What Does Enterprise-Level Site Search Solution Really Mean and Is It Worth Adopting?
5 min to read
Apr 7 2020
By Searchanise
When you're looking for a site search solution to suit your eCommerce store's needs, you are likely to run into enterprise-grade options along the way. It is natural that the two following questions come to your mind: 'What makes an enterprise search app different from others?' and 'Do I really have to be a large corporation to afford that premium service?' Well, we're here to explain that.
What Are Enterprise Business Needs?
Customizability
When we talk about enterprise-level businesses, there are hardly any needs that can be met just by installing an application and using it "as is". Enterprise-level businesses have their specific needs and requirements, therefore enterprise-level solutions are designed in a way to meet these needs and make the whole shopping process seamless.
These requirements usually fall into several geenral categories:
These requirements usually fall into several geenral categories:
Look and Feel
When you look at the stores of enterprise clients, one of the first things that come to mind is 'it's different'. Enterprises are working on creating and maintaining a unique recognizable brand identity. That, in turn, implies their storefront theme has been heavily customized and therefore a standard out-of-the-box search solution just won't do the trick.
Brands such as this require painless and quick implementation of new search functionality so that it blends in with the existing website design. Enterprise-level apps often include customization options to adapt the new functionality to the storefront theme and to the existing website design.
Functionality
An enterprise project might have a complex configuration. An online store might have contrasting user groups. Depending on which group the content is aimed at, different customers will see different things. Non-registered users might not be able to see certain product attributes like prices, for example. Therefore, the project will require a search solution that can be adjusted to such a store setup.
Access to API
Very often, enterprise businesses have in-house developers and require an access to search application API. That allows owners to do custom modifications and integrations themselves and implement any new features the business needs.
When you look at the stores of enterprise clients, one of the first things that come to mind is 'it's different'. Enterprises are working on creating and maintaining a unique recognizable brand identity. That, in turn, implies their storefront theme has been heavily customized and therefore a standard out-of-the-box search solution just won't do the trick.
Brands such as this require painless and quick implementation of new search functionality so that it blends in with the existing website design. Enterprise-level apps often include customization options to adapt the new functionality to the storefront theme and to the existing website design.
Functionality
An enterprise project might have a complex configuration. An online store might have contrasting user groups. Depending on which group the content is aimed at, different customers will see different things. Non-registered users might not be able to see certain product attributes like prices, for example. Therefore, the project will require a search solution that can be adjusted to such a store setup.
Access to API
Very often, enterprise businesses have in-house developers and require an access to search application API. That allows owners to do custom modifications and integrations themselves and implement any new features the business needs.
Dedicated Server
Another feature that comes with an enterprise-grade solution is that dedicated servers are used to process on-site searches - which greatly contributes to the overall sustainability of the project.
Catalog Size
Dedicated servers allow hosting on-site search queries for stores with extensive catalogs which might have hundreds of thousands of products. Only this type of hosting can ensure maximum search speed.
Speed
Indexation speed is crucial for huge businesses. If the server takes too long to re-index the product catalog and apply changes to the store settings, it makes customer experience worse and might result in shoppers leaving the website altogether.
As a rule, site search engines use separate dedicated servers for their enterprise-level clients. That ensures increased indexation speed on the backend and best widgets performance on the storefront. Every time a client makes changes in his website, thanks to the fast re-indexation the changes apply in no time and customers always have seamless experience using the search widgets and always get quick results of the highest relevance.
Server Monitoring
To ensure the highest level of security for their enterprise clients, site search vendors engage experienced DevOps specialists that continuously monitor the client's server performance and prevent security issues.
Another feature that comes with an enterprise-grade solution is that dedicated servers are used to process on-site searches - which greatly contributes to the overall sustainability of the project.
Catalog Size
Dedicated servers allow hosting on-site search queries for stores with extensive catalogs which might have hundreds of thousands of products. Only this type of hosting can ensure maximum search speed.
Speed
Indexation speed is crucial for huge businesses. If the server takes too long to re-index the product catalog and apply changes to the store settings, it makes customer experience worse and might result in shoppers leaving the website altogether.
As a rule, site search engines use separate dedicated servers for their enterprise-level clients. That ensures increased indexation speed on the backend and best widgets performance on the storefront. Every time a client makes changes in his website, thanks to the fast re-indexation the changes apply in no time and customers always have seamless experience using the search widgets and always get quick results of the highest relevance.
Server Monitoring
To ensure the highest level of security for their enterprise clients, site search vendors engage experienced DevOps specialists that continuously monitor the client's server performance and prevent security issues.
Regulatory compliance
While all businesses need to follow their own regulatory compliance, in general, enterprises have to deal with more regulations, including international ones. Given that regulatory compliance changes from year to year, enterprises need to be able to rely upon their systems to remain compliant long-term.
Enterprise site search services help businesses deliver a highly compliant environment for their customers (GDPR, CCPR and other international regulations approved).
Enterprise site search services help businesses deliver a highly compliant environment for their customers (GDPR, CCPR and other international regulations approved).
Scalability
Since scalability is a fundamental requirement for supporting a growing organization, it is another essential capability of a site search built with enterprise-level goals in mind.
Let's look at an example where a store runs a campaign for Black Friday which, as expected, drives a high traffic to the site. Increased traffic means increased number of search queries. If the server where the search queries get processed cannot handle an increased number of queries, it can lead to failure of site search performance which translates into high bounce rate and losing sales.
Enterprise-level search solutions are able to extend server capacity when needed and maintain excellent performance for ultimate customer search experience even during peak traffic.
Let's look at an example where a store runs a campaign for Black Friday which, as expected, drives a high traffic to the site. Increased traffic means increased number of search queries. If the server where the search queries get processed cannot handle an increased number of queries, it can lead to failure of site search performance which translates into high bounce rate and losing sales.
Enterprise-level search solutions are able to extend server capacity when needed and maintain excellent performance for ultimate customer search experience even during peak traffic.
Priority Support
This one is pretty self-explanatory. Enterprises deal with high traffic and a huge number of transactions, so if something goes wrong, their losses are much steeper compared to small- and medium-sized companies. Hence, the traditional first-in-line approach is highly expected when it comes to providing technical support to Enterprise clients.
While the mentioned capabilities can be present individually in many search applications, only the combination of all of them in one solution create that enterprise-grade experience for eCommerce businesses.
While the mentioned capabilities can be present individually in many search applications, only the combination of all of them in one solution create that enterprise-grade experience for eCommerce businesses.
Enterprise-Level Site Search Solutions Don't Mean Enterprise-Level Costs
You don't have to be a large corporation with a sizeable budget to use enterprise-level site search software and enjoy the top service it entails. In other words, there's nothing that makes a search tool solely for an enterprise. Rather, enterprise-level search tools are tools that have been designed with higher customizability, bigger product catalogs, and security in mind. If you want to leverage best-in-class site search technologies, you can. You just need to estimate what true value you can get for your business from the solution and what your capabilities can be.
The major gain here is the ultimate customer experience you can provide, because when we think about it - the real consumers of the enterprise site search service are your customers.
After all, it is your customers who you always put front and center as you make decisions on what further steps to take in growing your business.
With the attention for customer experience having grown exponentially over recent years and its recognition as the most essential part to create business value, you need a solution that helps your business' website to perform at its optimum and create that amazing on-site experience to turn first-time visitors into repeat customers.
Searchanise offers all the mentioned in this article enterprise-level features on its Advanced Plan.
Unlike other site search engines that put hefty price tags on their enterprise solutions, Searchanise facilitates the needs of growing businesses and provides an exclusive service at a very affordable price. If your catalog size has recently hit 50,000 and you are serious about growing, this plan might be a perfect fit for your needs.
With the attention for customer experience having grown exponentially over recent years and its recognition as the most essential part to create business value, you need a solution that helps your business' website to perform at its optimum and create that amazing on-site experience to turn first-time visitors into repeat customers.
Searchanise offers all the mentioned in this article enterprise-level features on its Advanced Plan.
Unlike other site search engines that put hefty price tags on their enterprise solutions, Searchanise facilitates the needs of growing businesses and provides an exclusive service at a very affordable price. If your catalog size has recently hit 50,000 and you are serious about growing, this plan might be a perfect fit for your needs.
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As always, we welcome your questions. Feel free to contact us at feedback@searchanise.com and we'll be happy to discuss how Searchanise can help your growing business.
