TL;DR
If you think that search abandonment – when shoppers search for a product on your ecommerce website but don’t find what they’re looking for – isn’t a big deal, think again. According to Google Cloud’s data, search abandonment costs retailers over $2 trillion annually worldwide, and more than $234 billion in the United States alone.
Moreover, 78% of US consumers view a brand differently after experiencing search difficulties, and 82% avoid websites where they’ve experienced search difficulties in the past.
The truth is, today’s consumers expect website search engines to understand their intent (even when their searches are vague), return highly relevant results, and help them find what they’re looking for effortlessly. And if your ecommerce website isn’t delivering that search experience, you’re most probably missing a ton of sales opportunities.
Fortunately, implementing an AI-powered ecommerce search can help you reduce search abandonment, convert more online shoppers, and drive higher revenue by simply helping users find what they want faster and more effortlessly. In this blog, we’ve covered everything you need to know about AI-powered site search in 2026 and why it can be a game-changer for your ecommerce business.
AI-powered site search is an intelligent search technology that helps shoppers find the right products faster whenever they are using a website search bar by understanding intent and context, not just exact keywords. So, instead of browsing product listings and using filters to find the items they need, it allows shoppers to type what they are looking for in a search bar and get relevant results.
Unlike traditional site search, AI-powered site search uses artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing to handle misspellings, recognize synonyms, and understand conversational queries to return relevant search results.
For example, think about the following scenarios:
But what really sets AI-powered site search apart is its ability to analyze shopper behavior and deliver highly personalized search experiences, while continuously improving relevance over time as it learns from past interactions.
AI-powered site search helps ecommerce and retail merchants improve product discovery, reduce zero-result searches, and increase conversion rates and average order value (AOV).
Many ecommerce brands still rely on default site search. In reality, it means that unless a shopper types the exact words from your product catalog, they’ll get either irrelevant or zero results, which creates a frustrating experience and missed conversion opportunities.
According to research from Nosto, here are the shoppers’ top frustrations with ecommerce site search:
| 41% | Too many irrelevant results are shown |
| 32% | When products are shown in the results despite being out of stock |
| 30% | Not being able to narrow down search results with filters |
| 27% | Results taking too long to load |
| 26% | When the search bar can’t interpret my queries or request |
| 23% | When products are shown but not available in my size |
But while over 80% of surveyed brands understand the importance of efficient site search and agree that fast, accurate search is essential for a successful ecommerce store, many are still missing key search functionality needed to make that happen.
Image source: Nosto
Let’s now take a closer look at the specific benefits you get when your ecommerce site search becomes more advanced and intelligent:
Statistically, 43% of online shoppers head straight for the search bar upon landing on an ecommerce site. When site search returns highly relevant results, and shoppers can instantly find what they’re looking for, user experience improves and – more importantly – shoppers are more likely to return.
According to Google Cloud, nearly 9 in 10 consumers (88%) say a good search function is very important or absolutely essential when visiting a retail website. On top of that, 99% are more likely to return to a website if it has a good search function. At the same time, 3 out of 4 consumers report that after an unsuccessful search, the sale is often lost to competition.
Based on the Site Search Industry Benchmark report from Prefifbox and Salesforce, although only 16% of shoppers use the search function on ecommerce websites, they generate 55% of all online revenue. This means that site search users are 6.4 times more likely to convert (generate revenue). That’s because shoppers who search have a stronger purchase intent – they’re looking for specific products, and they know exactly what they want. And since AI-powered search enables better product discoverability, it helps you convert more searchers.
Finally, implementing AI-powered search on your ecommerce site enables you to generate more revenue from the traffic you already have by turning casual visitors into buyers more effectively. In other words, the same number of your website visitors can generate significantly more sales simply because they are able to find relevant products faster and with less friction – all without you having to spend extra on acquisition.
Wall Tools, a global U.S.-based supplier of professional drywall tools, is a great example of what AI-powered search can deliver. After rolling out Maropost’s Merchandising Cloud, the brand saw a 15% year-over-year lift in conversions. And with faster, more intuitive search, repeat customers now account for more than 50% of their total sales.
“If you aren’t listening to your customers when they talk to you through your search bar, you’ll eventually lose them to someone who does. That search bar is a communication between your customer and you.” — Sacha Dent, Marketing Director, Wall Tools.
Check out the full case study on Wall Tools' search transformation
To determine whether you actually need to implement an AI-powered search on your ecommerce website, ask yourself the following questions:
If you answered “no” to any of these questions, your website search experience could be costing you significant revenue – so it might be the right time to give an AI-powered search engine a try.
Advanced, AI-powered site search can be the next big step in turning more website searches into conversions and driving higher online sales for your ecommerce business. And Maropost Merchandising Cloud helps you do exactly that, with features and capabilities that go beyond AI-driven search. Here’s what you get with Merchandising Cloud:
Book a demo now to see Maropost Merchandising Cloud in action and learn how it can help you turn your ecommerce website into a more powerful conversion engine.
No, a well-implemented AI search engine will not slow down your website. Most modern solutions operate via APIs that process data on external servers. By using asynchronous loading, these tools deliver instant, relevant results without burdening your site’s hosting infrastructure. In fact, when implemented correctly, AI site search can actually speed up product discovery and create a smoother experience for your shoppers.
The best AI site search tools for ecommerce websites combine natural language processing capabilities, behavior-based personalization, advanced merchandising controls, and real-time data syncing. Maropost Merchandising Cloud is an excellent example. It unifies customer, product, and behavioral data for smarter personalization, while being purpose-built to handle complex ecommerce catalogs at scale. Plus, it delivers blazing-fast search speed (under 10ms), is easy to implement, and helps you see results faster.
Most ecommerce brands begin seeing improvements in user experience and a decrease in “zero-result” queries as soon as the system goes live. However, the most significant financial results – such as higher search conversion rates and increased average order value (AOV) – typically appear within 4 to 8 weeks, as machine learning algorithms need time to collect and analyze shopper behavior to optimize relevance and personalization.