MagnetStreet Sees Conversion Lift with SLI Systems’ Hosted Site Search and Navigation Offering
Online Retailer of Premium Personalized “Save-the-Date” Products and Wedding Invitations Benefits from Full-Service Guidance and Customization Provided by SLI’s Best Practices Experts
SAN JOSE, CA – March 28, 2011 –SLI Systems (www.sli-systems.com), provider of full-service on-demand, intelligent search and navigation solutions, announced today that MagnetStreet (www.magnetstreet.com) has seen several bottom-line benefits from use of its full-service site search and navigation offering, including higher conversion rates and larger order sizes among site search users.
The online retailer of custom-printed promotional magnets and paper goods serves several distinct markets, including real estate agents, business owners, schools, brides-to-be and general consumers. To streamline customers’ searches for magnets and printed goods in specific categories displaying a wide range of styles and shapes, MagnetStreet looked to SLI Systems’ Learning Search hosted site search solution. Backed by a team of experts and a complete arsenal of online retail best practices approaches, the SLI full-service solution was the ideal answer tor MagnetStreet’s customers’ needs.
MagnetStreet can now separate search results for its various audiences, shortening search times for shoppers and encouraging them to stay on the site longer and purchase larger orders. Since deploying SLI’s Learning Search, MagnetStreet has seen the percentage of site visitors using the search box more than double, from an average 13,600 monthly searches to roughly 33,800. The growth in site search usage results in more revenue, since people who search convert at nearly double the rate of those who don’t use site search.
Additionally, visitors using MagnetStreet’s search box now stay on the site more than twice as long, and also buy more and view more pages. For example, visitors using site search view more than twice the number of pages per visit than visitors who don’t, and also spend slightly more per visit than shoppers who don’t search.
“As a small business, we’ve relied on the experts at SLI Systems to guide us on the best site search configuration for our specific business model and customer needs,” said Kyle Lassen, business analyst for MagnetStreet. “Choosing to partner with SLI and tap into their expertise on how best to customize our site search and navigation has clearly been of tremendous benefit to our company, and has helped us meet our goal of delivering the best user experience we can.”
Learning Search Improves MagnetStreet’s Site Stickiness
Before implementing SLI’s Learning Search, MagnetStreet relied on a homegrown search solution – one that had very limited functionality, according to Lassen. The search function did not recognize synonyms or misspellings and it only ranked results by best-selling or newest items, so it didn’t offer the broader refinement options necessary to cater to specific audiences.
When MagnetStreet introduced “save the date” magnets for brides-to-be, along with customizable paper products and magnets for milestone events like births, anniversaries and reunions, its product line grew more complex. The company had to ensure that customers with different product needs – brides, business owners, real estate agents, and more – could easily search for and sort through choices that were relevant to them.
“We knew our site search was lacking because it didn’t always return relevant results,” said Lassen. “Since we implemented Learning Search we’ve seen site search usage go up dramatically. Given that people who use the search box typically convert more and spend more, the increasing number of site search users is a big bonus.”
MagnetStreet considered Google Search Appliance for its new search solution, but Lassen says his team felt it would have required too much time and effort to get it off the ground. “By choosing SLI, we have access to the expertise we need to design the search solution properly, without putting huge constraints on our own staff,” he said.
With the help of SLI, MagnetStreet can now separate search results under four tabs denoting its lines of business: weddings, business, life moments, and schools. To allow further refinement under these tabs, visitors can view results by category, product type, color, theme, and size. Visitors can also choose to see results in all four major sections.
“We’re constantly innovating new features and enhancements to meet each of our customers’ unique business requirements and their customers’ wide ranging shopping habits,” said Shaun Ryan, CEO of SLI Systems. “Our approach is to do much more than just sell a product to our clients and turn them loose. In contrast to other providers, we roll up our sleeves and do the heavy lifting in order to make sure retailers are getting maximum value from site search. Customers like MagnetStreet, that have internal resource constraints, get tremendous value, as the site search performance metrics show.”
SLI’s Learning Search is a hosted full-service site search solution that continually “learns” from ongoing site search activity, improving relevance of search results and reducing the time it takes users to find what they need. By tracking every query and click-through, Learning Search ranks results based on what’s most popular and delivers results people are looking for on the first page 95% of the time. SLI’s site search solution is shown to improve the overall customer experience, and generate increases in conversions, number of page views and average order size, among other key performance indicators.
About MagnetStreet
MagnetStreet is an online stationer specializing in personalized designs including Save the Dates and Wedding Invitations. More information is available at www.magnetstreet.com.
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://twitter.com/slisystems or listen to SLI hosted ecommerce podcasts at http://www.ecommercepodcast.com.
