In addition to products, buyers often search for this information

Years of user experience testing have shown that users search for more than just product names on e-commerce websites.

According to user experience testing by research firm Baymard Institute, 34% of users have searched for non-product content (such as return policy, unsubscribe, cancel my order).

Whether the user's needs can be met depends on whether the website can provide relevant search results . Baymard Institute's test shows that 15% of e-commerce websites do not support very basic non-product searches, such as "return policy".

If this type of search plays a decisive role in the user's purchase but is not resolved, they are likely to abandon the shopping cart.

In this article, we discuss findings on non-product search and how buyers conduct non-product search.

Why many users use search to find non-product content

Email subscription, return policy and other non-product content are usually in the footer of the website. If the website design is more complex, users may be able to find these contents more easily.

A lot of non-product content is hidden in corners that are not easy to find. Products usually occupy the main navigation bar of the website, and returns, delivery, etc. are located in the secondary navigation or footer.

According to the test, non-product content needs to be shown in the website design, usually placed in the secondary navigation bar. This makes it difficult for users to find the corresponding content immediately, so they will search on the website .

After observing users’ non-product search behavior over the years, Baymard Institute found that this user behavior is very stable, with 34% of users looking for non-product content on e-commerce websites.

Therefore, searching for non-product content and obtaining results has become the psychological expectation of a large number of sellers, and sellers need to meet user expectations.

10 most common non-product search terms

The survey shows that users frequently search for non-product content mainly including returns, cancellations, order information , etc. The 10 most commonly used non-product search terms by users are as follows:

·Return policy

shipping costs (or other variants such as delivery costs)

unsubscribe (mainly email subscription)

Cancel order

·Change password

·change address

saved items (wishlist)

Track an order

·Gift card balance

· Specific order tracking number

It’s hard to predict what non-product content each user will search for, but as a rule of thumb, if users can get to non-product search content through navigation, then you should also make it available to users.

How to provide non-product search results?

There are two ways to provide users with non-product search content:

That is, adding non-product search content to the normal search results page. When the user's search intent is unclear, such as only entering "email" or "return", and these search terms may be related to other products, it is best to return non-product search results.

When displaying these non-product results on the results page, consider formatting them so that they are visually distinct from other product results, such as displaying a help icon to indicate that this result is related to the search but is not a product.

(Home Depot's change password search returns the relevant page directly)

This approach can be used when the user's search terms are very precise, such as "return policy" or "shipping information", because the user is searching for these contents. For more vague search terms such as "shipping" or "return", the first approach can be used, which includes both product and non-product search results.

For users who cannot find non-product content, they will choose to search. Even if the website already has relevant navigation, search is still the fastest way.

If they can’t get relevant results on the site, they may have a negative view of the site experience, go to Google to search, or contact customers. In short, making sure to support non-product searches will help improve the user experience.