What UK Retail Search Data Really Tells Us

Search is a dominant way for many consumers to find the products they are looking for, and we often find that navigating to a specific category page is not always the most seamless experience. Amazon are king of segment share, with consumers choosing to run a search. It commands around 30 percent of the overall traffic on Amazon.co.uk based on the last 30 days. This is considerable traffic that far exceeds the total visits of other retailers in this comparison.

Source: Similarweb - last 12 months

As marketers, we often use category pages to identify best sellers, make assessments and form recommendations for brands, but search remains the most natural way for consumers to move through the site.

Suggested searches appear when a user begins typing into the search box, and as many know, the majority of consumers click on the first few products. This suggests that consumers move easily through the Amazon experience or, at least through frequent use, have become very comfortable with it.

At the other end of the spectrum, we see the likes of Currys, where consumers appear to take a slightly different path. When a user performs a search, a number of suggested keywords and products appear together. This experience may lead consumers not to land on a single search results page, but instead to navigate directly to a relevant product by refining their search.

Across the wider retail landscape, search still accounts for a large proportion of onsite behaviour. Considering that the rest of traffic includes the homepage and all product pages, especially where there is a considered purchase, consumers spend a lot of time exploring before making their final decision.

For brands, it really just shows how important it is to show up in retailer search. Being visible near the top, whether through sponsored placements or by having well optimised product titles, can make all the difference. If you are not showing up when people are actively searching, you are basically invisible.

When you look across all retailers, search still drives how people discover products. The job for brands is to make sure their content naturally appears where shoppers are already spending time. That might be a quick search for groceries or a longer browse for something like tech, but either way, visibility at that moment matters most.