Site search users buy at 3 times the rate of browsers, says new study
Online holiday shoppers who use site search to find products at an e-retail web site are nearly three times as likely to buy a product as those who don’t search, reports a new study by e-commerce technology provider WebSideStory Inc.
Tracking millions of users at sites that use its web analytics products, WebSideStory learned that site searchers converted at a rate of 7.54% while all visitors converted at 2.79%. As the holiday gift-giving deadline approached, site searchers’ conversion rates grew from just under 6% in October to more than 8% in December.
“This data shows that effective site search is becoming one of the most critical conversion drivers in online commerce," said Ali Behnam, senior digital marketing consultant for WebSideStory. "Helping visitors find what they are looking for in a fast, convenient manner significantly increases the likelihood of their making a purchase. We only expect these conversion rates to increase as more and more e-commerce sites engage in best of breed site search implementations."
The WebSideStory Index also showed that repeat visitors converted at a rate seven times higher than new visitors: 13.88% vs. 1.68%. it also showed that market share for the new Firefox browser increased from 4.65% on Jan. 5, 2005, to 8.88% a year later.
WebSideStory provides web analytics, site search and web content management.
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