Information About Search And Browse

Customers must be able to find your products before they can buy your products. And customers can use several methods to find your products.

For example, a customer might type, “boot cut jeans” in a search box and explore the resulting products and categories. Or a customer might simply browse Sales4Merchants.Com by categories. To find boot-cut jeans, she could visit the apparel store and then use the links in the Browse box to follow the path Women > Pants > Jeans > Boot Cut & Flare.

In both cases, you can use several techniques to help ensure that your products are included in search results or along a relevant browse path.

Maximizing Your Exposure in the Search Index

Price, availability, selection, and sales history all influence the location of your product in the search results. Also, Sales4Merchants.Com continuously shuffles the search results to more evenly promote products. This means that better selling products tend to be towards the beginning of the list, so as your sales increase, you can expect your products to appear more frequently towards the beginning of the search results.

Search terms (keywords) are the primary method customers use to locate products on Sales4Merchants.Com. Good search terms go a long way towards increased product visibility and sales. Most products can support five keywords. Think like your customers and use the terms that are popular on your own site or product line.

Here are some tips for optimizing your search terms:

• Use detailed product names - Each individual word in the Product Name is searchable by itself. Having detailed product names helps ensure that your product appears in the search results. For example, suppose your product name is "Allison's Gourmet Organic Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies - One Dozen." Because this product name is very detailed, this product already has a good selection of search terms even before you add the additional terms.
  
  Add as much information to your product name as you can that comprises the following:

• Brand and product description (for example, a mahogany table or Godiva chocolates)

• Product line (for example, Windsor Collection or Saxony)

• Material or key ingredient (for example, 300-threadcount cotton, milk chocolate, or oak)

• Color (for example, walnut or red)

• Size

• Quantity

• Use terms once - Because the words of the product name are already searchable, do not use search terms that are words also contained in the title. For example, the complete list of automatic search terms for Allison's Cookies is allison, gourmet, organic, chocolate, chip, pecan, cookie, one & dozen. Good search terms for Allison's Cookies, therefore, might be "natural," "baked," and "dessert."

• Use single words - Single words work better as search terms than phrases. If you use phrases, then customers must type each entry exactly as you entered it. For example, if you enter "natural baked dessert" as search terms for Allison's Cookies, then that is what customers must type. If they type "natural" or "dessert," your products won't appear in the search results. However, by listing these terms separately, you allow for more combinations, such as natural, natural dessert, baked desserts, baked, dessert, and baked natural. If you aren't getting the sales you expect, continue to experiment with your search terms until you find you have the best combination of product title and search terms for your products.

Tip: Commonly misspelled words are often great search terms. For example, for Allison's Cookies, use "desert" along with "dessert" as your search terms.

Maximizing Your Exposure in the Browse Structure

For example, one merchant might sell a carrying case for a bowling ball. Using the ICG, he describes his product using the Item Type term "bowling-bags." Another merchant sells a sports bag that can be used for multiple sports but can work well for bowling balls. Using the ICG, she describes the same product using the Item Type term “general-use-sports-bags” along with the Used For term "bowling." Both products are assigned to the Sports > Bowling > Bowling Bags browse node, but the second product appears in other nodes as well.

This is an important difference between Sales4Merchants.Com and other online marketplaces. Because you describe your products instead of assigning them to a particular browse node, you do not need to reclassify your products if the browse structure changes.

The more accurate and thorough your classifications, the better Sales4Merchants.Com can place your products in relevant browse nodes across the site. Use these best practices to help ensure that your products are properly included in the browse structure:

• Select the most specific Item Type possible for your products from the ICG. Using vague general terms may prevent your products from surfacing as customers browse to more clearly defined categories.

• Use as many of the other types of terms from the ICG as possible, such as Target Audience, Used For, Other Item Attributes, and Subject Content. (The ICG for your product category might include different terms.) The key element here is to describe your product as fully as possible.

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