SLI Systems and FitForCommerce Release New Study of How Retailers Can Leverage Advanced Site Search to Sometimes Remove Need for Re-platforming their eCommerce Sites

-- New Downloadable Whitepaper Details ROI Advantages of a Robust Site Search Solution for Improving User Experience, Product Merchandising and SEO, Potentially Offsetting the Need for Costly, Time-consuming Re-platforming Initiatives

News Highlights

- New downloadable whitepaper from SLI Systems and FitForCommerce uncovers key approaches to site search and navigation used by brand name retailers like Jelly Belly, Lakeshore Learning, and Vermont Teddy Bear to eliminate the need for a costly re-platform of their eCommerce sites – saving them millions of dollars and several years of planning and hassle

- Study outlines areas of site search that can be enhanced to enable better website performance and usability – for traditional and mobile sites – as well as improve SEO, product merchandising and relevancy of results, to deliver a more satisfying and engaging customer experience that results in higher conversions and revenues

- A free webinar, delivered by Jelly Belly and FitForCommerce on March 7, 2013, will offer first-hand insights from the IR 500 candy retailer into how site search improved performance of their own B2C and B2B eCommerce sites and helped them avoid deployment of a new platform

LONDON, March 5, 2013  /PRNewswire/ -- SLI Systems (www.sli-systems.co.uk) and FitForCommerce (www.fitforcommerce.com) today announced that the two companies have jointly published a new whitepaper outlining advanced site search strategies online retailers can take to reduce or altogether remove the need for a new eCommerce platform – typically a highly costly and complex initiative that can take millions of dollars and several months to years to complete.

State-of-the-art site search technology has advanced to the point of being able to handle a greater portion of the customer's online experience and can now control key website functions that have traditionally been major factors in the decision to re-platform. With a robust, flexible site search solution in place, online retailers can positively impact conversion rates, average order values, and other key metrics, obviating the need to upgrade or switch platforms.

The study also highlights how mobile site search can be a saving grace for companies looking to enable a mobile shopping experience, by creating an integrated experience that enables better mobile browsing and prominent searching capabilities, which are often limited on mobile commerce platforms. The study is available as a free downloadable paper at www.sli-systems.co.uk.  

The whitepaper showcases several retail brands' best-of-breed site search deployments and highlights key areas:

• Dynamically updated merchandised landing pages and category assortment to reflect current product availability. An advanced search solution can be overlaid on an existing eCommerce platform, giving merchants easy-to-use graphical interfaces to create these pages without the involvement of the IT group. 
• The use of site search to drive much of the web experience, including navigation, search, merchandising, landing pages, and SEO efforts. When site search acts as the front-end of a web site companies can conduct merchandising and product presentations more efficiently – again, without the need to involve IT.
• Multi-variant testing. Typically an area of limited capabilities for the underlying platform, this type of testing in site search shows different users different experiences and tests conversions and average order values to determine which approach is most effective.

The results of these implementations were significantly greater ROI, as well as major cost savings derived from no longer needing to re-platform their eCommerce and mobile commerce sites. SLI will showcase the findings in a webinar to be held on March 7, 2013, featuring IR 500 retailer Jelly Belly, and eCommerce consulting firm FitForCommerce, an SLI partner. For registration information, visit www.sli-systems.co.uk.  

Quotes

"We have enabled site search to power a b-to-b experience that is similar to our b-to-c shopping experience," said Brandon Finch, director of eCommerce for Jelly Belly. "Many of our retail store purchasers are looking for a b-to-c style experience – including product taxonomy – but integrated into a purchasing structure appropriate for business users.  Site search has allowed us to accomplish this, particularly for the thousands of mom and pop retailers out there that rely on us for their retail assortment."

"We avoided spending a huge amount of time and money to enable a mobile experience," said Victor Castro, VP of eCommerce at Vermont Teddy Bear.  "We had a mobile site up within a week by leveraging our search solution.  Enabling transactions via mobile is a possible next step for us, but now we have our eyes open going into this and deeper pockets without having spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on an experiment (e.g. a commerce-enabled mobile web site)."

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About SLI Systems

SLI Systems provides full-service site search, navigation, merchandising, and user-generated SEO, and is the top SaaS-based site search provider to IR 500 and IR 1,000 retailers. Unlike traditional search software, SLI Systems' patented technology continuously "learns" from the behavior of visitors over time to deliver more relevant results. This learning-based search and navigation technology empowers retailers and content sites to enhance customer satisfaction by helping site visitors find the products and information they seek as quickly and efficiently as possible, increasing site conversions and average order value. SLI Systems is a privately held company, with offices in San Jose, CA; London, UK; Melbourne, Australia; and Christchurch, New Zealand. For more information about SLI Systems, visit www.sli-systems.co.uk.

About FitForCommerce

FitForCommerce is recognized as the leading boutique eCommerce consultancy by helping hundreds of online and multichannel retailers and manufacturers develop eCommerce and crosschannel strategies, select 'best-fit' vendors and solutions, and increase sales and profits.  Utilizing their extensive hands-on experience, proprietary methodology of eCommerce Diligence™ and online knowledge base eCommerceKnowHow.com, FitForCommerce is the go-to resource for both retailers and the providers who support them. For additional information, please visit: www.FitForCommerce.com and www.eCommerceKnowHow.com.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Nancy MacGregor Hill
RealTime Communications
+1-510-733-6228
nancy@realtime-comm.com
www.twitter.com/nmhill / www.twitter.com/slisystems