Staples’ site-wide update includes new ability to fine-tune search
Staples Inc., No. 4 in Internet Retailer’s Top 400 Guide to Retail Web Sites, has upgraded its site search functionality as part of a site-wide update just rolled out. Staples.com is anticipating improved search relevancy for online shoppers as the result of its new ability to fine-tune search results, Staples Inc. director of usability Colin Hynes tells Internet Retailer.
Under the latest version of its technology from search provider iPhrase Technologies, Staples.com now has the power to refine results returned for a search query according to rules it can write for the search engine. For example, explains Hynes, under the previous version, a search on Staples.com for paper—a common search on the site—might bring up anything that included the word paper in the product description. “It would give you a huge list that was overwhelming,” Hynes says.
But with new ability to refine those results, Staples.com’s internal team can write a rule into the engine that automatically drops results considered less likely to be relevant—the bottom-ranking 50% of all possible results gathered by the engine from the database, for example—before showing results to the searcher. The engine determines which results are less likely to be relevant with a ranking system that rates a results listing’s relevancy against the particular query-based factors such as history—how often did returning that particular listing against that particular query result in a click—and the advice and experience of the search technology provider.
The updated technology also gives Staples the power to factor its business objectives into the search results it returns. “We are able to give higher weighting to particular items we think would be of value to customers. Staples-branded products are a big focus for the company and we want to make sure those products arrive high up in search results,” says Hynes.
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