Search is hugely important to the modern shopping experience so it’s something of a surprise to discover that e-tailers are falling down in this crucial area.

That’s according to a survey of nearly 900 UK and US shoppers on behalf of search and product discovery platform Constructor. It claims that 68% of shoppers think the search function on retail websites needs an upgrade; 44% find that when they shop with their favourite retailer online, “the site treats them like a total stranger”; but 52% say they’d be “very” or “somewhat” comfortable using generative AI to discover the best products for them — up from 42% last year.

Four in 10 e-shoppers give product discovery experiences a ‘C’ grade or lower, the study claimed.

The problem is “cookie-cutter online shopping experiences. Pages (and pages) of search results that don’t fit the bill. Filtering functionality that’s so limited, it might as well not be there,” we’re told.

The survey covered shoppers’ preferences and experiences when they search and browse on e-commerce websites (excluding Amazon) and found 44% of respondents say it takes at least three minutes to wade through search results and locate the product they need. For 21%, it takes at least eight minutes with only 24% saying finding products online is “quick”.

At the same time 41% say they have to “frequently” or “always” reformulate search queries to get e-commerce search engines to understand what they mean. 

And even when search results are technically correct (that is, the consumer searches for ‘shirts’ and that’s what shows up), 42% say the products aren’t what they’re hoping to see and don’t reflect their preferences. 

Lost customers

The problem for retailers is that online shoppers say when they can’t find what they want, they’re more likely to leave the retail site (52%).

But if the search experience was much better, 62% would shop more at that retailer, 42% would choose the retailer first, 41% would leave a positive review, and 24% (up from 15% last year) would pay up to 10% more for the items they’re seeking.

So what’s on shopper wishlists search-wise? Some 45% want results that better reflect what they’re looking for; 33% are calling for better filtering of results; 30% want more personalisation (but this drops to 18% in the 60+ age group); and 24% want better integration of online and in-store experiences.

It’s important to get search right on mobile as the survey data shows 61% do at least half of their online shopping from their mobile device while 21% do all their online shopping via mobile.

As for AI, 51% say they’ve tried ChatGPT and other GenAI tools and the aforementioned 52% who’d be comfortable using it for product discovery are up from just 42% a year ago.

And there are lots of areas in which they think AI can be useful. That includes product recommendations, visual search, personalisation, fraud detection, virtual try-on and customer support.