John Lewis Direct has implemented search technology on its website to improve service and usability as sales soar and its online catalogue expands.

While search engines like Google have made finding just about anything on the Internet easily possible, a surprising number of retail websites still depend on hierarchical catalogue structures and a list of product groups rather than that a search box using natural language. The result is not only frustrated shoppers likely to abandon the site, but a missed opportunity for making ad hoc and personalised offers based on a shoppers search activity and preferences.

John Lewis Direct – currently experiencing a 78.5% increase in online sales and an increased catalogue of 22,000 product online – has implemented FAST’s Enterprise Search Platform which over the past year has not only proved scalable but has also enabled add-on service offers and information links for customers researching products.

“Our search challenge was one of supporting rapid growth balanced with our determination to offer the best customer service,” says Ian Tansley, head of web selling at John Lewis Direct. “We chose FAST because the technology allowed us rapidly to re-index our growing product catalogue and enabled users to find what they need very easily. In addition, the flexibility of the FAST solution has allowed us to also present relevant service information to customers on a variety of topics ranging from “how to select the right child seat” to “how to manage returns.”

Many retail websites offer little more than basic product categories (bras, jam, v-necks etc) which click through to a catalogue of what is available often in seemingly random order. In addition many search tools work by funnelling requests along pre-defined paths and they can rarely cope with spelling mistakes, free text descriptions or very specific requests. Searching for “a v-neck sweater not plain but patterned” will either confuse the system or simply generate a selection of all v-neck jerseys available regardless of style.

In contrast FAST’s uses product attributes to drive a dynamic navigation engine. There are no pre-defined routes so each search request can be processed and navigated to the most appropriate product. The system can also track shopper’s reactions to search results to deliver more appropriate choices for an individual customer. The system has been available in the US for around three years wand users include such companies as Best Buy and Nordstrom.

“FAST was the only search vendor that really understood our focus on establishing the most intelligent, informative product index,” says Ian Tansley. “We believe that this is a corner stone of providing a high level of customer experience.”

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Brits are accustomed to going straight to .co.uk domains when searching for a site, according to a new survey by YouGov.

Over 60% of the 2000 or so internet users questioned said that the .co.uk ending will automatically mean that the site they’re looking for or visiting will be more relevant to them, while 33% think that local domain names are “essential”.

Seventy per cent of those surveyed said they knew to go straight to Amazon.co.uk rather than Amazon.com in order to find the products they’re looking for.

“The findings show that British internet users are loyal to local websites and have higher levels of trust for the .uk domain name”, said Lesley Cowley, CEO of Nominet, the domain registry service for whom the service was carried out.

“It’s clear that the trust issue is one of increasing importance to the Internet industry, as well as internet users.”

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Web designers and marketing agencies still have no idea how to build websites so they can be found on the Internet, blasts Matt Paines, head of search optimization company XSEO. The startling discovery was made through holding a web design help clinic at a recent trade show.

One of the UK’s leading search engine optimising experts has blasted marketing agencies and web designers for turning out very poor websites which may look good, but stand little or no chance of being found by search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN.

Head of XSEO, Matt Paines,(pictured) is dismayed after finding nearly two thirds of websites viewed as part of his company’s Search Clinic at last week’s Technology For Marketing Show (TFM) at Olympia could not be seen by the major search engines.

Of the 88 websites which were tested at XSEO’s Search Clinic at the two day Technology For Marketing Show (TFM), only 52 could be searched online and could be tested. Of those, 32 were deemed so poorly designed that there was little on no chance that search engines could see them.

Paines, who is due to speak at this week’s Search Engine Strategies (until February 15th) conference in London, even spotted that some of the websites of major UK brands needed modifications if they are to perform better in natural search results.

“It is absolutely ridiculous that marketing companies and web designers are still building websites without giving any thought to how they can be optimised,” he said.

“It’s like building a car and not putting the engine in. It’s a fundamental problem but the point is that building search engine friendly or accessible websites is not complicated, in fact it’s relatively easy.”

Search engines use simple programs – which are commonly know as robots or spiders – that crawl the Internet looking for websites and their content. If they can access a website they can begin assessing the relevance to any given search.

Being search engine friendly allows the search engines to enter the site and read the content. So conversely having a site that does not give the crawlers something to read will prohibit them from understanding the site’s content thereby destroying any ability of being ranked highly in a search for a product or service.

Paines, who is one of only two Microsoft Search Engine champs in the UK, is worried clients are losing millions because they are being ill advised by their marketeers and web design agencies.

“We’ve seen some stunning websites which are worthy of winning awards, but they’re virtually useless,” he added. “In some cases the cheapest option is to start all over again because their sites are that badly designed.”

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