How important is on-site search?

On-site search is often overlooked but it can be one of the most important parts of a website.  For e-commerce websites, on-site search is just as important as the hierarchical navigation. But what can we learn about the value of transactions made via on-site search? Consider the data for on-site search usage from an e-commerce bike website.

The percentage of website visitors using on-site search is quite low at 9%. This low percentage can be misinterpreted that on-site search is an unimportant part of the website. But looking at website visitors who actually complete a purchase reveals a different story.

The percentage of website visitors who purchase after using on-site search is a significant 37%.

The next question to ask is; what are the value of the transactions?

The percentage of revenue from website visitors who use on-site search is 44%.

The final piece of data is a comparison of the average value of transaction between visitor who use search and visitors who don’t.

On-site search transactions are 35% larger in value than transactions from visitors who didn’t use search.

Summary

On-site search usage can give an additional level of insight to user behaviour on a website.  As shown in this example there is a strong correlation between on-site search with e-commerce transactions.  This highlights that the search functionality is an important factor for some visitors when making a purchase and on average results in larger value purchases.