Recommendations on zero-result searches: +2.74% revenue
Test run byOptimizelyTesting and CRO tool
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsSending shoppers whose searches found nothing to matched product recommendations lifted revenue by 2.74% and click-through by 2.11%.
Optimizely ran this test for an online retailer and published it as an Optimizely Field Notes use case.
Optimizely puts the annual gain at about $3.68M.
- +2.74% revenue.
- +2.11% click-through.
- About $3.68M annualized gain. This is Optimizely's own projection.
The change
The variant replaces the empty results page with matched products.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
A search with no matches showed a no-results page.
Variant
A search with no matches sent shoppers to product recommendations chosen by a machine matching system.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- A no-results page is a dead end, and many shoppers leave from it.
- Relevant alternatives give shoppers something to click instead of starting over.
- Shoppers who search have clear intent, so even close matches can turn into sales.
Caveats: Vendor-reported and anonymized, with no sample size, duration or confidence level shared. The annualized figure is a vendor projection.
Who ran it
Optimizely ran this test for an online retailer (Optimizely customer) and published the results (Optimizely Field Notes use case). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on Optimizely →
How to run this test on your store
- Hypothesis
- If we show matched product recommendations when a search returns nothing, then more shoppers will keep browsing and buy because they get relevant options instead of a dead end.
- Primary metric
- Revenue per searching visitor
- Guardrails
- Click-through from search
- Exit rate from search
- Return rate
- Who should test it
- Stores with large catalogs and many searches, where zero-result queries are common. If few searches come back empty, fix your synonyms first and the gain will be small.
Questions
What should a no-results search page show?
Show relevant alternatives instead of a blank page.
In this test, matched recommendations lifted revenue by 2.74%.
How do I find zero-result searches?
Most site search tools and analytics platforms report search terms with no results.
Review them regularly and fix common misses with synonyms.
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