Earlier this summer, EasyAsk unveiled a powerful new tool in its search arsenal. Search-as-you-Type (SayT) is a major enhancement that brings customers one step closer to immediately finding the product they want. We thought it was worth taking a closer look at the product and how it works.
We’re all pretty familiar with the idea of auto-complete when using our computers or mobile devices. You begin typing in a word or phrase, and get immediate suggestions for completing your entry.
SayT goes way further. In addition to offering word suggestions based on your partial entry, SayT presents product results and targeted category and attribute suggestions that automatically update as a shopper scrolls through the search suggestions.
A few highlights:
Smarter Search Suggestions: Intelligent search suggestions and product results are returned with refinements as the shopper types, eliminating the problem of too many results and irrelevant results. SayT not only improves the shopper experience, it decreases the time to shopping cart and checkout.
Instant Product Results: As the user types, SayT examines the input, sends it to the server for suggestion generation, then presents the results to the user – all in an instant. SayT provides immediate feedback to the shopper who can see the products their search would return while they are typing. It doesn’t get any faster than that.
Product Images: SayT allows shoppers to see images of the actual products as well as the search results descriptions. The product images that match the search can be displayed below the suggestions and be instantly clicked through to the product page.
Customizable Results: What the shopper using SayT sees is completely under the control of the retailer. You can customize what types of content to display, how it is shown, and where the information is displayed. The site manager can even market specific offers to shoppers instantly while they are typing. In short, it’s a merchandiser’s dream come true.
Guided Navigation: As the search results and images come up, the user can press an arrow key to highlight one of the suggested products. The products and navigation for that selection are then shown.
But a picture is worth a thousand words. The screen shot above shows a sample scenario of a shopper who has typed “purs” into the search box. Our shopper has then used the arrow key to navigate to the suggestion of “leather purses,” which has brought up images and description of the best products matching that search.
At this point, she can click on a product and go straight to its product page, click on a navigation choice and see those results (brown leather purses, for example), or click the suggestion of “leather purses” to see all the results and navigation for that selection, or continue typing to see further suggestions and refinements.
It’s simple, intuitive and fast.
SayT is available at no additional cost to all current EasyAsk customers, whether using the cloud-based SaaS or the installed version of EasyAsk eCommerce Search. A new customer incentive program includes SayT free of charge with all purchases of EasyAsk eCommerce Edition by September 30, 2013.