The journey from Search Scope to Search Unified for LBB (1/2)
You must have heard about LBB, if you haven’t then you must be wondering what is it. So to give you a context of what LBB is in simple terms is a discovery platform which connects local business and brands with people across India.
Now coming to what we are here for, you all know what is search and why there is need for search feature in every application.
Searching is just trying to find the information you need.
To give you a better understanding I am explaining briefly about what is search scope and what is search unified.
Search Scope
Search scopes are one of the key differences between e-commerce on-site search and general web search. E-commerce sites have their products organised in categories which in turn can be used as “search scopes”. This allows users to limit the boundaries of their search to a specific category.
During our large-scale usability study on e-commerce search, allowing users to “search within a category” (i.e. selecting a “search scope”), was found to dramatically increase the quality of the returned search results, and by virtue thereof, improve the users’ success rates. In case of LBB these categories being Places and Shop.
Search Unified
Unified Search lets you search for content across all of your categories to locate the information you need, right away. Hence no it doesn’t care about the tab you’re in and let you search for whatever you need and gives you the results to fulfil your needs.
What prompted us to move to search unified
- To Improve the ability for people to find, choose between and connect with businesses on LBB when they have a specific need
- To Improve the ability to find, choose between and purchase products on LBB, when they have a specific need
- To Improve the ability to find, choose between and book tickets for events on LBB, when they have a specific need
Background & Strategic Fit
What’s the takeaway of the data — what are users doing, what are they looking for, and what larger product outcome does this fit into?
All users on LBB can be divided into 3 broad segments:
Low Intent Users (“I don’t know what I am looking for”)
These are either new users (no idea about what LBB has to offer) or regular users who use the app frequently to find about what’s new/unique/happening in their city, irrespective of category (FOMO).
How to delight them? Give personalised recommendations based on their interests or based on trending/popular places in the Explore feed.
Data: 30–40% users on app use the feed
Metrics: % of Post Views/Post Impressions
Medium Intent Users (“I am looking for something in _________”)
These are users who know broadly what they are seeking for and need help in narrowing down to a few options to choose from. Eg: Fitness options in Noida.
How to delight them? Give them a list of recommendations in that particular category with minimum effort (taps, entering text, etc)
Data: 25–35% users on app use the shortcuts section. ~65–75% of all searches happens through shortcuts section
Metrics: Increase % of users using Search, Increase usage of search per user
High Intent Users (“I know exactly what I am looking for”)
These are users who know exactly the name of the store/product/event that they are looking for. Eg: Lota cafe.
How to delight them? Take them directly to the business/product/event page which has all the info about it
Data: 5–10% of all searches are high intent searches (query + autocomplete)
Metrics: Increase % of users connecting to business/product page from Search
If you are here and reading this you people are awesome🙌🏻👏🏻🥳. After reading about WHY we moved to Unified search It’s time to know HOW & WHAT, which I will be covering in the upcoming article. Stay tuned for second article.
Check out the next article in the series here! (Part 2/2)
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