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Although Shopify does offer free product filters and site search for merchants, the app market for these functionalities is still active with the #1 position belonging to Product Filter & Search (PFS) by Boost Commerce.
The reason is an app upgrade can actually boost the store's sales to a great extent. One of our long-term users, Esports Gear has achieved a 29% increase in conversion rate since installing Boost Product Filter & Search.
Mark Laurie - the Brand Director - would love to share his experience with our app and how to optimize it to convert better. Without further ado, let's get into our interview with Mark.
An Overview Of Esports Gear’s Story:
- Market: Gaming Gears
- Targeted Customers: Gamers and all those who are gaming hardware enthusiasts
- Problem: Customers are well-experienced gaming geeks who seek in-depth information about their desired gears, which is rarely available in the market
- Goal: Effectively displaying high-level technical specifications based on custom filters and searches on different category pages
Scroll down for the key insights into how Esports Gear made their Collection pages convert much better by letting the gaming geeks immediately find what they need, with the help of Product Filter & Search by Boost ↓↓↓
Understand Customers’ Pain Point: The Story Behind Esports Gear
How did you start the online store of Esports Gear?
Esports Gear was born out of a shared vision and frustration by two friends determined to break down the barriers between gaming and traditional retail.
We’ve been gamers and tech enthusiasts all of our lives, and with a combined 30+ years of experience within the gaming and the retail industry, for years we saw big-box retailers selling below-par gaming gear alongside TVs, toasters, and vacuum cleaners.
They had little to no real gaming knowledge, never mind the knowledge to cater to professional players or the enthusiast market. When we attended events and exhibitions, we would hear lots of complaints and frustrations from their customers, so we decided enough was enough.
We saw a gap in the market and decided to start talking to these community members and asking them what they’d like to see in a gaming retailer — real on-the-ground market research. We listened long and hard to their valuable feedback and we built the UK’s first specialist gaming gear retailer around it.
We’re driven to work in partnership with the UK gaming scene as much as possible, helping support grassroots talent and building a thriving community of like-minded gamers and enthusiasts.
Why did you choose Shopify to build your online business?
Our first website was launched using an Open Source e-commerce platform which quickly became hard to manage. It was difficult to modify and scale and the security wasn’t up to scratch.
We needed something that could grow with us and had the flexibility to suit our ever-evolving needs — Shopify ticked a lot of the boxes and has helped take us to the next level in our journey.
Key Takeaways:
- In order to make the best use of the filter and search tool, firstly, you’ll need to know what exactly customers look for in your product’s details.
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In Esports Gear’s case, it is the high-level technical specifications of their gaming gears (mice, mousepads, keyboards, etc.). The founders KNOW their customers AND their products. They’re the experts in the market. And this is also their winning trait over other competitors.
Understand The System: The Problems Of Shopify Default Filter And Search
What difficulties/challenges made you think of a 3rd-party app for site search and product filtering?
As great as Shopify is, its default search and filter functionality is really lacking.
We needed something that could compete with big-box retailers' search & filter functionality and was able to grow with us, but importantly, didn’t break the bank!
As we are selling specialist gaming gear, it’s imperative that we have extremely detailed and descriptive product descriptions, and specifications shown on our product pages.
One of the main challenges we faced was being able to make our technical specifications searchable and filterable on the category pages as this is vital for our customers to find the right equipment.
Key Takeaway:
- Shopify's default filter and search function is not adequate for stores with a large number of products, or/and, diverse product specifications. So, you’ll need a tool to tackle both of these shortcomings.
Why did you decide to settle with the PFS app?
Boost PFS has helped to enhance customer experience on Esports Gear as shoppers can now search and filter by technical specifications. With this upgrade, it has increased the conversion by 29%.
The Impact: Outstanding Experiences And Results PFS App Brings To Esports Gear Team
Since installing the Boost app, we have seen, on average, a very impressive 29% increase in conversion compared to Shopify’s default functionality. This speaks for itself, and I’m certain a large percentage of retailers overlook this and mistakenly put their focus elsewhere.
Does the app help you reduce cost and save time for setting up filter and site search?
Yes, along with the filter enabling the customer to find exactly what they are looking for, we have utilized the tooltip feature/hover over on the filter menu which answers some of the frequent customer questions.
This saves us valuable time in customer service and keeps the customer engaged and in ‘purchase mode’ rather than them having to contact us or navigating off the site to find the answer to their question.
The tooltip display is of great help to explain industry jargon in the product filter without interfering with the buying journey.
In addition to this, introducing new categories into our store is made much simpler and more efficient with the Filter Trees managed in the app’s control panel. We can have these up and running in minutes.
Key Takeaways:
- Invest in your site’s filter and search can really boost your site’s conversion rate
- Enable tooltips wherever possible to clarify the filter’s functions to help customers use them more effectively. This helps smoothen their product browsing experience right on the spot, and you don’t waste time explaining general pre-sale questions.
What is your favorite feature(s) of our app, why do you love it, and how do you use it?
We find the biggest benefit of Boost is the capability to highly customize the filter to the finest detail as it uses the product tags.
It also allows us to specify unique filter sets for each category/collection, which is invaluable to us as our products differ considerably and we cater to tech enthusiasts who want to know every last technical specification of a product.
Learn more on how to create a multi-level tags filter option with PFS
We have rolled out many new features since last year. How do you feel about these changes?
Although we no longer have a need for it in our filters, the ‘shorten values’ feature in the range slider was really clever. It’s one of those features that is a ‘quality of life’ enhancement — a feature that isn’t essential, but once you use it and it cleans up the UI, you really do appreciate it!
→ Uncover all recent updates from Boost team here.
What about the Customer Service of the PFS app?
When we were first getting up and running, we required quite a lot of technical support to help tailor the app and settings to our needs, as they were quite specific due to the nature of our specialist products.
"The Boost support team was genuinely fantastic and got back to us with answers immediately, and in some cases made the changes for us to ensure our requirements were met. This has been an important factor for us as we really value how the apps we use are supported as well as how they function. I feel this is Boost’s winning combination and it’s why we’ve been loyal".
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Esports Gear has been our user since 2019. The team has had an excellent experience and has seen impressive results. Wanna join them as one of our +13,000 winning Shopify stores? Try Product Filter & Search Now!
