The Search module for your eCommerce site can be a powerful tool that can significantly contribute to your long-term success. The Search module has a unique ability to directly connect customers with their desired product while also giving you the information needed to improve multiple aspects of your business.
In this week’s blog we’re going to be discussing the best Magento 2 Site Search modules and how they can impact your eCommerce business.
(To learn more about how your Magento search function can help to go even further towards improve your SEO and inventory management, don’t miss last week’s blog, “4 Ways to Improve Your SEO with Magento’s Search Terms Report”.)
Elasticsearch
Elasticsearch is native to Magento 2 and it is used on such high-volume sites as eBay, Wikipedia, and GitHub. All big names, but none of these sites are eCommerce sites. Elasticsearch requires a the use of a number of additional extensions to expand its capabilities and make it truly useful for smaller businesses.
Another major downside to relying on Elasticsearch for your site’s search functionality is that the module is server intensive, so you need to be on a dedicated server or have upgraded to a cloud hosting platform. Because of these server constraints we do not recommend Elasticsearch for merchants whose sites are doing less than $3 million in total revenue, see less than 150,000 visitors per month or feature less than 10,000 SKUs. If your site meet any of these criteria then we recommend using a 3rd party search engine because of the additional features they offer as well as the server assistance they provide, as any 3rd party search provider is going to handle all of the search activity on their servers, leaving yours to be dedicated to page itself.
Klevu
Klevu is an easy to implement, low maintenance on-site search tool that is incorporates machine learning to accomplish a lot of the optimization and maintenance that is normally done manually on Elasticsearch.
Klevu’s machine learning abilities develops an ongoing understanding of how your customers are engaging with the search features, expanding its knowledge as it accumulates more information. The result of this process optimizes search results to get customers’ better search results.. The autocomplete feature offers helpful suggestions and creates a more convenient and pleasant shopping experience for your customers. This all leads to more sales which benefits of your business.
Klevu is extremely scalable and prices start at just $499 per month. The platform offers a great, self managed dashboard that is easy to understand and navigate. While the lower tiered Klevu offerings do not come with a dedicated account manager or onboarding technician, there are more Enterprise-level plans that come with a dedicated account manager and technical support if that is something that you and your company desire.
Nextopia
Magento is known for its customizable abilities and Nextopia’s site search module was created in that same vein. Nextopia was built to cater to the unique needs of B2B merchants, and is a fully customizable search solution designed to be coded to match the HTML of your eCommerce site.
In addition to the B2B focus and superior customization capabilities, Nextopia offers exceptional North American customer support (based in Canada) with a dedicated account manager, no matter what level of customer you are. Nextopia’s support extends beyond the initial set-up and launch of your search module, throughout the life of your contract. This includes monthly status meetings designed to recap your search results and teach first-time users how to better understand the search reports and integrate them into an eCommerce strategy. After Nextopia clients feel comfortable with the module, these monthly recaps change to quarterly status meetings and can be booked as needed.
Conclusion
While there are other 3rd party site search options available for Magento, we recommend ElasticSearch to someone that’s on a dedicated server or higher level hosting that can support that service, and has a team capable of ongoing management. Klevu is our favorite ‘plug and play’ option with awesome capabilities, while Nextopia is very scalable for B2B businesses or sites with more complex catalogs, such as automotive sites with vehicle fitment data. Many other site search options have a more expensive, more drawn out on-boarding process that we find to be overkill.
We could talk about Magneto extensions all day. If you have questions about what Search Module is right for you, need assistance with Magneto 1’s upcoming end-of-life or anything else eCommerce related, call us at to speak with team member today. Or, submit your request via our Contact page and we’ll get in touch with you ASAP.