Decoding No-Results Pages: The Impact on Your E‑Commerce Business

Introduction

Are you familiar with the stat that about 10.5% of average e‑shop searches return no results? Seeing a no-results page represents wasted time for an average online consumer. That’s why e‑commerce businesses see a 33% exit rate from searches without results.

The smart search engine is a critical feature of e‑commerce sites that allows prospects to quickly find what they need by entering text. So instead of browsing endlessly through your entire selection of unfamiliar products, the search feature empowers your consumers to find a product they want to buy instantly.

However, if customers can’t find the product or service they’re looking for, they will look for it elsewhere. Losing customers leads to losing potential revenue.

You must first understand no-results pages and their impact to fix the common issues. So, read on to learn more.

If your search shows a no-search results page, it does not necessarily mean you do not have the product in your inventory. Instead, it’s more because your internal search engine didn’t understand the user’s original query. A no-results page exposes your e‑shop side to the risk of a poor search experience and losing customers. That’s why you should work on diverse search results, improve your customers’ digital experience, and receive positive customer reviews.

Why do no-results pages matter?

The search bar on your e‑shop website can make up to 37% of your total revenues. Since the search feature on your website plays a critical role in pointing your visitors in the right direction, you should work on providing them with additional search tips to guide them to popular and memorable product experiences.

While it may seem counterintuitive, no-results pages matter, and here are several reasons why. First, you can use no-results pages to invite visitors to take other actions or engage with your dynamic content. For example, by providing alternative suggestions or directing users to related content, products, or services, website owners can keep users engaged and potentially guide them toward other relevant site areas. Especially for e‑commerce websites, no-results pages can be an opportunity to showcase related or alternative products, thereby increasing the chances of conversion.

In addition, analyzing the search queries that lead to no-results pages can offer valuable insights into user behavior, interests, and needs. By tracking patterns and understanding what users are looking for but unable to find, you can better understand your audience’s preferences and adjust their strategies accordingly.

Top reasons your search brings no results

Your search tool can’t return relevant products matching your prospects’ demand for several reasons. Let’s review some of them.

Search can’t find content relevant to customer queries

The product name is listed differently in your catalog

The product isn’t available in your e‑shop

Best ways to fix no-results pages

Before we move on with fixing a no-results pages problem on your e‑shop site, we must first understand the reasons for doing it. According to our research, one-third of prospects abandon your website immediately after seeing a no-results page.

In other words, you lose customers to your competitors. About 30-40% of consumers will look elsewhere for a product after a failed search. In addition, customers often don’t interact with any result because they already get the information they need in the product title.

In most cases, all they want to know is the product availability, price, and whether there’s a discount. Keep all these in mind when fixing no-results pages on your website. Here are some tips on the best ways to fix this problem.

1. Show your customers the results they want to see

If your search engine shows customers irrelevant results, you risk losing them. When your customers use different keywords to search for particular items, but those keywords differ from the names of your products, they will see the no-results page.

You can avoid that by setting up synonyms. You can do it manually or use automatic suggestions based on online customer behavior. For example, when consumer searches for a pair of sneakers, but such items are listed under trainers on your website, your search engine will still show relevant results.

2. Generalize search queries if needed

You can also use website search analytics to understand customers’ search queries and the type of products they want to buy.

For example, if a customer searches for a “red hoodie” but your website doesn’t have this color in stock, your internal search engine should be able to prioritize the most important keywords and show the available colors instead. There’s a good chance that people will choose another color if they like the overall design and price.

3. Introduce autocomplete

The autocomplete feature allows you to increase search interaction by making searching easier for customers.

Also known as search-as-you-type or word completion, autocomplete gives you several advantages:

• Ensuring customers use your search feature correctly;
• Checking whether your e-store has the desired items;
• Improving customer experience for mobile shoppers by eliminating the need to enter the whole query;
• Providing efficient navigation for shoppers by guiding them to the product category relevant to their queries;
• Automatically completing the context of customer queries by showing products pertinent to their search efforts;
• Showing the desired item itself if a customer used specific search terms.

The autocomplete function must be swift and responsive enough to react to every keystroke. Since it runs in a search box, consider using that limited space as best as possible.

When a customer enters text, the autocomplete should show top products, related product categories, brand headings, most frequently used terms, etc. Additionally, introduce automatic correction of typos to help your customers find desired items effortlessly.

4. Use faceted search

Most top-rated e‑commerce websites use a search filter feature to refine search results and fine-tune queries. Search filters help customers browse products to find what they need promptly.

However, too many search filters could confuse website visitors, especially if they show irrelevant results. That’s why we recommend using advanced search filters that can understand the context behind a user’s query and provide relevant filtering results.

5. Recommend popular product categories

Consider adding recommendations to your most popular product categories on no-results pages. Although these recommendations might not match the user’s search or query history, they at least can influence your customers to other purchasing options available on your website.

Top examples of no-results pages in e‑commerce

Now that you know what no-results pages are and how to fix them, let’s move on to the best examples of companies with customer-centric no-results pages. Although you should invest time, effort, and resources in avoiding no-results searches, they can still happen. Therefore, you should make the best of what you have to ensure you don’t risk losing customers to your competitors.

1. Nordstrom

Nordstrom solved their no-results page problem by offering multiple solutions instead:

• Based on users’ keywords, Nordstrom offered several relevant, clickable alternatives;
• The company enabled visitors to use direct contact as an alternative way to find the desired items.

Aside from providing trending product suggestions, several search tips, and alternatives, Nordstrom provided three customer support channels for directly contacting sales representatives.

2. Best Buy

When a customer tries to find a product on Best Buy but gets a no-results page, the company solves the problem by offering the following solutions:

• The customer can tap into their purchase history to track and view previous orders;
• They can contact customer service to get assistance;
• They can continue shopping by visiting popular product categories.

3. Walgreens

Walgreens invests a lot of effort in helping online shoppers refine or retry their search. Their no-results page offers several instructions and search tips to send customers further down the sales funnel, such as:

• Check for typos;
• Use different terms;
• View a history log;
• Browse other products;
• Informing customers that some products may not be listed online;
• Contact customer service;
• Send feedback;
• Check the trending deals at the e-store.

No-results page case study

Nowadays, e‑commerce businesses have various personalized search and product recommendation solutions for e‑shops to avoid losing customers from failed searches. Here’s our case study as an excellent example of how our AI‑powered intelligent search can help you unlock the full potential of your e‑shop.

With Luigi’s Box, Košík, one of the leading online food retailers in the Czech Republic, increased search conversions by a whopping 10.5%. In addition, we helped the company improve customer satisfaction and revenue by showing more relevant search results.

Since the company offers more than 15,000 food products, it took longer for customers to quickly find the items they needed, such as drugstore products or pastries. As a result, they realized they needed a more practical search to retain customers.

How did we help Košík?

As search experts, our first step was to diagnose the root of their search ineffectiveness. We use Luigi’s Box Analytics to analyze their original search feature and gather actionable insights on areas that need improvement. Our analytics tool helped identify specific problems so we could focus on finding the right solutions.

We improved Košík’s search features by adding several vital points:

• The company’s search feature now operates by understanding the whole structure of product category names instead of the specific product category;
• We defined stop words for specific product phrases to fine-tune search results and make them more relevant to customer queries;
• We included slang expressions in suggested search synonyms to show relevant products, even if a shopper types in the wrong keyword or phrase;
• We also included automated recommendations based on previous user behavior;
• We introduced the boosted items function to recommend top seasonal products and help consumers find desired products more promptly;
• We added an automatic product prioritization feature that shows the latest products on offer in a specified time window;
• We added an automated boosted terms feature to the company’s internal search engine to help improve product ranking for items relevant to users’ queries, thus eliminating the need to set each item individually.

The results were astonishing. The company managed to increase search usage by 40%. We also helped the brand increase its conversion rate. With our tool, 40% of potential prospects get items in their shopping carts on Košík.cz.

Conclusion

Seeing a no-results page may be frustrating for some online shoppers. However, these pages don’t always have to be dead ends. Instead of seeing downsides only, you should focus on the opportunity to help consumers continue a product search by showing them alternatives to products or categories and using gathered data in analytics for future improvement.

Frequently asked questions