Words can be a tricky thing when it comes to product discovery. Typos and misspellings can quickly bring a shopping journey to an end if your search tech isn’t up to the task, and that’s exactly the dilemma BOS FOOD was facing. Who better than FactFinder to solve that particular issue?
Lobster, caviar, olive oils, wine – delicacies like these are generally well-liked. And those who buy them online from BOS FOOD – whether they are gastronomy professionals or end customers – now find them even better. Literally. With Next Generation, the company is using the world’s leading eCommerce search technology to increase its revenues and customer satisfaction. David Engemann, IT System Integrator and Head of SEO at BOS FOOD, programmed the interface to FactFinder and co-supervised the integration of the AI-based search. He shares his experiences from the project and reports on how FactFinder enhances both user-friendliness in the shop and visibility on Google.
Their self-developed search was overwhelmed with misspellings
Why was it necessary to integrate a new search and product discovery solution in the first place? David recalls, “Before FactFinder, we had our own search and had optimized it over many years.” However, they were never really satisfied with it. David gives a vivid example: “Our brand ‘Valrhona’ was always misspelled, sometimes with a W, sometimes without an H. So, the product was not found, even though we had already implemented fixes for typos.”
The biggest challenges were with three-letter words like “gin” and “tea.” “Our own search just couldn’t handle it.” Another typical search query for BOS FOOD always resulted in a dead end: “If someone enters ‘olive oil 250’ in the search bar, they want to buy a 250-milliliter bottle, not be shown 250 different oils.” The self-developed search displayed “all sorts of things” for this query, “just not the oils with the corresponding volume,” says David, laughing.
FactFinder compelled with a Next Generation demonstration
At the eCommerce fair NEXUS, David visited the FactFinder booth and described the problems with the self-developed search. David remembers, “We then entered the aforementioned ‘olive oil 250’ in the FactFinder demo shop – and immediately got the oils with 250 milliliters on the first five pages of results. That was very convincing.” He adds, “Even for incorrectly typed queries like ‘Wallrona’ or ‘Valrona,’ the search knew right away what was meant.” His verdict on FactFinder’s efficiency could hardly be more positive: “Today, 99 percent of all search queries match.”
New on-site search even improves visibility on Google
“A large part of our shop visitors come via Google search.” That would be between 30,000 and 60,000 per month. “A thousand clicks a day are realistic. But there are also special days when it can increase tenfold, such as when there’s a cooking show or a program about truffles on TV.” Since there were no indexable search pages previously, the internal results pages never appeared on Google. That has finally changed with the integration of FactFinder, according to David: “On the FactFinder search result pages, we create meta descriptions for the search engine – so it looks nice for Google too.” This effort pays off. “Now we are visible on Google search for more keywords with the corresponding result pages that were not there before.”
Customer feedback was quick to follow
Even though BOS FOOD has not yet done A/B testing with FactFinder, the initial experiences after integration are consistently positive: “The feedback is very good. Right on Monday, after we had installed the new search, a major customer wrote: ‘Thank you, BOS FOOD, now we find everything we are looking for.’” In addition to the search, David also praises FactFinder’s suggest function, “because it gives the customer a deep insight into the entire assortment. If he’s looking for a barbecue spice and only types the first few letters, or even misspells it, the error-tolerant search understands him and suggests a selection of spices he’s probably looking for.”
What are the future plans for BOS FOOD‘s collaboration with FactFinder?
David doesn’t have to think long: “For us, definitely the campaign manager is of interest, especially the consultant campaigns. Because with it, our customers can already make a pre-selection by product groups on the search result page. Such campaigns are particularly helpful for large categories and could be very appealingly implemented in our shop.”
About BOS FOOD
Anyone looking for high-quality delicacies, exotic foods or other ingredients for top gastronomy, including molecular cuisine, cannot ignore BOS FOOD. They’re Germany’s number one delicatessen retailer and have become an indispensable partner for top-level and award-winning gastronomy. What began in 1990 with the marketing of wild rice – with one employee and a single product – has now grown into a major retailer with over 170 employees. The highly qualified staff today advise 20,000 customers and ship 1,000 deliveries daily from an assortment of more than 12,000 specialties from around the world.
Despite the strong growth, one thing has remained the same: the commitment to the best customer service and highest quality.
About FactFinder
FactFinder is the European leader in eCommerce product discovery and search. We help over 2,000 online shops worldwide like MyTheresa, Intersport, OBI, Stihl and Elkjøp Nordic increase revenue by 20-33% with outstanding shopping experiences. By combining human and artificial intelligence, we understand every shopper‘s intent from the first click. We call that authentic intelligence. Smarter algorithms and human expertise create a union that will always give a competitive edge. Every day millions of B2C and B2B shoppers find what they are looking for with FactFinder – fast, personalized and with joy.
