Dynamic Business

Australian retailers can now help their customers find products faster online, with the launch of a new Google retail commerce search feature.

Google’s Commerce Search lets customers browse, navigate, and search retail websites the same way they would search the web using Google. It has browsing and navigation modes fitted with spell check and Suggest, filters for attributes like price, category and brand as well as the ability to run promotions for particular products.

Commerce Search will enable Australian retailers to take advantage of the increase in online shopping, says Head of Retail, Technology and Consumer Products at Google Australia Will Easton.

“Australians are shopping and browsing online in ever increasing numbers, and retail-related searches on google.com.au are up 40 percent year on year.”

Despite this figure, there is still significant room for online retailers to improve their on-site search, according to Mr Easton.

“Every time a shopper fails to find what they’re looking for when they reach a retailer’s website, that’s a missed sale for our retailers, whether the potential customer was looking to buy the product online or in a store.  Online retailers in the US and UK who’ve put Commerce Search on their sites are reporting increased conversions, sales, time on site, and average order size,” Mr Easton said.

E-commerce consultant Martin Newman supports the possibility of increased conversion rates for retailers online.

“On the vast majority of retail sites, less than one percent of sales would be generated through on-site search.  In my experience, I’ve seen that effective on-site search can generate as much as 40% of sales.  When executed well, search can be a great driver of sales … when it’s not, it’s a driver of abandonment,” Mr Newman said.

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