Typo-tolerant site search: +11.7% revenue per user
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsSwapping native Shopify search for a typo-tolerant, semantic search engine lifted revenue per user by 11.7% for La Fée Maraboutée.
Add-to-cart rate rose 9.4%. AB Tasty ran the test with its own search product, and it was published as a VWO case study.
- Revenue per user: +11.7%.
- Add-to-cart rate: +9.4%.
- Both figures come from the first two weeks of the campaign.
The change
Same search preview design; the engine behind it now handles typos and synonyms.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
The native Shopify search preview, which matched the brand's look but had no typo tolerance or semantic matching. Small spelling errors could return poor results or none.
Variant
A search preview that looked the same but ran on an engine that handled typos and understood related terms.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- Searchers show strong buying intent, so fixing 'no results' pages helps the most valuable visitors.
- Typo handling and synonym matching return relevant products for queries that used to fail.
- Keeping the same design meant the gain came from better results, not a new look.
Caveats: The vendor tested its own search product, and the results cover only two weeks during a peak shopping period. Sample size and confidence were not shared.
Who ran it
AB Tasty ran this test for La Fée Maraboutée and published the results (VWO case study). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on AB Tasty →
How to run this test on your store
- Hypothesis
- If we make site search tolerate typos and match related terms, then more searchers will find and buy products because fewer queries will end in poor or empty results.
- Primary metric
- Revenue per user
- Guardrails
- Search exit rate
- Zero-result search rate
- Add-to-cart rate
- Who should test it
- Stores with large catalogs where many visitors use search. It matters less for shops with a handful of products that people browse rather than search.
Questions
Does better site search increase revenue?
In this test it raised revenue per user by 11.7% in two weeks.
Gains depend on how many visitors search and how weak your current search is.
What is typo-tolerant search?
It returns the right products even when a query is misspelled.
Semantic search goes further and matches related words, not just exact terms.
Similar tests
@oliverkenyon
Blend CommerceBlend CommerceBlend CommerceBlend CommerceBlend Commerce