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Personalized Search

Get Shoppers to Buy More with Personalized Search

Search personalization improves your website's user experience, making customers feel that search results know what they like.

Search personalization

What is a personalized search?

A personalized search is when a site search customizes the search results based on a user’s geographic location, previous searches, user intent, and known preferences.

It refers to online search experiences that are tailored specifically to a user’s interests by incorporating information about them beyond the specific search query typed in the search bar.

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Personalization methods

Methods of personalization

Typically, there are two approaches to search personalization:

Modifying the user’s query to provide a more relevant set of search results

This approach involves adapting or augmenting the user’s original search query to yield a more accurate and pertinent set of results. This modification is often based on the user’s past search history, their profile, or contextual information. For instance, if a user frequently searches for information related to health and fitness, the search engine might add terms related to these topics when the user inputs a more generic query.

Similarly, if the user is located in a particular region, the search engine could tailor the query to include local references or terms relevant to that geographical area. This method is proactive, aiming to understand the implicit intent behind a user’s query.

Re-ranking search results to rank the most relevant results higher

The second approach focuses on the order in which search results are presented to the user. Here, the original query remains unchanged, but the search engine applies a personalized algorithm to reorder the results. This re-ranking is based on the likelihood that the user will find each result useful or relevant. Factors that might influence this include the user’s browsing history, click patterns, and even the time spent on various web pages in the past.

For example, if a user consistently clicks on results related to science and technology, the search engine might boost similar types of content in future searches. This method doesn’t change the nature of the query or the pool of possible results; instead, it changes how these results are prioritized and displayed to the user.

Customer Reviews

Learn how we helped countless businesses worldwide

Luigi’s Box is one of the top search & discovery solutions for a good reason. Look at our clients’ reviews and see how we helped them improve their business.

Enhanced e-commerce search

Luigi's Box seamlessly integrates with our e-commerce platform, providing diverse setting options. Proactive support helps us improve search functionality, driving higher conversion rates.

Ole Ohlen
Teamlead Product Owner, AKKU SYS

Great tool, easy to set-up and great results

Luigi's Box seamlessly integrated with our e-commerce site. It helped us boost the conversion rate with its user-friendly search engine. Typo correction feature is extremely helpful. Allows for high level of customization.

Fréderic Gomes
Co-founder, NostalGift

Simplified management and improved relevance

Luigi's Box improved our search and recommendations, offering more relevant results and simplifying feed management. We've seen notable improvements in our product offering and increased average basket size.

Julie Huet
Senior Manager Ecommerce, Medisafe.fr

Very good customer service

Luigi's Box has been our go-to for years, and they've never disappointed. Seamless functionality, top-notch customer service, and unbeatable value. Highly recommended!

Tomáš Balíček
CEO, Picasee

Higher revenue from the search on half the sessions

Luigi’s Box was quick and easy to integrate. It not only visibly improved our search results but allowed us to constantly optimize them as well. Luigi’s team of specialists gave us first-class support...

Anna Muszyńska
E-Commerce Analyst, Gandalf

Good solution even for large e-commerce businesses

Luigi’s Box search engine is an advanced tool that facilitates our clients in reaching their desired products. The surprising accuracy of matches, taking into account click-through and conversion rates, effectively boosts our sales...

Paweł Czarny
E-Commerce Product Owner, Komfort.pl

Luigi’s Box is willing to go the extra mile

Luigi’s Box brought 28% increase in search conversion in just 2 weeks. The implementation was smooth, the language processing and search engine is superior, and the admin platform with built-in analytics is easy...

Péter Molnár
Head of eCommerce

"It has proven to be an absolutely invaluable tool!"

It is extremely easy to use and has robust features to boost your e-commerce project. I especially like AI-powered search and personalized recommendations for our customers. In fact, thanks to Luigi's Box, we...

Tomáš O.
Co-founder & CMO
Full Review on G2

"Very good search engine and recommender."

Good search engine and recommender, can be tuned up by individual settings in the back office. It is very helpful, especially when you have very large product offer.

Petr M.
G2 verified user
Full Review on G2

"Great product for customers. Very helpful for growing revenue."

Management system with many functions, dashboards and monthly summary in e-mail, great support (fast, good recommendations, communication, etc.), stable.

Jozef F.
G2 verified user
Full Review on G2

Shopping cart value increased dramatically

Recommender is a useful and inspirational resource for our customers to discover Powerlogy's products. How do we know that? Our average shopping cart value has been rising dramatically.

Michal Dodok
Head of Marketing, Powerlogy

Conversion rate increased by 600%

We’ve been using Luigi’s Box since 2017. In addition to our search conversion rate increase by 600%, the service also enhanced our in-store customer service.

Martin Derňar
Chief Omnichannel Officer, Nay

Taking extra effort to improve business results

Luigi’s Box massively streamlines shopping for our customers. Moreover, they developed several features for us that help manage products in our e-shop.

Piotr Maciążka
Implementation Team Manager, Answear

Luigi’s Box improves customer experience

The most significant contribution of Luigi’s Box to EXIsport is an improvement in customer experience. The quicker they find what they search for, and the more relevant the search query is, the higher...

Juraj Giacko
Head of E-Commerce, EXIsport

Improved conversion rates and customer satisfaction

Luigi’s Box is a very progressive tool, which complements our existing analytical data. Its usage led not only to higher conversion rates for our e-shop but helped us keep high standards of customer...

Jana Karasová
Online Sales and Service Development Specialist, O2

Luigi’s Box was a real eye-opener for us

Luigi’s Box was a real eye-opener for us. E-shoppers often forget to care about customer experience and invest too many resources into advertising. Luigi's Box showed us what we could gain if we...

Soňa Fialková
CEO, SpokojenýPes

Team of professional specialists

Luigi’s Box is a guarantee of a professional approach. As the search specialists, they lead us to our goals much faster.

Tomáš Bzirský
Performance Marketing Manager, Košík

More than €100,000/year thanks to Luigi’s Box

Given our size, Luigi's Box brings us over €100,000 a year without much hard work for a price that was immediately returned multiple times.

Jakub Žilinčan
Chief Marketing Officer, Electronic-star
Personalized search examples

Example of personalized search

In this e-commerce personalization example, Sarah, a frequent shopper interested in hiking and camping, visits an online sports equipment store. The platform tailors her search experience based on her past purchases. When she searches for “waterproof” items, the site prioritizes outdoor gear like waterproof hiking backpacks and camping tents, aligning with her interests.

Additionally, it suggests related products like portable camping stoves and hiking GPS devices. At checkout, the site offers a bundle deal, including a hiking water bottle with her chosen items. Post-purchase, Sarah receives targeted emails about relevant outdoor gear and content. This personalized approach enhances Sarah’s shopping experience, making it more relevant and efficient.

Origins and history

The origin of search personalization in e‑commerce

The journey of search personalization in e-commerce began in the 1990s with the emergence of online stores like Amazon and eBay, offering basic search functions focused on keyword matching.

As these platforms evolved, they started utilizing user data for early forms of personalization, such as recommending products based on previous purchases. The game-changer came in the mid-2000s with the integration of advanced algorithms and machine learning, significantly enhancing the accuracy of personalized recommendations.

Amazon notably led the way with innovative techniques like suggesting items based on similar users’ purchasing patterns. By the 2010s, the use of AI in e-commerce enabled real-time personalization and more dynamic user interactions. Today, e-commerce personalization spans the entire shopping experience, including targeted ads and emails, while also navigating the complex landscape of user privacy and data protection regulations.

Personalization users

Who uses search personalization

Today, many businesses use search personalization to facilitate the customer shopping experience by displaying relevant products. Here are a few top industries that excessively rely on personalized search strategies:

E-commerce marketplaces
E-commerce marketplaces

E-commerce websites and marketplaces like eBay, Etsy, and Amazon use personalized search to help customers find relevant products as soon as they start typing in the search box. Some sites also take into account visit frequency and affinity for particular brands or product attributes.

Media and entertainment
Media and entertainment

Streaming sites like Netflix and Spotify leverage search personalization to show users different content based on their interests. Netflix uses customer viewing data, search history, rating data as well as time, date and the user’s device to predict what should be shown to them.

Food and beverage
Food and beverage

Leading fast food chains like McDonald’s, KFC, and Starbucks personalize searches based on time of day, current location, the weather forecast, or trending menu items. For example, McDonald’s menu suggests hot tea when it’s raining and ice cream on sunny afternoons.

Social networks
Social networks

Social media giants like Facebook and Instagram show different content to different people based on their preferences, interests, and behaviors that they opt to share online. For example, Instagram relies on machine learning based on your past behavior to create a unique feed for everyone.

Technology and SaaS
Technology and SaaS

Many tech companies, such as software-as-a-service (SaaS) businesses, are using search personalization to give their customers quick access to relevant material so they can potentially resolve their own issues. For instance, HubSpot personalizes search on its site to help users find relevant content quickly.

Importance of personalized search

Why should you personalize search in your e‑commerce store?

According to Epsilon, 80% of customers indicate they’re more likely to do business with a company if it offers personalized experiences and 90% indicate that they find personalization appealing.

Personalization matters more than ever, with COVID-19 and the surge in digital behaviors raising the bar. A McKinsey survey reveals that nearly 75% of consumers switched to a new store, product, or buying method during the pandemic. Today, almost 71% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions, and 76% get frustrated when this doesn’t happen.

Search personalization helps grab customers’ attention and reduce the amount of time and energy they expend browsing your e-commerce site. Presenting a customer with quick search suggestions they’re likely to prefer helps increase the chance of actually increasing conversions. Companies that excel at personalization generate 40% more revenue than average players.

Search personalization process

How does search personalization work?

Personalized search results aren’t just based on traditional ranking factors (such as relevancy). They also consider additional data about the individual user, such as their language, current location, user profile, intent, or past searches.

History-based personalization

Suppose you search "white shirt" on a clothing website and get results of woman shirts. Then you click on men's category and browse some products. Now if your subsequent search is again "white shirt", you will see the results for men without having to choose the men category.

Re-ranking search results

When a product’s more popular sizes go out of stock, the search algorithm can automatically lower the ranking of a product and show other products that have more size options.

Search personalization benefits

Benefits of personalized search

Today, search personalization isn't just a nice feature; it's a must-have for e-commerce businesses, and here's why:

Increase average cart value
Increase average cart value

The search algorithm can show customers interesting products that they had no idea about, which will increase their likelihood of buying from you. As a result, your average order value increases.

Improve user experience
Improve user experience

Personalized searches show more precise and relevant results to every customer, helping them quickly find the content they want. Overall, the digital experience for the user is better.

Ensure better metrics
Ensure better metrics

By increasing the relevancy of results, you can improve your site’s click-through rate (CTR) and conversion rate (CVR). Search personalization also increases the total session time, lowers bounce rates, and improves brand reputation.

Yield higher revenues
Yield higher revenues

According to McKinsey, personalization can increase revenues by up to 15%, while reducing customer acquisition costs by up to 50%. You can also increase the efficiency of marketing spend by 10% to 30%.

Improve customer relationships
Improve customer relationships

Around 98% of marketers surveyed by Evergage feel that personalization enhances customer relationships, whereas 59% of them think it also increases customer loyalty.

Relationship Index

G2’s E-Commerce Search Relationship Index

Discover the factors influencing product relationships. See the chart below for insights on ease of business, support quality, and recommendations from our customers.

Company
  • Ease of Business
  • Likely to Recommend
  • Quality of Support
  • Other Factors
Score
Luigi’s Box
  • Ease of Business: 3.29
  • Likely to Recommend: 1.43
  • Quality of Support: 3.34
  • Other Factors: 1.71
Ease of Business: 3.29
Likely to Recommend: 1.43
Quality of Support: 3.34
Other Factors: 1.71
Score:
9.77
Constructor
  • Ease of Business: 3.43
  • Likely to Recommend: 1.43
  • Quality of Support: 3.4
  • Other Factors: 1.25
Ease of Business: 3.43
Likely to Recommend: 1.43
Quality of Support: 3.4
Other Factors: 1.25
Score:
9.51
Searchspring
  • Ease of Business: 3.29
  • Likely to Recommend: 1.36
  • Quality of Support: 3.27
  • Other Factors: 1.45
Ease of Business: 3.29
Likely to Recommend: 1.36
Quality of Support: 3.27
Other Factors: 1.45
Score:
9.37
Algolia
  • Ease of Business: 3.22
  • Likely to Recommend: 1.29
  • Quality of Support: 3.1
  • Other Factors: 1.67
Ease of Business: 3.22
Likely to Recommend: 1.29
Quality of Support: 3.1
Other Factors: 1.67
Score:
9.28
Syte
  • Ease of Business: 3.39
  • Likely to Recommend: 1.41
  • Quality of Support: 3.47
  • Other Factors: 0.75
Ease of Business: 3.39
Likely to Recommend: 1.41
Quality of Support: 3.47
Other Factors: 0.75
Score:
9.02

How to implement personalized search

Search personalization can be difficult, but not anymore! With Luigi’s Box, you can get up and running in just a few simple steps:

  • 1. Synchronize your product database with our search index.
  • 2. Integrate Luigi's Box Search Analytics service to enable learning with your website.
  • 3. Sit back and relax while our integration team launches your search.
Learn More Here

Luigi's Box is compatible with any website

There are three ways how to deliver your product data to Luigi’s Box.

Sync via content API

Data will be pushed to our servers. Therefore, you only send updates to products when they change. If you run on a supported platform, we can set up data connectors.

There’s no development cost on your side. We can pull all the data that we need. Luigi’s Box is compatible with any e‑commerce platform.

Pro Tip: If you run on a supported platform, we can set up data connectors. There’s no development cost on your side. We can pull all the data that we need.

Platform connectors

If you run on a supported platform, we can set up data connectors, so there’s no development cost on your side.

We can pull all the needed data, and you can move to step four. In case you do not run on one of these platforms, you can choose whether to synchronize via API or Feeds.

Pro Tip: If you run on a supported platform, we can set up data connectors. There’s no development cost on your side. We can pull all the data that we need.

Synchronize via feeds

Data will be downloaded from your servers. If there is a change to the product, we will not know about it until the feed is processed next time. The data update is typically performed six times a day.

To synchronize the data, you can use API or feeds. Needs up-to-date data about products, categories, brands, and (optionally) articles.

Pro Tip: If you run on a supported platform, we can set up data connectors. There’s no development cost on your side. We can pull all the data that we need.
Luigi's Box for personalized search

Personalize your internal search with Luigi's Box

With Luigi's Box Search, give your customers the freedom to explore your content through relevant search that:

Tolerates their typos and knows the synonyms related to your products

Improves their experience with personalization and voice search

Gives them powerful filtering mechanisms and AI-driven results

Shows them the right category, brand, or product from the first keystroke

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What is personalized search?

Personalized search shows results that aren’t just based on the typical ranking factors (like the relevance of the content to the keyword), but also on the data that the search engine has about the individual at any given time, such as their geographical location, past searches, or intent.

Why is personalized search important for e-commerce businesses?

Search personalization builds brand loyalty, boosts customer satisfaction, and makes people remember your business. Research reveals that 80% of consumers are more likely to purchase from a brand that offers personalized experiences.

By showing users that you consistently know what is expected of your brand and how to provide the experiences they want, they are more likely to show their loyalty and continue shopping with your brand versus the competition.

What is the difference between standard search and personalized search?

Standard search settings typically rely on semantic search, where the search engine looks for literal matches of the query words or variants of them, without understanding the overall meaning of the query. Generic search returns identical search results to all users for identical queries, regardless of varied user interests and information needs.

On the other hand, personalized search provides results tailored specifically to an individual’s interests by taking into account information about them beyond what they type in the search field. For any given query, a personalized search can show different search results to different individuals. Alternatively, it may rank search results differently for every individual based upon their preferences, interests, and information needs.

How is search personalized?

Search personalization uses several different factors to deliver personalized results. For example, Google personalized search uses a user’s browser history, bookmarks, location, and data across different Google services. Websites frequently visited by the user tend to rank higher on the Google search engine results page (SERP).

How long does it take for personalization to take effect?

Luigi’s Box Search feature will take effect immediately after turning on, as we consider the actual intent almost in real time. The quality of personalization gradually increases over time, as the user’s long-term history is gradually collected and considered.