Probably the most important individual feature on a large scale e-commerce website is the search facility. If customers can’t use your search feature to find products within a few seconds they are likely to become frustrated and find another retailer.

While we’re not experts in building highly intelligent & rules based systems to power your site search we do have a lot of experience either improving the search features in “off the shelf” e-commerce systems or integrating our bespoke systems with a number dedicated site search providers.

Below are a two examples of innovative features Branded3 can include in your e-commerce development.

Rich Auto-complete

Auto-complete is an AJAX feature which allows customers to see product suggestions in real time as they are typing in the search box. Rich auto-complete takes this to the next level by adding images, descriptions and even keyword suggestions if there are no matching products. See it in action at Apple.com.

Rules based systems

Site search isn’t just about displaying matching products, it’s about displaying the products that are going to deliver customer satisfaction while maximising revenue. For example leading retailers are able to showcase and highlight top selling products in the search results as well as adjusting rankings based on stock levels and any number of business rules.