Telescope: Everything You Need to Know About Search
Welcome to this edition of Telescope on Search, our monthly newsletter devoted to
search. Our goal is to offer a regular, quick-browse e-newsletter with useful
information, tips, and news of the latest developments on Site Search, Search Engine
Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, and site usability. If you have any feedback
or questions please direct them to newsletter@sli-systems.com.
In this issue:
New Tools for Faster, User-Friendly Search
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Shaun Ryan
CEO, SLI Systems
We’re always on the lookout for ways to make a great service even better – and this month, we’ve
announced several new enhancements that will make it even easier for our clients to promote products, and make decisions
about merchandising. The best news is that all of these new enhancements are free to SLI customers.
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First is our completely redesigned merchandising console, which will make it even easier to change the order of
search results, create banner ads, and customize landing pages, etc. It’s a great way to gain more flexibility in
the way products are showcased.
We’ve also introduced Auto Complete, a new feature that automatically provides relevant suggestions to
complete the search term as visitors type into the search box. Auto Complete can help increase search activity and
conversions on our clients’ websites – SLI customer Surveillance-video.com reports that search activity is
up 18 percent, and average order value is up by 10 percent.
We have also made significant improvements to the speed of our search, ensuring that search and navigation pages
load as quickly as possible. For one customer with a complex search, that has meant a reduction in average page load
times from 2 seconds, to less than half a second.
We’re excited about these improvements to our search solutions – and we’re eager to hear your
feedback. Please share your experiences with us at newsletter@sli-systems.com.
Partner Spotlight: FastPivot
We’re delighted to focus this months newsletter on SLI partner FastPivot. FastPivot, a leading Internet
retailing solutions provider and Yahoo! Stores partner, has provided retailing strategies, designs, and technologies
for thousands of online stores. The company also helps online retailers increase profitability with strategic
initiatives that include customer traffic cultivation, market expansion, repeat visitor growth, and consumer relations.
SLI and FastPivot recently teamed up to help SimplyYouthMinistry.com and partner site YouthMinistry.com improve
search and navigation features. FastPivot built the two online stores from the ground up. At that point, the Youth
Ministry site staff decided they needed an effective search solution – and FastPivot brought in SLI.
“The YouthMinistry.com sites have so much information, from so many different sources – articles,
blogs, podcasts and products,” explained Grant Henry, director of strategic services for FastPivot. “SLI
has made it much easier for these sites’ visitors to navigate through this information, and find what
they’re looking for.”
If you’d like to learn more about how SLI and FastPivot can help improve your online retail presence,
please contact us.
Internet Retailer 2008: Another Successful Event
SLI recently exhibited at the Internet Retailer 2008 Conference and Exhibition in Chicago, Illinois, and our team
had the opportunity to meet many current and prospective customers. It is always interesting to meet with so many
people in the business, including online retailers, industry experts, and other vendors.
SLI sponsored the event’s opening-night reception, where we had a drawing for a free
Apple MacBook Air. The lucky winner of the drawing was an SLI customer,
Shirley Tan, owner of AmericanBridal.com. Shirley went home with the coveted laptop and from what we’ve heard, she’s
the envy of all her friends!
Help Us with Our Survey: Site Search's Influence on Ecommerce
With your ideas and suggestions, we can continue to improve and enhance SLI search solutions – and
you’ll have a chance to tell us more about how search impacts your business in an upcoming survey we’re
doing.
In a week or two, you'll receive an email on our behalf from market research company Zoomerang, with an invitation
to participate in the survey. The goal of the survey is to gauge the importance of site search to your overall ecommerce
strategy – information we believe will be useful to the industry at large. We hope you’ll take just a few
minutes to answer the 10 multiple-choice questions.
Don't worry – your name and company will be kept confidential, and your answers will be anonymous. We’ll
also share the results of the survey with everyone in a future newsletter. If you have any questions about participating
in the survey, please contact newsletter@sli-systems.com
SLI Systems & Customers in the News
Below are links to recent press releases and news articles highlighting our Learning Search service:
Search essential to online retail
– contributed by Shaun Ryan to Retail Customer Experience, June 9, 2008
Discussing Searchandising With Vermont Teddy Bear's
Bill Cronin – eM+C, June 5, 2008
Using
'searchandising' to satisfy and keep customers – contributed by Shaun Ryan to DM News, June 2, 2008
SLI Systems
Introduces Site Search Speed and Merchandising Enhancements, and Debuts Auto Complete Feature – June 30, 2008
Upcoming Events
If you have any comments or suggestions for future issues please email us at newsletter@sli-systems.com.
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