In e-commerce, sometimes it's not that retailers and marketers don't have the right products. Instead, it's their search that's not up to par. Republic of Tea enlisted the help of SLI Systems to simplify its site search functions.

By Pat Cauley

We live in an on-demand world. Consumers have whatever they want at their fingertips. Missed a minute of your favorite TV show? No problem: simply press the back button on your remote to catch what you missed. Our brains are wired that it's normal to have a pocket-sized device that comprises your personal phone, camera, planner, computer, music and video player all in a single unit. In a culture accustomed to this level of convenience, as an online retailer, what makes you think that people would consider wasting their precious multi-tasking-filled minutes to search around your site to find what they want? It would certainly be easier to hit the back button and click the next link in the search results. That's where the right site search optimization strategy can really be effective.

SLI Systems, a provider of on-demand search services for Internet and e-commerce sites, has developed different programs so that online retailers not only sustain their traffic, but also increase site search and usability leading to increased sales figures and conversion rates. The best way to demonstrate the validity of these claims is by examining the case study of SLI Systems and its client, Republic of Tea.

FINDING A SOLUTION
Republic of Tea has an innovative online retail site for purchasing a wide variety of tea products. Republic of Tea's purpose is to enrich people's lives through the experience of fine tea and the "sip-by-sip life"--a life of health, balance and well-being. Products available include black teas, caffeine free herbal teas, green teas, white teas, bulk teas, decaffeinated teas and specialty teas, among accessories and other offerings. However, fulfilling that sip-by-sip lifestyle was sometimes an arduous task for visitors to the website.

"They had a basic problem with their site search in that people couldn't find what they were looking for," says Shaun Ryan, president and CEO of SLI Systems. SLI Systems soon implemented two solutions that have dramatically helped Republic of Tea.

The first solution was the Learning Search tool. "Our previous site search tool didn't account for misspellings, didn't allow us to do any customizing whatsoever and made it generally difficult for people to find products on our site," says Scott Compton, minister of connectivity for Republic of Tea.

Prior to incorporating search changes, it wasn't abnormal for Republic of Tea to receive several complaints a day. "Everything's hosted by SLI, which takes a huge load off our web server, and their handling of our search needs has been flawless. Implementing their search tools has helped us live up to our mission of promoting good health and well-being since visitors to our online storefront have a much more positive experience than they did previously," says Compton. Before initializing the Learning Search tool, SLI Systems crawled the Republic of Tea site for a few weeks to gather data showing how consumers behaved on the site.

More relevant search results and suggestions for similar or complementary products lead to larger orders.

The term "Learning Search" comes from SLI Systems' patented analytics engine that tracks consumer behavior on a particular site, noting which search terms are associated with further click throughs and eventual purchases. This information allows a retailer the ability to rearrange the apparel on an e-commerce site, matching keywords in descriptions of products that directly correlate to sales. Learning Search then ranks items with higher click-through rates at the top of the results. For Republic of Tea, Learning Search proved effective by increasing sales on average by 50 percent when it was used compared to when it wasn't. It also helped extinguish the daily litany of consumer complaints.

Perhaps most impressive, Republic of Tea has seen a higher dollar average spend on orders from the site search tool than from any other area of the site, even from those customers heading to the site with exactly what they want in mind. "It's always assumed traffic coming directly to a site with a specific product in mind brings the highest value. Not so with Learning Search. Thanks to the highly relevant results and the suggestions for similar products that SLI generates, people who use the search box on our site usually put more in their shopping cart than they originally intended," says Compton.

Before SLI Systems' technology was implemented, the bulk Ginger Peach offering was buried on the third page of search results within the site. Learning Search moved the product up so consumers could easily see that Ginger Peach was sold in bulk and sales went through the roof. Echoing sentiments of consumer impatience, Ryan explains that the motto for Learning Search tends to be relevance. "It's a very frustrating experience: if people can't find what they're looking for in one to two minutes, three-fourths of them will leave and won't come back unless they have to," he says.

TOOLS GENERATE MORE LEADS
Another SLI Systems service adopted by Republic of Tea to increase ROI was the automated SEO Site Champion feature. "Site Champion is how we help them rank in Google and the others. We allow their search pages to be indexed," says Ryan. At the bottom of Republic of Tea's main page is an actual link to the top searches. "We generate this page for Republic of Tea. This allows Google to follow these links and then index each of those pages, which is then optimized for their particular search term," he says.

The results of this implementation translated into referred organic searches to Republic of Tea's site increasing four-fold. Ryan explains that when a consumer would type a generic tea reference into Yahoo or Google, a Site Champion-created landing page from within Republic of Tea's internal site search was more likely to appear high in the results. Once the link was clicked, the landing page was already geared with the appropriate items listed that all but guarantee purchases and results.

The key to Republic of Tea's successful turnaround hinges on synergistically integrating SLI Systems' Learning Search and Site Champion tools. Republic of Tea was fortunate to have a person with Compton's expertise in a position to suggest an overhaul of changes. Sometimes presidents and CEOs don't understand the importance or the amount of time and money required to have a standout e-commerce site.

Certainly, one of the most challenging tasks in remodeling any website is figuring out who to trust with the massive project. Luckily for Republic of Tea, Compton had worked with SLI Systems in the past with another company. "Having worked with SLI and seeing great results once before, it was simple for me to choose them again," says Compton. SLI Systems has seen many of their partnerships derive from similar situations. "The word of mouth works really well and that's an increasing part of our business. We love it when our customers move from one company to another because it ends up being a really easy sell for us," says Ryan. While relying on a few other marketing tactics, SLI Systems also receives much of its new business by exhibiting at conferences and trade shows across the country. "It's a great opportunity for us to get in front of people, but we're seeing the word of mouth more and more."

Companies in need of a website revamp have lots of options to get out of the rut. These days, there's no excuse for an e-commerce website to be lost at sea any longer. For Republic of Tea, it was simply a matter of listening to its customers' needs and complaints to determine what obstacles its website was facing. And with the help of SLI Systems, the company created a search function optimization strategy that helped put it back on course.