Retailers put significant effort into homepage banners, seasonal campaigns, featured collections, and promotional tiles. Those assets matter, but they’re only part of the shopping journey. For many shoppers, the search bar is the real starting point.
An April 2026 survey by Profitero of 1,000 nationally representative U.S. shoppers found that 34% use search as their primary way to navigate retailer websites. Promotions and deals came second, prioritized by 23% of shoppers. The message for retailers is clear: onsite search deserves a central place in digital merchandising strategy.
Search meets shoppers with intent
Homepage browsing can inspire shoppers who are still deciding what they want. Search serves a different need: helping people who already have a product, brand, category, or requirement in mind.
A query like “women’s running shoes,” “wireless earbuds,” or “organic baby formula” gives retailers a direct signal of what the shopper is looking for. When results are relevant and easy to refine, search can help shoppers move quickly from intent to consideration–and closer to purchase.
That query can also reveal useful information about customer demand, including preferred brands, price sensitivity, desired product features, seasonal needs, and the language shoppers use. Searches that return no results may point to gaps in product assortment, catalog content, or search understanding.
Basic Autocomplete Misses the Mark
This investment is especially important for retailers relying on basic, native search tools in their platforms that offer limited autocomplete suggestions.
A plain or cluttered suggestion window can feel disconnected from the shopping experience, while suggestions that fail to account for typos, synonyms, and different forms of a product term can leave shoppers at a dead end.
A more capable onsite search experience can make autocomplete clearer and more useful helping shoppers recognize relevant products, categories, and brands as they type, even when their query doesn’t exactly match the catalog.
Bring promotions into the search journey
Search and promotions don’t need to compete for attention. They can work together.
A shopper searching for “coffee makers” may be more likely to convert if relevant sale items, coupons, or loyalty-member prices are easy to spot in the results. Retailers can connect offers to what the shopper is already looking for with discount badges, sale filters, promotional sorting, or related-deal modules.
The key is relevance. Promotions should support the shopper’s intent, not distract from it.
Keep investing in the homepage, but balance the effort
The homepage remains valuable for introducing campaigns, showcasing new products, and helping undecided shoppers explore. But its visual prominence shouldn’t automatically make it the top investment priority.
If shoppers rely on search to navigate, retailers should give it comparable attention in planning, optimization, testing, and measurement.
A relevant result that’s out of stock is still a frustrating result. Likewise, rankings that favor commercial priorities over shopper relevance can undermine trust. Effective search balances customer intent with practical signals such as availability, price, ratings, and promotional status.
Treat onsite search as a growth channel
Search is more than a navigation feature. It’s a high-intent touchpoint and a source of insight into what shoppers want. Retailers that make it easier to find the right products and the right offers can create a smoother path to purchase while learning more from the demand already present on their site.
Homepage merchandising still has a role. But the Profitero findings are a timely reminder to invest according to how customers actually shop. When more than one in three shoppers use search as their primary navigation method, onsite search should be a core part of the e-commerce experience, not an afterthought.
Discover Quarticon’s Smart Search.
