How to improve the search feature on the Magento 2 eCommerce Website?

Posted by parthpatel on April 15th, 2019

Example 1: You go to a traditional store, you walk around the aisle of the store with no local signs, you rummage around to search the products, you implore sales team for help, you don’t get any help, you continue to waste your time in searching, you get one of the products, and petulantly, you leave.

Example 2: You go to a traditional store, you walk around the well notifying aisle, you immediately get what you wished for, you are helped by the sales team at each step of the procedure, they also try to persuade you for other products, you walk out of the store with zero guilt and no time waste.

Now, how do you assign the sales team for your eCommerce website? Is it even possible to assign them? No, it is practically impossible to allocate sales team on an online store, but eCommerce has been evolved with its way of functioning. You can use several components on your store which can be treated as a sales entity. Whatever components and extension you use for your store, each holds the ability to persuade and convince the shoppers. A component is known to be an effective salesperson when it somehow dispels the doubts of customers.

Magento Default Search: An Ideal Search Bar?

Magento is the powerline of eCommerce today. It adds the semantics and nuances to the unconventional stores. Although it facilitates the complete shopping experience, the native Magento search functionality is not so strong. Ecommerce merchants are recommended to use the third party site search solution. The default search is known to be very cumbersome. Let’s see how it falls short and why do you need third party site search extension.

  • Issues Regarding Keywords

Normally, we input the characters and expect the website to do the talking. This works similarly for the native Magento website search. For Magento search default, we identically enter the keywords into the search bar and bar suggests us with products. So, where is the problem?

The problem doesn’t lie in its suggestive abilities but its impotence to give detailed information for the searched keywords. A smart search bar would not only reflect the results but would give you a detailed idea with images on the search menu itself.

The native functionality doesn’t permit you to customize your search bar. Now, what good would a search bar do when it doesn’t authorize you to reflect the related products with images and brief descriptions about them? What’s the point of search bar when it doesn’t show the prices of products right on the search result?

  • Speed Of Search

Customers don’t have the patience for page load and slow search. You can’t afford to consume their time. The ultimate purpose of eCommerce is to save time. And if you fail to do so, you not only deteriorate the concept of eCommerce but also put a slime to its vision.

A slow search could cause customer dissatisfaction. Magento default search is one such functionality. Search on the default Magento search bar is too time-consuming. A shopper has to wait for a little longer to get the search results. The default search doesn’t meet the requirement of an ideal search bar possessing marvelous agility. The goal of the search bar is to minimize the wait interval. If it fails to do so, you should denounce it.

  • The problem in Arrangement of Search Results

The search results should follow some specific algorithms which can reflect the results in a particular order. An unoptimized search bar fails to show the relevant data. It would just show the related results without any relevance. Hence, it gets tough for the customers to map the products according to their demands. Now, as an eCommerce merchant, your job is to facilitate the shopping procedure. Compromising with the search module could cost you conversions and more importantly the customers.

An optimized search bar doesn’t display the abstract results. It acidifies the state of mind and helps in making a good purchasing decision. Magento default search has gained the notoriety of poor site search and is devoid of optimized techniques and relevant algorithms.

AJAX SEARCH AUTOCOMPLETE SUGGESTION EXTENSION FOR MAGENTO® 2 By M-Connect Media


The name of the extension is self-explanatory. But I will have to explain some of the nuances related to the AJAX search autocomplete. AJAX autocomplete search is mounted with a smart predictive suggestion module. Smart predictive module simplifies and betters the search result. It also gives an instant result in banking a lot of time. It makes searchability so simple that customers can enter the keyword and get the search result. As soon as the text field predicts, a customer can click on the desired result without having to press the enter button. Typing three characters would reflect suggestions and results with Ajax sphinx search.

A quick read through a list of Mconnect Search Autocomplete features:

  • Gives fantastic control over the number of products reflected in the search results.
  • Happens to predict the products just by entering the three characters (minimum).
  • Ability to display the counter which counts the number of products found with the keyword search.
  • Offers an option of “View all” at the bottom of the search results pop up to skim all the found products.
  • Choose the product data which will appear in search results.
  • Add the products directly to the shopping cart.
  • Avoid pages, category and parent category appearance on the search results pop up.
  • The additional advantage of fully customizing the layout of the popup window.

The Final Call

It is crystal clear that Advanced Search and Autocomplete have prominent features and default search by Magento stands nowhere close to it. Searching is the first step in shopping. You can’t compromise with it. And you can’t make the entire process difficult for your customers. To bring benefits to your customers, consider using Advanced search and Autocomplete module.

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parthpatel

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parthpatel
Joined: April 21st, 2017
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