Searching for a new solution

In the online retail industry, choosing the right search engine is critical to your business’ e-commerce strategy. Search acts as the connector between your customers and employees to your products. The right search engine can increase loyalty and satisfaction among customers, and most importantly, sales.

Founded in 1966, the Manutan Group specialises in catalogue sales of office and industrial equipment, including everything from office supplies to tools to furniture. Manutan’s more than 200,000 products are sold to customers through both paper catalogues and its 24 e-commerce Web sites which span 19 countries.

At Manutan, we were facing a significant challenge in that 30 to 40 percent of customers’ search queries returned zero results, whether due to a spelling error or the fact the catalogue didn’t have an “exact match” in its product database. The issue was pervasive and not specific to any particular portal.

We discovered that customers were abandoning their searches and as a result, losing faith in the Manutan brand. I was constantly receiving complaints and requests from customers asking us to improve our search engine. This was unacceptable and without a doubt negatively impacting online catalogue sales.

From a design perspective, we faced another challenge in that our online catalogues span across several countries, some with complex languages like Dutch. We wanted to be able to use one search engine across all the e-commerce sites without having to integrate third-party software.

Another key portion of our evaluation process was the search solution’s ability to grow with our business. We have several hundred thousand customers and that are simultaneously running searches on our online catalogue. When that number grows, the search service needs to be able to perform just as well with sub-second response times. We also frequently update product information and pricing. We needed to ensure our search service would recognise changes in real-time so users were viewing the most up-to-date information.

Finding Exalead

In July 2004, we turned to Exalead to satisfy our search needs and selected its secure enterprise search software product – exalead one:enterprise. Because of the technology’s plug-and-play design, we were able to quickly install and deploy the technology across our European subsidiaries in only a few days without making changes to the platform itself.

We believed Exalead’s home grown linguistics capabilities, which include support for more than 54 languages, were a key differentiator. We were able to preserve our technology investment rather than have to develop a customized solution for each country.

Additionally, we were able to provide users with new ways to search our online catalogue, including a “fuzzy matching” (or phonetic search) feature that predicts relevant documents that may not contain the user’s search query. For example, a search for “marto,” which sounds like the French word for hammer “marteau,” will return 60 results for different types of hammers available in the catalogue. Previously, that query would have returned zero results. This was the exact capability we needed to increase customer loyalty and offer a more satisfying search experience across our European e-commerce Web sites.

Driving ROI

In the first two years after installing exalead one:enterprise, Manutan saw a significant return on investment. As a result, we reduced the percentage of silent queries by 40-60 percent for all of our subsidiaries and have been receiving positive feedback from users across Europe. Additionally, we estimate that customer loyalty has increased by 30 percent as a direct result of the Exalead search engine. We determined this through qualitative and quantitative analysis of online customer inquiries to Manutan.

Perhaps most importantly, we saw an increase in our online catalogue sales conversion rate by 40 percent after installing the Exalead search engine. Today, exalead one:enterprise is still an important part of Manutan’s eCommerce strategy.

For more information about Manutan or Exalead, please visit www.manutaninternational.com and www.exalead.com.

About Exlead

Exalead is a global provider of search software for business and the Web. Exalead’s products provide users with a single access point to information, regardless of format or location. Its patented Search by Serendipity navigation system adapts to user habits for a less frustrating and uniquely satisfying search experience. Exalead is an operating unit of Qualis, an international holding company, with offices in Paris, New York, San Francisco, London, Milan and Munich.