Product Search, Navigation, and Findability

Description

Are your customers, partners or employees frustrated with searching but not finding? Are you trying to improve findability at your company?

Our research in search and findability is designed to support the solution selection process. First, we explain the value of implementing premium search technology and how it relates to your company’s information management practices (or lack thereof). Next, we identify detailed customer requirements for search solutions, evaluate the top products against those requirements, provide side-by-side comparisons, and offer an RFP template you can use to help you chose the solution that best meets your needs. Finally, we describe how companies have been successful in implementing search technology and managing findability.

Our customer requirements are presented as evaluation frameworks comprised of several dozen criteria against which you can evaluate individual products and compare multiple products. The criteria are derived from analyzing critical Customer Scenarios, and address capabilities, architecture, product marketing and company viability. Our research incorporates customer and vendor interviews and experiences with the technology being evaluated.

To date, we have created and applied evaluation frameworks for self-service and support search solutions and product search solutions.

The Essentials

Featured Research

• Ecommerce Search Evaluation: Mercado Ignition
  User Interface, Ecommerce Search, Merchandising, and Marketing
  09/18/2008 - Susan Aldrich
• Search Product and Company Update
  Part 1, Privately Held Companies: Strong Second Half Finishes a Strong 2007
  03/27/2008 - Susan Aldrich
• Roles and Responsibilities
  Patty’s Dream Team: Roles and Responsibilities
  03/19/2008 - Patricia Seybold with Susan Aldrich
• Five Principles of Customer Engagement
  How to Connect More People to the Products They Need
  02/28/2008 - Susan Aldrich
• Avoiding Search Pitfalls
  How to Sidestep and Recover from the Worst Problems
  11/08/2007 - Susan Aldrich 
• Search Product and Company Update
  Part 1, Privately-Held Companies: Very Strong First Half in 2007
  10/11/2007 - Susan Aldrich 
• The First Big Mistake in Search and Knowledge Projects
  Establishing the Right Vision and Compelling Communications
  07/19/2007 - Susan Aldrich
• Customer Support: Success with Knowledge Management
  Developmental Model Observed
  06/07/2007 - Susan Aldrich
• Enterprise Search Evaluation: Endeca Information Access Platform V.5.1
  Ecommerce Search, Merchandising, and Marketing
  05/10/2007 - Susan Aldrich
• Enterprise Search Evaluation: Fredhopper Access Server V.6.0 Evaluation
  Marketing Automation, Scalability, and Configurable Search for Commerce
  01/25/2007 - Susan Aldrich
• Site Search Self-Assessment
  How Does Your Company’s Search Capability Stack Up?
  11/02/2006 - Susan Aldrich
• Search Product and Company Update
  Part 2, Private Companies: Strong First Half in 2006
  08/24/2006 - Susan Aldrich
• Search Product and Company Update
  Part 1, Public Companies: Slowing First Half in 2006
  08/17/2006 - Susan Aldrich
• What Differentiates the Search Experience?
  Philosophy and Search Management Make the Difference at Online Department Stores
  07/27/2006 - Susan Aldrich
• Search Experience Metrics
  Key Indicators You Should Be Tracking for Customer Search Experience
  07/06/2006 - Susan Aldrich
• Seeker Experience Survey
  Is Search Getting Better?
  06/01/2006 - Susan Aldrich
• Bloomingdales.com
  Merchandising and Customer Experience
  04/27/2006 - Susan Aldrich
• Macys.com
  Merchandising and Customer Experience
  04/13/2006 - Susan Aldrich
• Product Search Research Collection
  Establishing evaluation criteria, in-depth analysis, side-by-side comparison, and ranking of five leading product search providers (ATG, Endeca, FAST, Mercado, and WebSideStory)
  03/30/2006 - Susan Aldrich
• PSGroup Bull’s-Eye: Product Search Solutions
  Which Providers Offer the Best Overall Capabilities? Featuring ATG, Endeca, FAST, Mercado, and WebSideStory
  02/16/2006 - Susan Aldrich
• Emerchandising Framework
  Applying the 4 Es for Customer Ease
  01/19/2006 - Susan Aldrich
• Product Search Solution Feature Comparison Matrix Round 2
  Comparing ATG, Endeca, FAST, Mercado, and WebSideStory against Our Evaluation Framework
  01/19/2006 - Susan Aldrich
• Product Search Solution Evaluation Matrix
  A Blank Matrix to Facilitate Your Evaluation Process
  01/19/2006 - Susan Aldrich
• ATG Commerce Search V.2006.1 Product Search Solution
  Cross-Lifecycle Customer Experience and Cross-Channel Marketing
  12/22/2005 - Susan Aldrich
• Endeca InFront V.4.7 Product Search Solution
  Guided Navigation and Advanced Merchandising
  10/6/2005 - Susan Aldrich
• IBM’s Strategy for Search
  Unstructured Information Management Architecture Signals Sea Change
  09/08/2005 - Susan Aldrich
• Are You Handling Content Management as a Customer-Critical Issue?
  Shoddy Content Management Will Adversely Impact the Value of Your Company
  07/21/2005 - Patricia Seybold
• WebSideStory Search Product Search Solution
  Hosted Search and Navigation
  07/14/2005 - Susan Aldrich
• In Google We Trust?
  What’s Google’s Impact on Your Strategy?
  07/07/2005 - Patricia Seybold
• Discovering Findability Requirements from Customer Scenario Maps
  Building Your Search and Navigation Approach
  05/12/2005 - Susan Aldrich
• FAST ImPulse V.5.0 Product Search
  Merchandising, Collaboration, and Analysis
  03/31/2005 — Susan Aldrich
• Mercado CSN V.3.0 Product Search
  Leading Merchandising Environment and Buyer Experience
  02/24/2005 — Susan Aldrich
• Product Search, Findability, and Navigation - Volume 1: Decision Maker's Guide
  Evaluating Search Solutions that Will Help Your Customers Quickly Find the Right Products
  12/28/2004 — Susan Aldrich
• Product Search, Findability, and Navigation - Volume 2: Product Reviewer's Guide
  Evaluating Search Solutions that Will Help Your Customers Quickly Find the Right Products
  12/29/2004 — Susan Aldrich

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