Neo Computers: How to Turn a Local Computer Store into a Profitable Ecommerce Business

Paul: Neo Computers is a computer shop where you can fix anything that can be fixed electronic-wise: consoles, phones, tablets. Apart from repairs we also sell hardware and software.

The company has been running for almost three years. Back when we started I used to do everything from home. But we've been growing and last year we decided to break into the ecommerce market to sell hardware, software, accessories, and peripherals.

Paul: At first, we built the website on a platform called Ecwid. It didn't go great, we only made enough to cover the cost of running the platform.

One of the core problems was that all the Ecwid sites look identical, as everybody is sort of stuck to one theme. We wanted something more unique for our website. Not fully customized, because it increases the cost drastically, but something that looks different from other sites. That's when we found BigCommerce.

So, at the start of this year, we've moved to the BigCommerce platform and now we're doing on average 10 000 $ sales a month. I feel like we're finally on the right track.

Of course, it is hard to compete with Amazon and other big companies in the UK who've been around since the 90s. It's difficult to break into the market and there's not a lot of profit in it, as everybody is in a race to the bottom of pricing. But we try our best. We have a loyalty scheme that Amazon doesn't have. Every delivery that we make is free and it's the next working day delivery for England, Whales, and Scotland. So, hopefully, over time, we will get where we want.

Paul: There were bits and pieces which I didn't like about BigCommerce and some of them were the search and product filtering. At BigCommerce you get product filtering only if you upgrade from the $80 plan to the Pro plan which is $299,95.

Meanwhile, their default search is absolutely terrible, you could type in SKU or an exact product name and it would just bring up random rubbish. It was very frustrating! That's why we started to look for a solution and came across Searchanise.

So, initially, we just wanted to get a proper product search. And then we found out that you also have filters for categories pages, which doubled the value of your app for our store.

Paul: If a customer has a manufacturer's part number or an SKU that they've found on another website, I want the site search to return relevant results when the customer puts that in the search bar.

Also, a good search should understand customers' search inputs even if they type in the rough product name.

Lastly, quality search should provide relevant search suggestions. For example, if I type in "cable" the search displays popular suggestions:

And Searchanise is doing everything that I wanted to have.

Paul: Searchanise has helped me a lot. Now the customers easily find what they need. Before Searchanise it was a big problem. When customers tried to search for something on the website, let's say a certain fan case, the BigCommerce search would throw up things like processors, graphic cards, cables, and other things that were completely unrelated. And even if you put the manufacturer's part number the default search didn't have a clue what it was and returned the "no results found" page.

Your app does a really great job in terms of helping customers navigate through the website and find what they want. And it also makes the website look and feel much more professional.

On top of it, Searchanise has also helped in terms of generating revenue. But unfortunately, I cannot provide you with certain figures here.

Paul: We like Searchanise. It does everything that we need to do that Bigcommerce for some reason doesn't provide. It's very easy to set up and it's a very good cost for what the product does. And the customer service was absolutely spot on. They helped us with all the questions we had.

I'm getting very positive feedback after I moved the website to the BigCommerce platform and installed Searchanise, compared to the store I had on Ecwid. Let alone the fact that we've boosted our revenue after moving.

Paul: I would recommend it to anybody on Shopify or BigCommerce. Especially for those who are on the BigCommerce platform, because of the limitations of the default search.

In fact, I did recommend your app in the Facebook group of BigCommerce users to somebody who was facing the same issues as me with the default search being absolutely terrible. And that was before we even knew about the tools you offer on your Pro plan, like product filters on categories pages.

✔️ Enhanced search and navigation help customers easily find what they want
✔️ Website looks and feels more professional
✔️ The e-store increased revenue
✔️ Paul received positive feedback on the website's performance

If you, too, are looking to overcome the limitations of the default search, install Searchanise!