FiboSearch Pro AJAX Search for WooCommerce

Baymard Institute’s latest UX research reveals that a search autocomplete feature is now offered on 96% of major e-commerce sites. It’s a must-have feature for every online business that can’t afford to lose customers.

What makes FiboSearch unique?

Here are the features built especially for store owners who want to sell more.

Ultra-fast search

Search response time is a crucial factor for a successful online store. The perfect search response time should be less than 0.2 seconds. This is the limit for the user to feel that the system is reacting instantaneously. Human perceptual abilities are what we take into account when developing FiboSearch Pro.

Ultra-fast suggestions

FiboSearch Pro is designed for the user to feel that the system is reacting instantaneously. Nobody likes waiting too long for the search results. Fast searches improve user satisfaction and offer a better shopping experience.

SRT less than 0.2 seconds

FiboSearch uses an ultra-fast search engine based on one of the fastest search database structures – the inverted index. Also, all AJAX requests work in a special WordPress SHORTINIT mode. This all makes FiboSearch Pro the fastest self-hosted search solution in the WooCommerce market.

Because of the inverted index database structure and other tricks, there is no significant difference in the search speed if there are 500 products or 50k products.

Mobile friendly

Mobile commerce is one of the fastest growing branches of the e-commerce market. Mobile commerce sales reached $2.91 trillion in 2020 have been increasing year-on-year by about 22%. Mobile e-commerce accounted for 45% of all e-commerce revenue by 2020.

That’s why product search on mobile devices should be taken seriously. The FiboSearch search is designed to provide the best experience on mobile devices.

Responsive suggestions

Both the search bar and the suggestion results smoothly adjust to the width of the current screen.

The search is responsive on all kinds of devices, including iPhones, iPads, Android smartphones and tablets.

Mobile search overlay

Search overlay is a special full-screen search mode especially designed for a better mobile user experience. This mode turns on when a user clicks the search bar or search icon. The whole screen disappears and only the full-screen search module is visible. The same full-screen search mode is used by, for example, google.com on mobile devices.

Overlay mode is enabled by default. It’s possible to manage this mode on the plugin’s settings page.

Mobile keyboard friendly

We are aware that mobile keyboards can make searching impossible. This is a common mistake on online stores nowadays. FiboSearch solves this problem by supporting different kinds of mobile keyboards.

Flexible layout

It’s possible to display the search icon only on mobile devices and the standard search bar only on desktops. This is adjusted in the plugin settings.

Details Panel

The Details Panel is an extra area with extended information, such as an “add to cart” button with a quantity field, product description, products in a category, and more. This panel is displayed while hovering over a live suggestion and works only on desktop.

Product details

Users love to explore extra product data directly from the search interface. The Details Panel is displayed on the right and includes a larger image, SKU, price, short description, stock status and even an “add to cart” button with a quantity field.

Taxonomy details

For the taxonomy of search results, such as the category or tag, the Details Panel displays the most popular products assigned to this term. At the bottom of the list is a link to an archive page for taxonomy. Next to the label “See all products” is the number of products assigned to that category or tag.

Post and page details

One of the FiboSearch Pro features that posts and pages are displayed in autocomplete suggestions. For this kind of search result, the Details Panel displays the post thumbnail, title, short description and link to read more.

Variation details

If the user types an exact match of a variation of an SKU, the specific variation will be display as a search suggestion. In the Details Panel, the user can see a large variation thumbnail and variation SKU, attributes and an “add to cart” button.

Search engine

Users expect a high-performance search experience when they perform searches on e-commerce sites. The FiboSearch engine is specifically designed for an e‑commerce oriented search. After all, if users can’t find what they are looking for, they can’t buy it from you.

Basic search sources

The WooCommerce search tool allows users to search by product name only. This is not enough, and customers may be annoyed that they can’t find simple things.

The solution is to add more fields that users can search for. The basic search sources include product description, short description and SKU.

Advanced search sources

For larger or more complex stores, it is recommended to increase the scope of the search.

FiboSearch Pro allows searching for products by their attributes, categories, tags, brands, and custom fields (support for ACF). Also, there is support for searching by SKU of the product variation.

Non-product searches

FiboSearch offers more than just finding products. Many users rely on searches to find non-product content. A non-product search can be of great help, especially if a user is unable to find the auxiliary content by means of linear navigation means.

FiboSearch enables searching in product categories and product tags. FiboSearch Pro also allows searching in brands, pages and blog posts.

Fuzzy Search

The Fuzzy Search feature makes it possible to ignore basic typos made by users while writing phrases in the search bar. The search will return the same results no matter whether users type iphome instead of iphone or calender instead of calendar, etc.

Synonyms

The synonyms feature allows grouping of words or phrases, which have the same meaning. This is helpful when there are multiple versions of the same names.

A good practice is to analyze the user’s searches and find phrases that don’t return any results. Then add these phrases or words as synonyms to minimize no-result searches.

Exclude products filters

This feature allows excluding from search groups of products based on, for example, the category name, tags, or even attributes.

Conditions can be combined, such as excluding all products assigned to the category Clothing and in gray and green colors.

Designed for boosting sales

The autocomplete search suggestions are designed to give more information for potential buyers. The extra data, such as product thumbnails, price, SKU and more, allow users to make faster and better buying decisions and focus on the right products.

Plain autocomplete

This is a basic form of the autocomplete feature. This form of search is similar to the amazon.com or google.com search.

Product image

A picture is worth a thousand words. That’s why users love images in the instant search suggestions.

Price

Seeing prices helps users make faster purchasing decisions. A lot of online stores display prices in instant suggestions.

SKU

For certain e-commerce branches, it is very important to display the SKU in instant suggestions. It may be helpful in the automotive industry, where the SKU is, for example, a part number.

Description

This feature may be useful for online stores where a description is crucial.

Grouped by types

There are several types of suggestions that can be displayed as search results. The main type is product, but there are also product categories, tags, brands or posts and pages. In future plugin releases there will be new types, such as custom taxonomies, custom posts, etc.

The groups help users stay focused while also improving the readability of the search results.

Details Panel

The Details Panel is an extra area with extended information, for example an “add to cart” button with a quantity field, product description, products in a category, and more.