Editorial Articles

Matthias Dunda, Head of UK Operations at FACT-Finder, examines SaaS (Software as a Service) and considers how the trend is growing among retailers

Research conducted by the Aberdeen Group found that 56 per cent of best-in-class retailers are using customer search analytics to re-adjust search results automatically, and that a further 44 per cent of those retailers are adjusting search results manually based on analytics reporting. The report also found that 37 per cent of low-performing retailers were manipulating site search results based purely on gut feel.

While this clearly shows the power of being able to access your search data and adjust your SEO and product search strategy accordingly, many smaller companies see this as being an expensive addition to their ecommerce sites. Most expect to have to pay high integration costs and then face installation times of up to six months, but the reality is that there are now a range of options available to companies to get this service as cost-effectively and as easily as they need to.

The Aberdeen Group research goes on to draw attention to a key area here with its finding that over 50 per cent of respondents currently use SaaS (Software as a Service) solutions for some or all of their online commerce initiatives and that they are also open to additional SaaS purchases. This shows a dramatic increase since the end of 2009 when that figure stood at just 20 per cent.

FACT-Finder’s own experience reaffirms this trend. Over the past five years we have seen a marked increase in the number of retailers going down the SaaS route as opposed to creating bespoke in-house solutions. Today that figure is biased heavily in favour of SaaS to the tune of around 80:20. But it also depends on the country, in France for example there is almost 100 per cent SaaS, whereas in Poland its rather more evenly balanced.

The likelihood is that as people have become more accustomed to using cloud computing, SaaS has become a more acceptable solution as it means retailers don’t have to worry about hardware performance or system compatibility. Indeed, today, as Europe’s leading conversion engine, FACT-Finder is processing 250 million search queries on its hosted servers, this amounts to around 2 per cent of Google’s volume.

While some retailers may stumble over the licence fee, when this is compared with the cost of manually maintaining search term databases, and also compared against project costs, these figures are actually relatively low. Furthermore, many providers have created communities around the products that allow users to share information, such as thesaurus entries or common misspellings – adding value to their service.

On top of this, with the search being hosted off site, very little integration time is needed – the only thing the user needs to do is activate the part of the program that directs customer searches through to the relevant external servers.

Polish FACT-Finder customer PWH Siedmiorog’s experience highlights this last point. The retailer, which sells children’s books online, was looking for a new search engine for it’s website, and speed of integration and financial consistency were two key factors in any decision. “We were drawn to FACT-Finder’s proposition not just because they had a very good understanding of the Polish market, but also because, from a financial perspective, we knew exactly what we were getting with the SaaS package. We knew how much we were paying over the lifetime of our relationship and that there were not going to be any hidden costs or nasty surprises down the line,” explains managing director Slawek Wojcik.

“On top of this we are a small company so need a quick integration to see the commercial benefits as soon as possible. The system took myself and one other programmer between one and two weeks to integrate. We had a few questions to start with but these were quickly solved through FACT-Finder’s support. We have been really surprised with the ease with which we have been able to get our new search functionality online.”

The SaaS approach also means that people don’t need to worry about the technology and they can simply focus on using the management functionality, as how and where search is hosted does not influence this. Also, sending your searches off site does not slow the process down, and reliability is not compromised – we guarantee that our own servers, for example, run at over 99.5 per cent up time/month.

While it is not necessarily just targeted at smaller retailers this proves that the power of enhanced onsite search, and benefits like increased conversion rates and higher customer satisfaction that this brings, is not confined simply to the likes of Amazon and John Lewis.

Matthias Dunda, Head of UK Operations, FACT-Finder