Thompson & Morgan’s Online Shopping Experience Flourishes with Full-Service Site Search from SLI Systems

Seed and Plant Retailer Enhances Merchandising and Adds Auto Complete, Offers More Robust Site Search with Dynamic Refinements and A-to-Z Product List

LONDON, UK and SAN JOSE, CA – June 25, 2012 – SLI Systems (www.sli-systems.com) today announced that Thompson & Morgan (www.thompson-morgan.com) has improved its ability to merchandise its seed and plant products and provide faster and more accurate search results for its online customers since implementing full-service site search from SLI Systems. Thompson & Morgan, one of the UK’s largest seed and plant retailers, is also using SLI’s Auto Complete feature to make it easier for shoppers to use complex or hard-to-spell plant names as search keywords.

Thompson & Morgan, which published its first seed catalogue in 1855, sells its seeds, plants, bulbs, and gardening supplies through catalogues and its website, as well as through major garden centre chains in the UK and Europe. The company began using SLI site search in 2010, then briefly switched to using the default site search solution integrated with its ecommerce platform later that year.

“It was immediately clear to us that the built-in site search solution did not provide the flexibility to merchandise products within search, or the ability to provide useful tools to our customers, like an A-to-Z product list or Auto Complete for search suggestions,” said Clare Dixey, group ecommerce manager for Thompson & Morgan. “As soon as we implemented Learning Search for the second time in early 2011, we regained the capabilities we needed to highlight products in search, and deliver more relevant search results.”

With Learning Search, Thompson & Morgan can now change the position of products within search results as needed for promotions or sales, and can also add banners to search results pages with content relating to key search terms. The company is also using SLI’s Auto Complete, which offers search suggestions as soon as shoppers begin typing a keyword. Since many plant names can be difficult to spell, Auto Complete helps Thompson & Morgan customers quickly find their desired plants, seeds, or gardening supplies and minimizes the chance that they’ll spell the name incorrectly.

As part of SLI’s full-service approach, dedicated customer service managers helped Thompson & Morgan quickly add an A-to-Z plant and product name page to its site at no extra charge, providing a quick reference point for online shoppers.

“For every online retailing challenge we’ve faced, SLI and its team of site search experts have come up with a solution,” Dixey said. “Our internal staff come up with many ideas for adding value to our website via site search, but we rely on the SLI experts to carry them out. They’re a valuable part of our extended ecommerce team.”

SLI’s search allows Thompson & Morgan online shoppers to choose how to view and refine search results. Shoppers can see results in grid view or list view, and can apply refinements for flower color, plant hardiness, and price.

“Full-service site search should provide much more than relevant search results,” said Shaun Ryan, CEO of SLI Systems. “For online retailers like Thompson & Morgan, site search encompasses merchandising, navigation, and the entire website experience, and is one of the most critical features a website has.”

SLI Systems’ full-service, customized site search, navigation and merchandising offerings helps businesses like Thompson & Morgan 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.

About SLI Systems
SLI Systems provides full-service site search, navigation, merchandising, and user-generated SEO, and is the top SaaS-based site search provider to IR500 retailers. Unlike traditional search software, SLI Systems’ patented technology continuously “learns” from the behavior of visitors over time to deliver more relevant results. This learning-based search and navigation technology empowers retailers and content sites to enhance customer satisfaction by helping site visitors find the products and information they seek as quickly and efficiently as possible, increasing site conversions and average order value. SLI Systems is a privately held company, with offices in SAN JOSE | LONDON | NEW YORK |MELBOURNE | CHRISTCHURCH.

For more information about site search and improving the eCommerce user experience, please listen to SLI hosted eCommerce podcasts at http://www.ecommercepodcast.com, participate in the latest site search and user experience discussions on the LinkedIn Group at http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2003952&trk=hb_side_g, or read about the latest insight on site search, navigation, merchandising and SEO on SLI’s official blog at http://blog.sli-systems.com.

For more information about SLI Systems, visit www.sli-systems.com, watch the SLI overview video at WatchSLIVideo.com, watch the SLI YouTube Channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/SLISiteSearch, follow SLI on Twitter at http://twitter.com/slisystems, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/slisystems, on Google+ at http://gplus.to/slisystems, on Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/slisystems, and now on Pinterest at http://pinterest.com/slisystems/.