IT, eComm Teams Add Speed, Convenience With ShopMyExchange.com Search Engine Upgrade

The Exchange’s eCommerce and IT teams launched an upgraded search engine on ShopMyExchange.com. Although the search engine doesn’t look that different, customers see faster and more search-specific results, with an autocomplete function providing additional search suggestions.

“Customers will get to the product that they’re looking for as quickly as possible,” said Bill Reynolds Jr., vice president of eCommerce merchandise and operations. “That’s what we’re trying to do—reduce time for customers to find items in an assortment. And, by extension, find the brand that they’re looking for.”

Reynolds added that the upgrade is “one of the earliest dominoes” in the website’s  replatforming. The changes are related to the Exchange’s strategic priority of increasing drop-ship suppliers, which allows e-commerce to ship tax-free items directly from third-party vendors such as The Home Depot. More than 100 vendors were added in 2022, with 250 expected to be added in 2023, greatly increasing the online offerings.

“The previous search engine simply wasn’t capable of handling the amount of items expected to flow through,” said Shane Binion, e-Commerce marketing manager. “We’ve already doubled the count on the website and we’re adding more every day.”

Work on the upgrade began in 2021, originally driven by customer feedback about the previous search engine. In surveys about the website, customers indicated that finding items on the site was a struggle.

“It’s the customer’s voice that we’re listening to,” Reynolds said. “That’s really the foundation for it.”

The teams worked with a cloud-based technology provider to enhance search engine relevancy, recommendations and more.

“Search engines up to about 2020 were based on a relevancy model,.” Binion said. “But with advancements in AI, companies that work with search engines are incorporating those technologies into their services.”

Wallace Knight III, vice president, omnichannel for IT; Santiago Garcia, director of IT digital solutions; Aaron Remkus, IT operations manager; and Scott Blevins, IT program manager, working with the MD and eComm teams, spent about a year developing the upgrades.

Knight said that the technology uses machine learning, in which computers use algorithms and statistical models to learn user behavior and adapt to it. This allows the search engine to personalize repeat users’ searches.

“The modeling for the searches is fast and specific to individual needs,” Knight said. “Part of artificial intelligence is determining what I really want by providing me with further relevant search categories. For instance, if I type ‘vise grips,’ search will quickly understand I am looking for a tool and provide me items associated with similar tools.”

The AI also learns from other companies what people are most likely to search for. “The search engine is vastly better at understanding users’ true intent,” Knight said. “Over time, the AI and advance machine learning takesin many data points, such as information from popular searches, a customer’s historical data and user preferences, to help curate results more personalized for that individual customer. This improves the quality of returning relevant search results in less time for our customers.”

Binion said the next step for ShopMyExchange.com will be a platform change in October. The rollout will be incremental, starting with changes in cart checkout. The new platform will also provide the Exchange with a My Exchange shopping app.

“We’re real excited about that as well,” Binion said. “We think it’s going to open a lot of doors and give customers a lot more shopping options and be more convenient.”