Online shopping: Search abandonment still vexes Indian retailers-the problem and how to fix it
Despite the continued rise in online shopping, many shoppers report hurdles in the product discovery experience on retailers' ecommerce properties. Gone are the days where retailers can expect a customer to search, filter and refine repeatedly to find what they want. People around the world now expect site search engines to understand their intent deeply, return relevant results and help them discover new products easily with personalized recommendations.
New data from a Google Cloud-commissioned Harris Poll survey finds that search abandonment—when a shopper searches for a product on a retailer's website or mobile app, but doesn't find what they are looking for—Rs. 70.9T each year in India
The problem is that consistency is lacking in retailers' search experiences. 96% of Indian consumers say that they have used the search function or search box on a retail website on an average 5 times and it did not provide the item they were looking for.
And after an unsuccessful search experience using the search function or search box on a retail website, 63% of consumers in India say they typically abandon their entire cart and go elsewhere if there's at least one item they can't find on a website.
Search abandonment has a real impact on brand loyalty too. 65% of Indian consumers say they are less loyal to a brand when it's hard to find what they want on a website. To this point, nearly 73% of them agree that after an unsuccessful search experience on a retail website they are more likely to leave the site and purchase the item elsewhere. Furthermore, 70% of Indian consumers say they avoid websites where they have experienced search difficulties in the past
It is still a struggle for many retailers' search engines to understand exactly
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