Benefits and Drawbacks of Different Search Solution Types

Custom Tailored Integration

A custom tailored integration takes the approach of integrating the solution only once everything is ready. This approach also avoids conflicts and major bugs since there is a thorough review of the site before the solution is designed and implemented. This consultative approach has a number of other benefits for businesses that want to mitigate risk.

1. Implementation
2. Customization
3. Support
4. Reliability
5. Plugin consolidation

Implementation
Although implementation takes longer with this approach, it will produce better results and require less management going forward. While businesses in a rush may see this as a weakness, it reduces or eliminates many of the risks associated with 3rd party services of this kind.
Implementation will generally take from 4-6 weeks with this type of integration. Here’s what it entails:

– Data audit

This is a review of your data to understand what it is, how it’s organized, where it’s stored, and how the solution will retrieve it.

During the audit process, consultation is also provided. There will usually be ways that data can be improved, which is crucial to ensuring that the solution works as intended.

– Functional requirements audit

During this time, the solution provider will work with you to understand exactly how you want their product implemented.

Which solutions are being provider (search, navigation, product recommendations), how should they work (product search and content search?), and where should they be located (which pages should product recommendations widget live on?). Aesthetic design requirements are also discussed here, and code is passed to the provider.

Consultation is provided at this stage as well, making the retailer aware of any best practices regarding design that are not currently being followed.

– Initial design

At this point, the provider will design the various elements that they are providing (autocomplete design and layout, search results page, filter UI, etc.)

– Revisions

Now, the provider works with the retailer to ensure that design and implementation are up to their standards.

Now that everything is optimized and truly ready, the solution goes live.

Customization
This type of integration can be customized fully. Anything from the look and feel to the way the solution works can be modified at any time. As mentioned above, this implementation style means that anything you require can be customized before the solution goes live on your site.

Every site is unique and has different needs in terms of behaviors, look and feel. There is a plethora of custom capabilities that are needed.

Here’s just a few examples:

• Sliders/carousels
• Quick-view
• Hover effects
• Badges
• Pricing logic
• Dynamic images
• Ratings
• Shipping costs
• Pagination
• URL structure
• Add to cart URLs
• Faceting / filter summary
• Checkboxes
• Headers

Depending on the solution some of these customizations may even be available in a user friendly interface so that code is not necessary. When more in-depth code changes are required, the provider can be brought on to implement the changes.

Here’s a real-world example that shows why this implementation style is important.

We have a proprietary website platform and the team at Searchspring really worked hard with us to streamline the integration and find solutions to problems that perhaps only we would encounter due to the uniqueness of our website platform. – Curtis B.

Support
In general, white glove solutions like ours will offer much better support than cheaper solutions. Since we’re handling the integration and up-front customization work, if something breaks, it’s our job to fix it.
This is what AJ from AceMart had to say after switching from a quick install solution to our custom tailored integration:

“Searchspring’s support/service blows our previous provider’s out of the water.” – AJ,  Digital Marketing Strategist at AceMart

Ultimately, this depends on the provider, but this is generally representative of what you can expect in this industry.

Reliability
These high-touch solutions generally have fewer clients at a higher monthly cost, giving them the ability to devote more resources to individual clients. Speed and uptime are a high priority. While we can’t speak for the other providers in this category, at Searchspring, we average greater than 99.99% uptime, and deliver above average speed. Importantly, these aren’t just averages. You shouldn’t expect major fluctuations in speed, but will have consistently fast response times, even amidst high-volume traffic.

Christopher A. had this to say regarding reliability compared to other types of providers:

I’ve been a customer for over 5 years and I’ve honestly never had an issue with the service. It’s never gone down that I’ve seen – ever. If you use SAS apps even a little, you know this is unheard of. – Christopher A.

Again, whether all of this is true or not depends on the provider in question, but this is what you should expect in general.

Plugin consolidation
Much of the tweaking and tuning typically handled by numerous plugins can be serviced by a robust custom integrated solution. These one-off plugins don’t communicate with each other, often requiring merchants to duplicated work. Removing these plugins that help with facets, autocomplete, and synonym management, and rolling this into a single, integrated solution can make your store faster, more secure, and easier to manage.

Want to learn more?

Read our guide to ecommerce site search best practices, and our buying guide: what you should know before choosing your next site search provider.