Artbeads.com Adds Social Media to Search Results

Artbeads.com Looks to SLI Systems’ Full-Service Site Search to Add Social Media and User-Generated Content to Search Results

Online Retailer of Beading and Jewelry Crafting Supplies Sees Higher Conversions and Greater Per-Visit Value from Site Search Users

2011 SHOP.ORG ANNUAL SUMMIT, BOSTON, Mass. – September 12, 2011 – SLI Systems today announced that IR500 retailer Artbeads.com has boosted revenue and conversions using the company’s hosted, full-service site search. With the help of SLI, Artbeads.com has integrated user-generated content such as videos, blog posts and social media posts into site search results, giving customers a richer view of Artbeads.com’s offerings and a feeling of community among jewelry craft enthusiasts, which has resulted in greater site engagement and more sales.

With the combination of user-generated content and SLI’s Learning Search site search, Artbeads.com is now seeing double the revenue-per-visit for site search users over visitors who don’t use the search box. In addition, conversions from search are also on the rise: during a recent four-week promotional period, conversions from search increased 30%, compared to overall site conversions, which rose 8.6%.

Artbeads.com is one of the web’s leading suppliers of beads, Swarovski crystals and jewelry-making supplies, and imports products from such locales as India, Bali, New Zealand, and Italy. In addition to selling bead supplies, Artbeads.com also offers extensive educational content on crafts involving beads, and hosts community pages on which customers share pictures of their creations along with advice for other bead lovers.

Artbeads.com was using Omniture (now Adobe) site search, but a lack of customization capabilities, along with high costs for changes or upgrades, led the company to seek out a new site search solution.

“We wanted to do unique merchandising and promotions to showcase our products, but the site search we were using didn’t offer that flexibility,” said Steve Groenier, Artbeads.com’s vice president of marketing and e-commerce. “We also wanted to make it easier for our customers to find all of the rich content that we offer in addition to products – like our videos, our blog, and our Facebook page.”

Artbeads.com chose SLI’s full-service site search solution because it would allow the company to customize the way it presented product information and highlight non-product content – and because SLI’s team of experts would provide ongoing guidance and input on how Groenier and his team could get the most out of their investment in site search.

“SLI gives us innovative ways to index our non-product and user generated content, which helps us introduce new visitors to our learning resources and our active customer community,” Groenier said. “SLI acts more like a partner than a vendor, which means they’re looking out for our best interests and constantly helping us get as much value as possible. They’ve been extremely valuable in helping us develop a site search strategy that creates the best possible customer experience.

“We’ve made the most of SLI’s abilities to allow for customizing of search templates and creating unique merchandising experiences – it’s much faster and easier than what we could do with our previous search solution,” Groenier said. “We’ve worked hard to create a destination site for beaders where they can shop, learn and share. Since search is often the first site feature our visitors use, SLI’s technology is absolutely critical to our ability to deliver this shopping, learning, and sharing experience.”

Learning Search is part of SLI Systems’ full-service, customized site search, navigation and merchandising offerings. The solutions help online retailers like Artbeads.com meet customer expectations for relevant results and information, and also promote particular products and brands, all based on previous visitors’ search and click-through activity. The solutions are dynamic, so results change as customer buying trends and search terms shift. Additionally, SLI’s offerings are backed by the company’s team of search and navigation experts, who oversee deployment of Learning Search and provide ongoing management and support.

“Increased revenues and conversions from site search are sure signs that visitors are finding what they’re looking for, and that searches are yielding accurate results,” said Shaun Ryan, CEO of SLI Systems. “It’s important that through your site search, visitors are able to find not only products, but any information that you post on your site. Artbeads.com offers a wealth of information, and it’s great to see that it’s now accessible through site search.”

Steve Groenier of Artbeads.com and Ed Hoffman, VP of global business and corporate development for SLI Systems, will participate in a Vendor-Retailer Roundtable Discussion, “Blend Search and Navigation with Non-Product Content to Enhance Online Shopping Experience,” at the Shop.org Annual Summit, Wednesday, September 14, 12:30pm to 1:45pm in the Expo Hall.

About SLI Systems
SLI Systems provides full-service, customized, on-demand solutions for site-search, navigation, merchandising, and user-generated SEO. SLI Systems’ solutions empower businesses to enhance customer satisfaction while increasing sales, reducing costs and increasing site conversions. Unlike traditional search and merchandising software, SLI Systems’ patented technology continuously “learns” from the behavior of visitors over time to deliver more relevant results. SLI Systems is a privately held company with offices in San Jose, California; London; New Zealand and Australia. For more information, visit www.sli-systems.com , or read the company’s blog at http://blog.sli-systems.com, watch the SLI YouTube Channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/SLISiteSearch, follow SLI on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/slisystems or listen to SLI hosted ecommerce podcasts at http://www.ecommercepodcast.com