PartySuppliesDelivered.com Demonstrates Significant Bottom Line Benefits of Enhanced Site Search

SAN JOSE, Calif., July 26, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- SLI Systems (www.sli-systems.com) today announced that PartySuppliesDelivered.com has increased its conversion rate by more than 200% and average order values by as much as 10% after implementing the company's full-service hosted site search. The online party supplies retailer has also improved its ability to merchandise products within site search results and to customize navigation and refinement features to meet the needs of its site visitors – resulting in additional bottom line benefits.

PartySuppliesDelivered.com, based in Brighton, Michigan, offers one-stop online shopping for people seeking party supplies, holiday decorations, and costumes, and carries more than 4,000 products. The company is a division of Mattress USA, which operates several online retail businesses, including US-Mattress.com and FurnitureCrate.com. PartySuppliesDelivered.com was using its ecommerce platform's default site search solution, but Ian MacDonald, division vice president for ecommerce and marketing for PartySuppliesDelivered.com – and a former customer of SLI Systems while at previous e-commerce companies, saw an opportunity to dramatically improve the party supplies site's search and navigation usability.

"I've used SLI site search and navigation solutions at three companies previously, and I knew that it would encourage more customers to use search more frequently – which creates improvements in conversions, page views, and almost every other important business metric," MacDonald said. "Site search from SLI provides a more engaging and sticky browsing and shopping experience for our customers, and lets us create merchandising banners or promote products within search – all of which translates directly to more revenue."

Within a few months of deploying SLI's Learning Search and Learning Navigation solutions, the conversion rate for visitors who used search climbed 207%. Site search exits dropped 50% within just a few months – a direct result, said MacDonald, of Learning Search's ability to "learn" from past site search activity by interpreting site visitors' search queries and click-throughs, and improve relevance of results.

Improved navigational elements are also encouraging site visitors to explore search results more deeply and browse the site longer. The number of visitors who use refinements has grown almost 24% since SLI was launched; in addition, page views per visit for site visitors who use search has grown 132% since PartySuppliesDelivered.com began using SLI.

"SLI delivered rapid results for our business because of its easy integration – sending product data from our e-commerce platform was a seamless process, and even other types of data like product reviews and item-level sales history were quickly added," MacDonald said. "The entire implementation process was made even easier with the full service that SLI provides – SLI's customer success team is always available when we need them, and are proactive about recommending new features and functionality that can benefit our business."

SLI Systems' full-service, customized site search, navigation and merchandising offerings help businesses like PartySuppliesDelivered.com meet customer expectations for relevant results and information, and also promote particular products and brands, all based on previous visitors' search and click-through activity. The solutions are dynamic, so results change as customer buying trends and search terms shift. Additionally, SLI's offerings are backed by the company's team of search and navigation experts, who oversee deployment and provide ongoing management and support.

"Online retailers have different needs for site search and navigation depending on their products and their customers' browsing and buying habits," said Shaun Ryan, CEO of SLI Systems. "Site search solutions need to offer the flexibility to allow retailers to add or delete refinement options, reorder results, and customize the look and feel of the entire customer experience – and also provide the necessary data to guide these important decisions."

About SLI Systems
SLI Systems provides full-service site search, navigation, merchandising, and user-generated SEO, and is the top SaaS-based site search provider to IR500 retailers. Unlike traditional search software, SLI Systems' patented technology continuously "learns" from the behavior of visitors over time to deliver more relevant results. This learning-based search and navigation technology empowers retailers and content sites to enhance customer satisfaction by helping site visitors find the products and information they seek as quickly and efficiently as possible, increasing site conversions and average order value. SLI Systems is a privately held company, with offices in San Jose, CA; London, UK; Melbourne, Australia; and Christchurch, New Zealand.

For more information about site search and improving the eCommerce user experience, please listen to SLI hosted eCommerce podcasts at http://www.ecommercepodcast.com, participate in the latest site search and user experience discussions on the LinkedIn Group at http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2003952&trk=hb_side_g, or read about the latest insight on site search, navigation, merchandising and SEO on SLI's official blog at http://blog.sli-systems.com.   

For more information about SLI Systems, visit www.sli-systems.com, watch the SLI overview video at WatchSLIVideo.com, watch the SLI YouTube Channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/SLISiteSearch, follow SLI on Twitter at http://twitter.com/slisystems, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/slisystems, on Google+ at http://gplus.to/slisystems, on Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/slisystems, and now on Pinterest at http://pinterest.com/slisystems/.

SOURCE SLI Systems