Optimize Shopify Search Page For Great User Experience (UX)

The Shopify Search Page: Paving the Way for Business Growth

Shopify Search Page is – the hub of assorted collections of products and brands – the “coveted” spot in your storefront where website visitors, potential leads or existing customers look for their choice of items. The search page is often the primary touch point in the narrative of your customer’s journey. While other pages like Home and About Us are important in their own way, the significance of the search page can’t be overstated.

As your prospects spend time on the search page to find products of their choice, you need to leverage this “time” to engage them. This is when your users decide whether or not to revisit your storefront.

An Indirect Player in Driving Conversions

Search pages can make or break the deal. Imagine your prospect coming to the search page with all fervor and then keeps looking here and there for filters. Or, they choose an item in the filter drop-down only to find that your page takes a significant amount of time to load. Even worse, how your search page or filters are organized is so confusing that your potential customer gets frustrated and moves to your competitor’s website. In these scenarios, you’re not just losing a potential sale, but also a customer who might never return.

Regardless of anything, what’s common is – that you lose customers and, in turn, sales. While search pages don’t directly convert, they are undoubtedly a stepping stone in this regard.

Improves Customer Retention

Customers like to buy from digital storefronts that are convenient and user-friendly to navigate. With a simple look and feel and a few clicks to move further, users feel more engaged with the purchasing process. That way, they remain hinged on your site, browsing for any items they need. As your Shopify Search Page is customized to keep searches simple, it imparts a great user experience and fosters customer retention.

Sets the Stage for Referrals

Happy customers are catalysts for growing your business. With a great user experience searching and browsing on your search page, they will certainly spread word-of-mouth about your storefront to their family and friends. This opens the doors to new prospects and customers for you, thus driving growth.

Elevating Your Shopify Search Page to a Gratifying Customer Experience

Your Shopify Search Page contributes greatly to engaging prospects, retaining customers, and boosting sales. That said, it’s vital to make this page easy to navigate and convenient to use to ensure your leads or customers don’t drop off mid-way.

Here are some tips to transform your search page into one that offers a hassle-free and great user experience, bringing in more prospects.

High-quality Product Images & Clear Product Descriptions

Often, users become wary of making online purchases due to unclear product details. The image of the product alone doesn’t provide a complete profile. As a result, users end up buying something different, which leads to disappointment. Bridging the gap between what the user needs and what the product caters to can minimize unpleasant user experiences.

Optimize the Shopify Search Page User Experience with Quality Images

A few tips.

Shoddy images adversely impact buying decisions. Include clear, well-lit images of your product.
Add clear and accurate product descriptions. Mention colors, sizes, shapes, or other attributes as required.
Offer the zoom-in and zoom-out options to users so that they can view your product thoroughly.
Use 360-degree views of your product from varying angles.
Try adding a demo video showcasing how your product works, wherever applicable.

These steps will avoid any confusion in the minds of users regarding the product. This will ensure they make the right purchase decision, paving the way for a great user experience.

Personalization: Signal to Get Started

Personalization is the key. In a relatively impersonal online e-commerce world, this aspect finds special significance. Once the user is registered on your website, use their name, language, or such info on the search page. Never underestimate the value of a search page, as this is where your site visitors or customers spend most of their time.

Always refer to your users by their first names. Using greetings like “Hello Anna,” “Howdy, Bob,” or similar will help create a personal touch and a friendly start.

Recommendation: Improving the Customer Journey

In a digital age, you must stay aware of your customers’ tastes and preferences. A rule of thumb for crafting a great user experience is to express your concern and interest in their buying practices.

Show relevant products or brands to existing customers or leads who browsed your search page before. This is a powerful way to establish a rapport with them while making their purchase decision easier.

Here are some tips to help you serve your users better.

Useful and relevant items popping up instill curiosity and create interest in the users, prompting them to click on the product image.
Offer users a premium version or the latest models of a purchased product during checkout.
Bundle similar products and offer discounts or coupons instead of individual items.
Provide “Recently Viewed Items” on the cart page to help users remember what they bought.

Use of Display Filters: Simplifying Sorting and Selection

Keeping your Shopify search page easy to use and organized is a must to impart a great user experience. With a sea of products of varying brands and types to choose from, the entire process could seem overwhelming to users. Thanks to the Shopify Online Store 2.0 theme, you can include display filters across the page, making the search process an absolute breeze for them.

Use multiple filter categories – brands, availability, product type – for users to select from.
Enable faceted search options that allow customers to type in what they want, apply certain product features, and thus narrow down their results.

Enhanced Search Features: Helping Users Find Their Products

Your customers are busy folks. Ensure your search page is customized to let them find their products easily. Here are some tips to improve and offer a great user experience.

Optimize your search bar to ensure the font is large, correctly placed, and uses contrasting colors.
Use keywords that are common terms used by customers in the product titles.
Enable the predictive search or autocomplete feature. This lets customers complete their queries as they start typing, imparting an intuitive experience.
Activate visual search that lets customers find products based on images.

Discounts/Offers: Motivating Buying Behaviors

In the world of online shopping, what attracts your users the most are some goodies! Use the Shopify Search Page to show upcoming coupons, offers, or incentives based on your user’s earlier purchases. This is an amazing way to build customer loyalty while encouraging them to shop in the future. Leverage vibrant images and other tools to best showcase your offers.

Additionally, clicks to easy returns and exchanges, guaranteed refunds, and free shipping on the first order from the search page are other ways to create a great user experience.

Reviews, testimonials, and ratings offer users the ground to base their purchase decisions.

Use the positive reviews from other customers, feedback on products, and endorsements from influencers on your Shopify Search page. This lets your users make buying choices faster while assuring them of their decision. It helps forge stronger relationships with users as they move further in their journey with you.

Shopify Search Page Reports: Understand your Users’ Buying Behaviors

Use the Shopify Search Page inputs to delve deeper into your customers’ buying habits and patterns. Monitor metrics like bounce rates, views, number and types of searches, most-used filters, and more. You can also use the reports on the search page to assess how product recommendations are performing. These will help you understand areas of improvement on your page, what users like and what they don’t.

Working with Filters on Your Shopify Search Page

Here are steps to get started with filters:

In the Shopify Search & Discovery App, go to Filters. Click Add Filter.
Next, click the Source field. This lets you provide a filter source to your users.
In the Values, select all values you wish to show.
Click Save.

Additionally, there are options to rename a filter, select filter values to group together, or change a filter’s behavior.

Modify Your Shopify Search Page

As a store owner, your access to modify the Shopify Search Page is quite limited. Shopify lets you do most of the customization through Javascript code. While there is enough scope for customization, sound coding knowledge is required.

Leverage the Shopify App Store for Search Page Enhancements

As a digital storefront owner, you may look for apps on the Shopify App Store for tools that can help improve your Shopify Search Page user experience. The Shopify App Store is a place where you can find useful apps that serve your business needs to augment native Shopify functionality.

Final Thoughts on Optimization of the Shopify Search Page

Shopify Search Page, oft-neglected by store owners, holds much potential to unlock. Remember, this is a tool your prospects uses frequently while visiting your website. Finding what they need effortlessly and enjoying a great user experience will turn them into long-standing customers.

In essence, to boost your sales, nail the search page. Use tools like social proof, discounts/coupons, display filters, precise product descriptions, and others to reap the best benefits.

Back to Main Guide: Optimize Shopify Page Templates for Shopify Store Success

Next: Optimizing Shopify Landing Page Template for Enhanced User Experience and SEO