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Article on several retailers who have reported large jumps in visitor-to-sales conversion rates after making improvements to their web site's search features.  HINT

Quote:How site search helps to increase sales at Delightful Deliveries
By analyzing which product displays on its site produce the best conversion rates, food-and-gifts retailer Delightful Deliveries is modifying site search and navigation to push up overall sales, president and CEO Eric Lituchy says.

Quote:Site search helps Kinetic Fountains triple sales
Sales at KineticFountains.com grew three-fold last year over 2004, largely due to an expansion of its product line supported by an effective site search function, company owner Brian Godwin says

Quote:New site search tool pays off in sales, cost reduction at Toolfetch.com
Eight months after implementing Google Mini as its site search tool, Toofetch.com has seen sales rise by 20%. Data on keyword use has refined keyword purchases to cut online advertising costs by 12%

Quote:FurnitureFind doubles conversions with new site search
FurnitureFind.com launched search and navigation from Endeca and saw calls to its contact center drop as customers found needed product information on the site. With customers who do call now more ready to buy, conversions jumped.

Quote:Search analysis boosts conversions 20% at Calendars.com
After learning how users of its site search tool as well as Internet search were using keywords, Calendars.com has increased visitor-to-sales conversions by about 20%, the retailer says.

Quote: HINT

Let me guess!

Spending hours on optimizing your site's SEO for Google or picking AdWords keywords is a waste if visitors come to your site and can't find anything because your site search sucks. 

[quote author=amy link=topic=2481.msg8802#msg8802 date=1138994228]

Quote: HINT

Let me guess!

Spending hours on optimizing your site's SEO for Google or picking AdWords keywords is a waste if visitors come to your site and can't find anything because your site search sucks. 
[/quote]


I would have told all of those folks that for much less than the likely paid for the various reports.

Geez. 

Google Mini has a maxi price tag of $2,995.  I think improving your site's navigation is nearly as important as optimizing its search.

A related article:

Quote: Findings from a new study from WebSideStory Inc. and the Patricia Seybold Group reinforce site search's importance to the online purchase process and underscore the fact that search engine marketing alone won't deliver customers to the Buy button. Shoppers who use site search on an e-commerce site buy 270% more than shoppers who don't, according to WebSideStory statistics...

Analysis of 34 million site search queries on more than 40 web sites using WebSideStory Search or HBX analytics suggests that marketers would be well advised to focus optimization efforts on the most popular queries versus a broader range of queries. The findings showed that a concentrated 4% of all the unique site search terms captured accounted for about 50% of all the searches conducted on a site...

full article: http://www.internetretailer.com/dailyNews.asp?id=18886