A new breed of “federated” site search will open new doors for online shoppers by pulling information from multiple databases within a retail site as well as from manufacturers’ sites, Susan Aldrich, vice president of consultants Patricia Seybold Group, tells InternetRetailer.com.
“Now retailers help shoppers find the sweater they need, but the future of federated search will satisfy more complicated searches,” Aldrich says.
For example: While conventional site search will produce a list of televisions from an e-retailer’s product catalog, a federated search would show information pulled from the retailer’s other databases to show related customer service inquiries, she says. And in an extended version of federated search, results could show information from a retailer’s store databases to show available in-store inventory and information from the manufacturer’s databases to show the latest service and warranty offerings. “That’s where I see the real value in future site search,” Aldrich says.
The technology to support federated site search is available from several site search applications, including the recently launched version 9.2 of EasyAsk’s EasyAsk Enterprise, but Aldrich says she knows of no retailers who have begun to deploy it. Other vendors supporting the technology, she adds, include Verity, Endeca, iPhrase, FAST and InQuira.
But it won’t be long before retailers recognize the value of federated search and begin to offer it, Aldrich adds. “A retailer like OshKosh B’Gosh that has stores, web sites, and boutiques in department stores will want to show customers coming to its sites where they can find that particular cute pair of kids’ overalls,” she says. “It would be wonderful if the shopper could search across mall stores, outlet stores, suppliers and retail web sites. A federated search tool could do that.”
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