Millions Potentially Lost In Revenue If Search Isn’t Improved, Retailers Warned

CHICAGO, 27th MARCH 2023:  Commerce brands and online retailers were warned today at Shoptalk that they are in danger of losing customers because their product search function isn’t using the full potential of AI. 

According to the experts at global digital transformation consultancy Kin + Carta, these issues are widespread. Google research has shown that 95% of customers have experienced disappointment with search on a retail website in the last six months.

Kin + Carta analysis revealed that by using technology such as Google’s Cloud Retail Search (CRS), commerce brands would uplift their revenue by $2m by converting just 1% of customer searches.

Additionally, Kin + Carta has found that most search engines can find products where you have very short one or two-term queries such as ‘dress’ and it implies shoppers want to browse.

However, many retailers have yet to employ generative AI for ‘tail’ queries (3+ terms), which often use a more natural language-like formation such as ‘date night dress in small’. 

Kami Kris, managing director of commerce at Kin + Carta, notes: “The use of longer queries when we search on shopping sites is a growing trend and it’s vitally important for sites to be able to handle them. This is only going to develop further as the line between search and chat keeps blurring.

“Both head and tail searches implicitly have different levels of user expectation built-in. The more specific we are, the more we expect exactly what we’re looking for to be displayed to us. 

“Unfortunately, first generation search technology, even with some AI enhancement, isn't always able to meet this expectation. Not to mention that inspiration-type queries such as ‘Christmas gifts for dad’ require an even deeper understanding of what the user means, and how it might map to a product catalog that doesn’t contain these kinds of terms.”

According to Kin + Carta, the more search terms users enter, or the larger the gap between the language in the product catalog and the query itself, the harder it becomes to understand user intent without some form of AI-driven Large Language Model (LLM) to help.

Kris adds: “Search abandonment is a huge issue for retailers and they want ‘Google-quality’ search to minimize those losses. They don’t want people leaving their website, using Google to find the product they’re after and then buying it elsewhere.

“That’s why innovations such as Google’s own Cloud Retail Search could be a game-changer for retail. Designed to employ generative AI to help match shoppers’ intent to the precise products they want, this approach ensures success in an increasingly competitive online market, meaning less revenue is left on the table.”

Kin + Carta is at Shoptalk and is at booth MP1800i.

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Editors notes

About Kin + Carta:

Kin + Carta is a global digital transformation consultancy committed to working alongside our clients to build a world that works better for everyone. 

Our 2,000 strategists, engineers and data scientists around the world bring the connective power of technology, data and experience to the world’s most influential companies, helping them to accelerate their digital roadmap, rapidly innovate, modernize their systems, enable their teams and optimize for continued growth.

As a Certified B Corp, our triple bottom line focus on people, the planet, and profit is at the core of everything we do.

For more information, please visit www.kinandcarta.com.