What Is Autocomplete?
Search autocomplete, also known as autosuggest, is a search feature/solution that suggests the fitting recommendation to website users once they click or start typing in the search box with the goal to help find the most relevant information. Such a solution is especially important for eCommerce businesses that want to improve UX and increase sales.
How Autocomplete Works
Search with autocomplete works by displaying the query suggestion once you start typing in the search bar. Autocomplete text suggestions will be generated and shown to you right after the first typed letters. The more characters you type, the more relevant and accurate the suggestions turn up.
Benefits Of Autocomplete
eCommerce autocomplete has many benefits:
- Gives results of high relevance.
- Corrects typos.
- Usually supports many locales.
- Works for multiple content types.
- Lets you create a vocabulary of synonyms.
- Supports the look-up of the category name and associated products.
- Works extremely fast.
When To Use Autocomplete Search
This solution is especially useful to eCommerce businesses that have online stores with a large volume of products. This type-ahead feature speeds up the process and increases the chances of finding the goods your buyers did not know about. It maximizes the user’s chances of finding the right option among the wide range of products you offer, boosts customer experience, and increases your sales.
eCommerce Autocomplete Search Solutions
- Sphinx Search Ultimate is a great autocomplete solution for eCommerce businesses that use the Magento platform. It has 4 powerful modules with an extensive set of options for more effective product look-up. An integrated reporting tool helps you analyze your inquiries for further adjustment of your configurations.
- Omega Instant Search is an extension for Shopify users that instantly delivers accurate product results. Drop-down autosuggest is integrated with your website search bar, autocomplete fixes misspellings in real-time and customized filters work right on a page with inquiry results.
- There are also many other solutions such as Bloomreach, Searchspring, Yext, Swiftype, and others.
Search Autocomplete Best Practices
- Personalize suggestions to increase their effectiveness – consider customer location, and language and include their search history products in the suggestions list.
- Make sure the eCommerce autocomplete is manageable – limit your suggestions to 10 or even fewer.
- Bring down the visual noise – even though modern solutions allow adding elements like product images, prices, and short descriptions, do not get too carried away with this, as too many visual elements can distract users from focusing on actual suggestions.
- Choose the correct style: use different colors for different suggestion types, to help users differentiate them, and make small style alterations to make the search bar suggestions easier to scan.
