Why You Need an Advanced Search Engine for Your Ecommerce Store

Are you an e-commerce merchant, if so, have you ever heard of advanced search engines? If you nodded yes to the first question and said no to the latter, never fear. In this brief article, we're going to explain exactly what an advanced search engine is, how it could benefit you, and provide an example of a high-quality solution (hint – it's Doofinder).

Does that sound good to you? Great. Let's dive on in!

Who's Doofinder, and What's an Advanced Search Engine?

In short, Doofinder is a robust, quick, and advanced search engine. Used by over 5,000 customers around the world, it's safe to say Doofinder's making a name for themselves. Even brands like HP,, Decathlon, Diadora, and Maserati utilize this advanced search engine.

You might be thinking ‘that sounds great, but why do I need one of those?'

Well, have you ever gone to an online store looking for something specific, then seen there's no search function? If you have, you probably did one of two things. You either spent ages trying to find the item, but sadly, to no avail. Or you clicked off the website and went elsewhere.

Either way, if you're offering this kind of user experience, you'll lose out on those all-important sales.

This is where advanced search engines like Doofinder come to the rescue.

Doofinder highlights all the relevant things customers are looking for with just a few keystrokes.

The stats don't lie. Roughly 30% of consumers use an online store's internal search engine, and these are, on average, four times more likely to buy something than those who don’t. So, if you don't already have one, now's the time to make that change.

What Makes Doofinder Different From Other Internal Search Engines?

Put simply; it's Doofinder‘s mission to ensure shoppers use your internal search engine more. Namely by placing the search function in a more visible area. Doofinder knows that a powerful internal search engine is key to creating an excellent search experience, and consequently, bolstering the number of customer queries you receive.

In light on that, this is why Doofinder offers the following features:

  • Spelling error tolerance: Doofinder's search engine is based on a semantic processing architecture. This is critical for enjoying a higher rate of user search success.
  • Phonetic search technology: This identifies and interoperates phonetically correct spelling errors. By this, we mean, the search engine can understand phrases written precisely as they sound.
  • Auto-fill: Relevant search results populate automatically as users enter their queries.
  • Customized results: You can alter the results of any given search, i.e., you can position sponsored products or posts at the top of search results (a bit like Google). You can also prioritize overstocked products, emphasize products with higher profit margins, prioritize seasonal merchandise, etc., (you get the idea!)

Top Tip: With the data your customized results accumulate, you can better negotiate discounts (and other benefits) with your suppliers. How? Well, you can show them how many searches and conversions you get. So, in exchange for whatever perk they're offering, you can boost where they fall in your internal search results.


  • Banners in the internal search engine: You can display banners inside of your search results, which can also direct searchers to your chosen URL. This provides a fabulous opportunity for publishing any promotions or sales you're having and increasing the visibility of selected brands (which may come in handy as you negotiate a sponsorship deal).
  • Search filters: Users can refine their product searches using price, color, size, brand, etc., filters.
  • Synonyms: From the Doofinder dashboard, you can create synonyms for results so that the relevant results still populate (even if the searcher hasn't used the exact phrase that describes the item).
  • Cross-selling: This shows products related to the search term. Unsurprisingly, this boosts the chances of successfully cross-selling items on your online store.

Boosting results

Now, this feature is so important that we've given it its own section.

Doofinder provides all the tools you need to rank the results of user searches.

Doofinder uses a scoring system. So, as you may have already guessed, each result is assigned a score. This is a numeric value based on how well the result matches the search query. With this data at Doofinder's disposal, your shopper's results are returned in order of their score, with, of course, higher scores appearing first.

Search Statistics

Doofinder provides all the search stats you need to see how shoppers use your internal search engine (and how frequently). With this info at your fingertips, you can better identify new products customers want, detect search trends, boost higher-converting items to the top of search results, etc.

More specifically, here are the search metrics Doofinder allows you to track:

  • Searches: The total number of searches you've got and the percentage of new searches compared to the previous period.
  • Click Rate: The number/ratio of shoppers who click on a search result. Just like the ‘searches' metric, you can also compare your click rate percentage with previous periods.
  • Conversion Rate: The percentage of searches that result in a purchase.
  • The Timeline: This timeline highlights how the above three metrics have evolved over a set period.

Doofinder's Integrations with E-commerce Platforms

Doofinder furnishes you with plenty of extensions you can use for seamless integration with whatever e-commerce platform you're using.

Moreover Doofinder provides plugins for the most common e-commerce platforms:

  • Magento 2
  • Prestashop
  • Woocommerce
  • Shopify
  • BigCommerce

You can integrate Doofinder on any bespoke website. You only need a product data feed and to insert some JavaScript in the HTML code of your website.

Doofinder AI

Doofinder also offers entrepreneurs a customized search results option.

This is called Doofinder AI and provides shoppers with tailored results based on the behavior and preferences of each individual consumer. Consequently, each of your customers receives 1:1 customization when they use your internal search engine.

Doofinder analyzes all of the following: purchase history, clicks, brand preferences, interests, etc. By compiling and utilizing this data, Doofinder can then populate the most relevant results and product recommendations for each and every one of your website visitors. How awesome is that?!

Ready to Start Using an Advanced Search Engine?

Are you already using and making the most out of your internal search engine? If not, you should definitely find and use a solution that provides the features mentioned above. If you like this sound of Doofinder, then why not try before you buy? You can take advantage of their free 30-day trial.

If you decide to give them a whirl, let us know how you get on in the comments box below. Speak soon!

Rosie Greaves
