Search in web and mobile applications is a core function that shapes a positive user experience. Especially in commerce services, search is an element that directly impacts company revenue, going beyond improving user experience. In a situation where the amount of product information and content is exploding, search quality—providing timely information that matches the customer's input keywords—has become a crucial factor determining the success or failure of applications and websites.

Generally, customers who search for products in commerce services are considered strong potential buyers with a high willingness to pay. It's believed that all actions users take when searching and reacting to search results reflect their purchase intentions, needs, and willingness to spend. Statistically, the conversion rate of users who perform searches is more than twice that of those who do not. Although the proportion of users who use search among the total MAU is less than 20%, it's known that over half of the sales come from users who have performed a search at least once. Moreover, the churn rate is high for users who fail on their first search, and the conversion rate for customers who re-search is very low. In other words, search is not only a powerful means to open customers' wallets but also an element that greatly affects the sustainability of the service.

So, specifically, how does search contribute to customer retention, revenue growth, and service improvement?

Providing Customers with the Information They Want in a Timely Manner

From a fundamental perspective, users can quickly find the information or products they want through search on an app or website. Features like autocomplete, typo correction, and initial consonant search can enhance search queries or suggest similar keywords, thereby promoting customer search activities. If you add various options to refine and sort search results—such as filtering by price, brand, rating, or date—customers can find the products they want even faster. Improved user experience through search leads customers to visit the app or website more frequently, resulting in increased user retention.

Personalization and Recommendations

A well-implemented search function also provides personalized search results and recommendations based on the user's search history, preferences, and behavior patterns. For example, it can recommend similar items or present highly relevant search results based on previous search queries, purchase history, and interests. This helps users discover and select products that match their tastes and interests more quickly.

By offering related search results, users can also explore various products and services connected to their search terms. This prevents them from missing desired products and encourages them to discover items not only within the same category but also in different ones. Through search, potential customers gain more options as they find and explore new products or services, ultimately increasing the conversion rate.

Utilizing Promotions

Search can also be leveraged for promotions. By displaying popular products on the search results page and highlighting items under promotion, you can boost sales of target products. Particularly, using features that emphasize specific products based on the user's search query allows for personalized promotions.

Market Research and Trend Analysis

By utilizing the search function to track users' search keywords and interests, you can adjust product or service strategies and improve them to meet user needs. Additionally, the vast accumulated customer search data can serve as a basis for expanding into other businesses like finance, content, and entertainment.

As seen above, search is a point where customer demand directly manifests, confirming its importance in various aspects such as improving user experience, personalized recommendations, encouraging the discovery of new products, promotions, and understanding trends. However, there are many technical barriers to implementing such high-quality search functions. Therefore, services before scaling up often include only minimal search-related features, and after scaling up, adding various search functions incurs enormous development costs.

Then, why is high-quality search functionality difficult? Can't we develop search more easily?