SLI Systems

As Black Friday and Cyber Monday approach, SLI Systems released its November E-Retail Index, lending important insight into some of the most popular items on consumer lists this year, based on the most commonly used site search terms.

For niche online retailer Cruiser Customizing, a seller of motorcycle parts and accessories, an easily navigable site is critical to its success. Riders come to CruiserCustomizing.com to look for specific parts or accessories exclusive to their particular bike. Finding them quickly and easily enhances their likelihood to buy. For that reason, Cruiser Customizing has invested resources in upgrading its site search.

Picture this: You’re on a sunny beach, stretched out on the sand. A child is sitting next to you with pail and shovel in hand. The child mischievously starts covering your ankles and feet in sand. You smile and continue sipping your refreshing piña colada. Now a dump truck pulls up and pours a mountain of sand all over you. You’re buried, and the sand muffles your scream. The former, pleasant scene represents the amount of data your marketing staff had to deal with about 10 years ago. The dump truck represents today’s daily data deluge.

Nearly 90 percent of U.S. retailers rank site search, search engine optimization (SEO) and e-mail marketing as the most important e-commerce technologies helping to promote their online businesses, according to early findings of a recent survey by the Web site search engine software provider SLI Systems. The recent survey polled 322 retailers in the U.S. Here are some more findings of the survey. * 40 percent cited social media tools, such as blogs, podcasts and user-generated content, as increasing in popularity; * 87 percent of the respondents currently use site search, SEO and e-mail marketing strategies; * 93 percent believe the effectiveness of SEO