the skids on any new integrations.

This article will help to allay some of the concerns you may have about bringing a product like Klevu into play before you make that all-important platform move.

From side-stepping costly dev time, to drastically improving your customer experience, you’ll learn more about getting AI-powered solutions working hard for you right from the get-go. We’ll also explore how you can hit the ground running with specific features such as autocomplete and content search — benefitting your customers (and conversion rates) from the moment you install.

Adding optimized, smart on-site search to your toolbox will help you deliver an outstanding customer experience and gain a competitive edge. Even with a replatforming on the horizon, there’s no reason to delay reaping rewards from on-site search.

Replatforming is ultimately about chasing exciting opportunities. But paradoxically, the uncertainty a move can bring often places a temporary paralysis on e-commerce teams.

Yet the smartest brands don’t hold back from taking advantage of tools that they know will always be beneficial. While your platform may about to change, your customer base will always be looking for a great user experience. Why delay in improving your CRO?

Read on to learn why, when it comes to offering shoppers a smarter on-site search process, there’s really no time like the present.

1. Why Wait to Improve Your Conversion Rates?

If you’re thinking of moving to a new platform because of low conversion rates, it’s well worth exploring the impact of Klevu first.

On-site search is the ultimate conversion enabler. Customers initiating a search-led journey are already highly motivated — studies have suggested they’re up to 216% more likely to convert than regular users. Why wait to roll out the red carpet for these VIP shoppers?

Your e-commerce store needs to help shoppers find items intuitively, and with as little manual exertion as possible. The results yielded by a customer’s search should be accurate, relevant and appropriate, and this is especially true for retailers that offer a larger product range. Klevu gets to work right away, continually learning from customer behavior and improving search results.

2. Get an Instant Experience With Klevu: Speedy, Simple Install

There’s no need to miss out on the benefits that smart on-site search brings while you plan your replatforming project. You’ll want a tool that’s quick for your busy team to install and easy to integrate with any future platform you choose. Luckily, getting Klevu up and running can be as simple as installing an app, and often requires minimal developer input. The machine learning element gets to work right away, lightening your load with smart, AI-fuelled merchandising suggestions and more.

On Shopify Plus simply download Klevu from the App Store, and access the Merchant Center via your Shopify Admin panel. Expect the process to take a little longer when backend customizations are required.

If you’re on Magento 2 and want to install the Klevu extension, you’ll likely need the help of Magento developers to assure safe integration. But the integration process itself is fast, and themes can be automatically preserved — a huge time-saver!

For BigCommerce, installation is via your Admin Panel and takes place on a test or staging environment first, to ensure a smooth transfer to your live web store.

Whatever your choice, platform-agnostic Klevu can integrate, so there’s no risk of future compatibility for those waiting to replatform.

From the moment you get started, Klevu starts collecting data based on user behavior and optimizes its machine learning algorithms accordingly. This powerful data remains built-in, porting across when you go live with your new platform and getting you off to a flying start.

3. Your Customers Expect a Great Experience Today, Not Tomorrow

Impressing customers doesn’t necessarily require the perfect platform. But it does need you to optimize all areas of the customer experience. Klevu brings multiple upgrades to browsers’ shopping experience, which means a commercial advantage for your brand, right away.

Regardless of the platform you build on, autocomplete is a practical feature fast becoming a basic expectation of many time-poor shoppers, or those browsing on mobile devices (an ever-growing segment).

By reducing the number of characters shoppers must use — and time they take — to search your site, Klevu’s rich AI algorithm will suggest potential results from the moment they type in the first character. This feature doesn’t merely predict what specific words a user may be typing — it can also display product results before they even finish composing their search query.

To further improve customer experience, Klevu enables you to leverage existing content such as buying guides or video tutorials, listing them alongside product data in on-site search results. Today’s shoppers show a tendency to favor brands that foster a specialism, expertise and sense of community (as demonstrated by the huge rise in DTC brands in recent years). Why wait to improve dwell time and your brand’s reputation? Get your content working harder with Klevu.

4. Better Inform Your Future With Klevu Analytics

Your goal is to focus on creating an outstanding customer experience by delivering hyper-personalization, so don’t wait for your new platform to start leveraging analytics.

Klevu helps you gain a better understanding of the human beings purchasing your products from day one. It’s valuable, portable data that will continue to inform and guide you.

As well as integrating with Google Analytics, Klevu offers a detailed examination of visitor search behavior that you can analyze to understand your shoppers’ preferences and enhance your website. You can spot trends and patterns, which is key to determining stock levels.

Retailers can also use this tool to spot gaps. By seeing what types of products customers are searching for when they receive zero results, you’ll determine what products you can add to your e-commerce store to meet the need, and make more sales.

On-site search data is a powerful tool when it comes to optimizing your marketing campaigns, too. Using it to bring your site’s content and keywords in line with what your customers are looking for will have a dramatic improvement on your SEO rankings.

By leveraging this data — all emailed to you in the form of a daily report — you have a golden opportunity to increase conversion rates and boost sales.

Don’t Wait to Benefit From On-Site Search

In the fast-paced world of modern e-commerce, it’s crucial that you don’t let opportunities pass you by while planning your replatforming project.

Integrating Klevu is simple. Machine learning helps lighten your merchandising load, and AI shortens your customers’ buying journey — valuable time saved for everyone involved.

Klevu starts intelligently optimizing your on-site search from the moment you install, bringing tangible ROI, boosted conversion and customer insight that could follow you through any number of future migrations. Nothing is lost and no effort is wasted.

There’s no reason to delay getting incredible results from on-site search today.

Learn more about how Klevu’s features can help you get more sales right now, by scheduling a live demo.