How Does Faceted Search Improve E-Commerce Product Discovery?

faceted search

Faceted search gives e-commerce merchants an effective tool to make product lists more user-friendly. According to a Baymard Institute study, sites with mediocre product list usability had 67-90% abandonment rates. Those with an optimized product list, however, had 17-33% abandonment.

With the navigation feature enabled, users can filter a product list based on characteristics like price, category, and other attributes without interrupting the shopping experience. Each facet contains a group of attributes and a removable filter for each attribute value.

For example, an apparel store would have a facet for color with values such as red, blue, yellow, green, black, and white. These filters appear on the e-commerce category and search results pages. When a user selects a filter value, the results update only to show matching items.

There are many benefits to adding faceted search functionality to your e-commerce site or mobile app. In this post, we’ll examine how you can use faceted search to help customers surface relevant products.

Benefits of Faceted Search

Help customers find items quickly

Faceted search helps customers find what they need efficiently. Users can filter products by specific qualities to remove all irrelevant items from the listing. The feature is handy on mobile devices as their limited screen space makes it more challenging to sift through a catalog.

Remove the need for multiple searches

Users need the ability to select filters across facet groups. Take, for instance, a person who wants to search for items based on size, material, and color. You also enable users to select multiple options within the same group—for example, someone who wants to search for small and medium sizes.

With faceted search, customers don’t need to do multiple searches to find items that match their desired characteristics. They can apply the facets, and all the appropriate products appear. Ensure your faceted search functionality supports multi-select options for this to work.

Showcase the variety of your product offering

Take advantage of facets to showcase the variety of options available in your product catalog. Seeing the facet filter, shoppers can instantly view your brands, features, styles, sizes, and more, using them to explore your catalog.

Attributes and Product Data

Effective faceted search relies on high-quality product data. Thus, it is critical for attributes to have a clear definition and structure. In addition, data enrichment ensures products include all the necessary details. Achieving this at scale requires strong product information management.

fabric PIM provides a centralized place to manage all of your product data. Its intuitive and user-friendly interface lets you quickly assign and edit attributes individually or in bulk. Another aspect includes grouping attributes that automatically link to certain types of products.

Take advantage of PIM’s data completeness and consistency to make all of your items discoverable.

 


Topics: Commerce
Bradley Taylor

Tech advocate and writer @ fabric.

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