Specialty Wine & Liquor Retailer Zachys Turns to SLI Systems for E-commerce Search and Shopping Improvements
Learning Search and Rich Auto Complete Help Improve Conversions and Increase Revenue for Online Fine Wine and Spirits Retailer
Highlights
- Zachys sees conversions and per-visit value nearly double after implementing SLI Learning Search
- Conversion rate for SLI Rich Auto Complete users is more than 10 times site average
- Zachys relies solely on SLI’s learning-based search engine to power search and navigation pages
SAN JOSE, CA – May 7, 2014 – Leading software as a service (SaaS) search provider SLI Systems (www.sli-systems.com) (SLI.NZ) today announced that retailer Zachys Wine & Liquor (www.zachys.com) saw online conversions and per-visit value nearly double that of the site average after putting in place cloud services from SLI to improve its e-commerce shopping experience. Zachys saw use of its search box by visitors increase one third and is now looking to expand its use of SLI’s learning-based services to include site navigation pages as a revenue-boosting strategy.
Founded in 1944, Zachys operates a high-traffic brick-and-mortar wine shop in Scarsdale, N.Y., and has created a nationwide wine and liquor retailing business through its e-commerce site. “We specialize in high-end and hard-to-find wine, and serious wine aficionados across the country know and trust us,” said Victor Castro, director of e-commerce at Zachys. “They know what brands they like, so they don’t browse when they come to our website – they search.”
Zachys chose SLI Systems’ Learning Search, Site Champion and Rich Auto Complete e-commerce acceleration services to replace the limited search functionality previously available on its e-commerce site. SLI Learning Search continually reorders results for optimum sales based on shoppers’ actual choices while on the site, and SLI Site Champion uses this learning about how shoppers behave to dynamically create SEO-optimized landing pages that are indexed by Google and other search engines to increase referral traffic. “Site Champion is particularly useful for long tail search terms, which have a much higher conversion value,” said Castro. “For certain long tail terms we’re now seeing our Site Champion-generated pages in the top ranking on Google and Bing, which means we can reduce our spend on paid search listings and still see referral traffic coming to our site.”
SLI Rich Auto Compete facilitates shopping by showing the product names and images that Zachys customers are most likely to buy for any given term as soon as it’s typed into the search box. Visitors who click a product suggestion generated by Rich Auto Complete convert more than 10 times as often and generate eight times as much revenue as an average site visitor.
Using Search to Power Navigation
Zachys is currently re-platforming its website, and being able to maintain SLI for search helps with the overall transition. “We’ll keep using SLI because it simply works,” Castro said. “Not only are search users converting at a higher rate, but we’ve increased revenue and transactions since we started using SLI. Obviously it’s making it easy for our customers to search for and find products, but we get many other benefits as well.”
He cited the creation of detailed refinements as one example of how the service has helped customers narrow down larger product sets to a manageable size, along with the ability to create merchandising banners that help visitors find the vintages, varietals and ratings they want.
“The banners are the main navigational tool we use now,” Castro said. “We can do a better job of promoting our products while helping our customers find their favorite wines much faster.”
Click to Tweet: @Zachys chooses @SLISystems to help wine buyers find their favorite vintages, increasing revenue and conversions http://bit.ly/1hT54BC: http://ctt.ec/x18Ut.
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About SLI Systems
SLI Systems (SLI.NZ) provides leading SaaS solutions that help online shoppers connect to the products they’re most likely to buy, directly driving increased sales and higher customer satisfaction for online retailers. With offerings that include site search, navigation, merchandising, mobile, product recommendations and user-generated SEO, SLI Systems is the most chosen SaaS-based site search provider to Internet Retailer Top 1,000 retailers. The company’s patented technology continuously learns from the behavior of visitors to deliver the most relevant results possible. Whether via PC, tablet or phone, a site powered by SLI delivers the kind of satisfying search experience that increases conversion rates, secures brand loyalty and results in higher order values. SLI Systems operates on five continents. For more information, visit www.sli-systems.com.
