According to opensned,” Visitors who use site search convert at rates up to 50% higher than the average shopper and can account for nearly half of all revenue despite representing only a small percentage of total traffic.”
One of the most underrated parts of an online store's growth is e-commerce search. When a person uses search it generally indicates that the searcher is not just browsing casually. There is an intent to to buy or at least gain more information to aid the decision to buy. They have an idea of what they want, and are actively looking to find it. If your store’s search is good, your buying journey becomes much shorter, and if it does not work, it subtly kills conversions.
A good search will make the customer feel seen, whereas a bad search leaves them feeling lost.
This is why e-commerce search metrics are so important. They let you know if your store is helping a customer's discovery journey or hampering it. In this blog, we will look at the most critical e-commerce search metrics and KPIs, and explain what good looks like, why issues occur and how a Shopify store owner can fix them.
Core Search KPIs
These are base metrics, which are critical to understanding if your search is healthy or broken.
Search Exit Rate
This is the percentage of users who immediately exit your site after using the search function. A user who searches for a product, finds results irrelevant and leaves.
SER Target: Anything under 30% can be considered good.
This metric is meant to answer a very core question, did our search make their journey easy or end up frustrating them.
A high search exit rate can mean one of three things -
- The search results are irrelevant
- The results make users feel overwhelmed or they find it difficult to navigate
- The user lost trust immediately.
Let's look at an example: If a user searches for “ cheap headphones “ and the first set of products are all from the premium segment, they will likely think you only have premium products and not what they need. They won't scroll, just leave. This is why this metric is so important. The users are high intent, and you have just lost an easy conversion.
How to reduce search exit rate:
- Make your query matching accurate, top results to match search.
- Highlight products that are in the users price range, category or expectations
- Items with low stock or non-alignment should not be shown on top.
If your rate is always above 30%, this means users do not trust your search.
No Results Rate
This is the percentage of searches that output zero products.
NRR Target: Anything below 5% is good.
A zero result search is user journey death. The user will feel like they have hit a wall.
This happens because of:
- Spelling Errors
- Naming Nomenclature
- Long-winded search words
- Products that are tagged inaccurately
For example, a customer searches for “Iphone clear case” but your products are only tagged as “transparent phone cover”. Even though you have the product they are looking for, your search cannot connect the dots. Even worse than this is a blank page, without any further recommendations. A user would most definitely exit at this point.
Easy Fixes -
- Add any synonyms and alternate phases users might use
- Autocomplete search queries
- Related products should still be shown in case of no exact matches.
If this metric stays below 5%, you are winning the customers attention, and they are always seeing something useful for them
Search CTR (Click Through Rate)
This is the percentage of users that visit a product page from the search results
Search CTR Target: Should be above 20%
This measures how compelling your results page is for a user.
A low CTR indicates:
- Unappealing thumbnails
- Price-expectation mismatch
- Multiple similar items lacking differentiation
- Useful results are not shown at the top
This metric can easily improve if a user quickly sees what they are searching for. Good images, highlighted pricing, smart sorting, badges like “New “ or “ Bestseller” are all useful. If users search but do not click, then your search is not not working as the presentation is failing.
Conversion Metrics
After a user has clicked, the next question is where they are purchasing or not.
Search-to-Purchase Rate
This measures the number of searches that resulted in a conversion.
S-P Rate Target: Above 10%
This rate will always be more than your overall rate of conversion as search users are high intent and already want to make a purchase.
If this metric is not high, it could mean:
- Low quality product details page
- Irrelevant filters
- Mismatch of price expectations.
- Low variations for size/color
Fashion brands usually have 8-12% purchase rates here, which is a realistic benchmark. A better performing search directly improves this figure. A better match will lead to faster and more favorable results.
Search Bounce Rate
This is the percentage of users who will search, click and land on a page, and then immediately leave without further interactions.
SBR Target: Should be under 40%
This is usually a function of how the website performance experience is for the user, and a high SBR indicates issues with performance.
Mostly likely reasons:
- Search pages load very slowly
- Images lag, especially on mobile devices
- Filters that do not work
- Results that do not really work, but are technically correct.
For example, if a user spends more than a few seconds waiting for a search page to load, they will abandon their session. Speed is critical here, probably more than any other page on your site. Image compression, succinct scripts, and through mobile testing are easy ways to bring down the bounce rates quickly.
Exit rates and bounce rates are interconnected, where a low exit and bounce rate will lead to higher conversions. Improving either one, most often improves the other.
User Behavior Insights
These are the metrics which help a store owner know what a shopper is really trying to do.
Popular Search Terms
These are the most common queries that a shopper would type into your store's search.
For example, some PST for a tech accessories company could be:
- “ Wireless earphones”
- “ White Earpods “
- “ Cheap Headphones “
These would be demand signs, which tell the store owner what most customers are expecting to find. These insights are useful to:
- Make sure that products that people look for are always in Stock
- Optimise your product naming and tagging
- See gaps that have demand, but you don't yet have supply
This data is very easily accessible on Shopify search reports. Keeping track of these regularly will help a store owner align their inventory cycles with real customer demand.
Search Refinement Rate
This is a measure of how frequently users search again after already having searched once.
SRR Target: 15–25%.
This would generally look like:
First search - “ dress “, and then later “ dress size 10 “
First search - “ Shoes” , and then “ Track shoes for men “
This is not necessarily a search flaw, since a user is most likely narrowing down their options. Having a decent rate of refinement means that users are exploring their store logically. This is a good thing. However if the rate of refinement is very high, it can be an indication that filters are not easy to find, or that the initial search results are too vague.
Accurate filters, visible facets, and a mobile first design can make refinement feel organic instead of painful.
Zero Result Handling
While this is not a metric, it has a significant impact on how users behave.
A good Zero Result Handling could look like:
Autocompleting suggestions
- A “Did you mean” recommendation
- Display of close alternatives
- Showcase popular products
If a store can really crack their zero results handling, then they can save almost 70% of users who would have left after getting no results for their search. This is a key insight for any Shopify store owner: Do not let your users stare at empty pages. Even inaccurate recommendations are much better than nothing.
Shopify Search Optimization
Shopify already has a lot of great tools out of the gates, it's up to the store owners to use them well.
Search & Discovery App
This is a free Shopify App that lets a store owner:
- Add synonymes, for example “sneakers” and “trainers”
- Easily promote bestsellers
- Customize your result ordering
- Optimise your rules for relevant searching
This is an easy way to increase sales, sometimes by almost up to 20%, by making sure that the right products appear in front of the right users. Most store owners install this but do not really configure it. The value is not in downloading it, but in actively managing this App.
Metafields and Filters
This are what allow a store owner to create filters like:
- Colour
- Size
- Material
- Fit
- Price
And any other filters required. This becomes even more important on mobile, where a majority of searches currently happen. This user wants to narrow down options quickly, without needing to type everything out, and in some cases give them ideas about what they could use to narrow down their search. Good filters help reduce the friction from refinement, and increase user confidence and trust.
Page Speed
As a rule of thumb, a search page should load in under 2 seconds. A slow page kills user momentum. Using tools to add personalisation or smart ranking is useful, but the loading speed should always be monitored. Testing for search performance should always be run on real devices and not just your own desktop.
Search Audit Checklist
Conducting a search audit regularly prevents smaller issues from leaking revenue.
Use Shopify to get the data, and use the checklist below to maintain search performance:
Then go further:
- See the top 40-50 search terms, and rate the results on whatever scale you find easy to understand.
- Test out the zero result handling, by seeing at least 20 zero search results, and how autocompletion or suggestions appear.
- Find out where the users are dropping of from search to purchase
- Figure out filter gaps or flows that are not working
- Test Page Load times ( Specifically on mobile )
- Test mobile vs desktop experience for search
The biggest problems should be given attention first, because these will be easy wins for a store owner. A popular term with poor search results will give you a fast and volume heavy win, so this should be where you begin. And slowly move towards smaller problems, since these are also revenue leaks for your Shopify Store.
Plugging-in PushOwl to your Shopify store and using this checklist will mean better search for your customer and lower abandoned carts for you. This will also make PushOwl notifications more effective and relevant, and help move your conversion rates higher and higher.
