Sitecore Search: AI Capabilities and Opportunities for Personalization and Customer Engagement

A useful website isn’t just about having high-quality content; it’s about finding the right content.

Working with Sitecore-based e-commerce projects, we understand that search is a core feature of every website. A smooth search experience means better conversions, increased engagement, satisfied users, and higher revenues. Let’s consider the key user expectations of online commerce search and how Sitecore Search meets them with a fast, intuitive, and personalized experience.

McKinsey & Company found that 78% of consumers are likelier to become repeat customers when brands deliver personalized experiences. Users who can easily achieve their goals through search are more likely to return.

Another McKinsey report states that consumers expect search and site experiences to be instantaneous and seamless. Poor performance is a leading reason why users leave a site.

Customers expect website search to be fast, smart, and tailored. A modern tech stack enables organizations to meet these demands through cloud-native solutions that scale effortlessly and evolve with user behavior. Sitecore Search’s AI capabilities are specifically built to meet these modern expectations.

When Sitecore implemented Sitecore Search on its brand website, the company saw a 25% increase in CTR, with 50% more results being returned overall.

Here are the main features of Sitecore Search.

AI-Driven Visitor Experiences

The AI and ML algorithms embedded in Sitecore Search analyze visitor interactions and content data to generate and display real-time personalized search results. The process operates in headless mode, meaning search results are displayed without adhering to a specific format or layout. You can create the following types of experiences:

• Preview search experience: A visitor sees possible results when entering search terms. 
• Search results experience: A visitor sees a page with search results based on the query.
• Recommendation experience: A visitor sees items suggested by AI and ML recipes.

Sitecore Search Results

Split Testing (A/B Testing)

This feature helps optimize search experiences and define digital marketing tactics to drive conversions. You can create and test multiple search settings, such as filters, layouts, or ranking rules, to compare the performance of different configurations using KPIs in the Analytics section.  For example, you can test a boosting strategy by creating one variation with no rules and another with a rule that pushes specific items to the top of search results.

Sitecore Preview Search Results

Personalization

Search in Sitecore enhances personalization by recommending content based on user behavior and interactions. There are two key approaches:

• Providing recommendations identical to content users have interacted with before, or items specified in a search
• Providing recommendations based on general browsing behavior and types of content users like based on their general activity

Sitecore Search Recommendations

AI-Powered Q&A

The Questions and Answers feature is part of another Sitecore product, Sitecore Stream, and can be used with Sitecore Search. This feature enables customers to ask questions in natural language and receive AI-generated responses. Questions and answers can be:

• Automatically generated from an existing content catalog
• Created based on customer input and then indexed in your Q&A collection
• Manually added or edited as needed

Performance Monitoring (Analytics)

Sitecore Search provides an analytics page where you can view reports on search performance. It includes details about visitor behavior related to widgets, keywords, and content. Available report types include tabular reports, donut and pie charts, line and bar charts, funnel reports, and geo and comparative metrics reports. Data is refreshed daily based on the activity from the previous day. 

Analytics allows you to track a wide range of metrics, including:

• Conversions and visits
• Clicks and click metrics
• Views and engagements
• Content interactions
• Search metrics

Visitor management

You can manage website visitors within the system to enhance marketing strategies and troubleshoot search issues. The system enables you to track specific visitors using several identifiers—a universally unique identifier (UUID), customer ID, EID, and email address—to retrieve their engagement history. You can also delete a visitor’s profile if they request their data be removed or to comply with data protection regulations like the GDPR or CCPA.

• REST APIs—Connect applications to Sitecore Search services by sending requests to specific endpoints that expose Search services.
• Sitecore Cloud SDK—Implement Sitecore Search-related functionality on XM Cloud for JSS Next.js or a JSS Angular application connected to Sitecore XM Cloud.
• JavaScript Data package—Make prompt search queries and receive responses from Search if your solution’s tech stack is compatible with Vanilla JavaScript or any JavaScript framework.
• JavaScript SDK for React—Add SDK packages to a project.

As a certified Sitecore partner, we specialize in implementing seamless Sitecore integrations for e-commerce platforms, ensuring your digital commerce infrastructure operates smoothly. Thanks to our expertise in Sitecore Search AI-powered features and system connectivity, we can help you enhance customer search experiences to give your business a competitive advantage.