Your Online Shop Is Only as Good as Its Search Bar

Recently, I went looking for a USB-C monitor. I typed “usb c monitor” into the onlineshop of the nearest electronics store getting nothing relevant back. Confused, I ran the same search on four more major Swiss retailers. One showed only cables. Two didn’t list any monitors. One buried the relevant products under five unrelated results. Only one got it right.

Maybe “Bildschirm” was the better term? Tried that. No improvement.

Your search engine is your sales team. If it can’t understand intent, it can’t convert. And if your customer has to work to find what they need, they’re gone.

Most retailers already sit on gold: behavioral data, product metadata, competitor benchmarks. But few close the loop. I’d challenge any digital retailer with this:

• Search performance is measurable.
• The signals are already there.
• Where’s the operational follow-through?

Your onlineshop is only as good as search bar. If yours isn’t converting, don’t blame traffic.