Listed below is the individual Session Description, to view the bios of speakers for this session simply click the buttons at the bottom of the page.

4:00 - 5:30 p.m.
Site Search: The Web's In-Store Merchandising Tool

Instructors:
David Patterson, Internet Director, Edwin Watts Golf
Patricia Graca, Manager, Customer Experience and Website Production, HP Home & Home Office Store
Kim Weller, Principal Consultant, Molecular Inc.

Introduction: Once shoppers arrive at your online store, the marketing isn't over. Just as signs and displays entice shoppers in brick-and-mortar stores, the search function at a retail web site must entice online shoppers-leading them to the products they are looking to buy and to those high-margin items that merchants are looking to sell. In looking at this tool through merchandising glass, the e-retailer can convert site search from a store directory into a crucial form of internal marketing, every bit as important as the external marketing that brings shoppers to a site.

Workshop Content: There are many considerations in managing search on a site so that it results in sales. This session will examine those considerations in detail, including:

  • How to make sure that the results your site search function returns are relevant to the shopper
  • How to arrange results so the retailer achieves its objectives while not getting in the way of what customers want
  • How to help customers narrow down their choices if they start out searching in a product category, rather than a product
  • How to manage cross-sell and up-sell opportunities as customers browse search results
  • How site search can be used to broaden product assortments
  • How the customers' use of site search can inform web site re-designs.

About the Instructors: David Patterson recently headed up an upgrade of site search at EdwinWatts.com. He will explain the nuances of using site search, including how analyzing search results led to additional product offerings. HP's Patricia Graca will detail site search's role in boosting conversion and customer retention at HP Home & Home Office online store. Molecular's Kim Weller has helped numerous clients understand the expanded role that site search plays at retail web sites.