Search by Algolia
What is online retail merchandising? An introduction
e-commerce

What is online retail merchandising? An introduction

Done any shopping on an ecommerce website lately? If so, you know a smooth online shopper experience is not optional ...

Vincent Caruana

Sr. SEO Web Digital Marketing Manager

5 considerations for Black Friday 2023 readiness
e-commerce

5 considerations for Black Friday 2023 readiness

It’s hard to imagine having to think about Black Friday less than 4 months out from the previous one ...

Piyush Patel

Chief Strategic Business Development Officer

How to increase your sales and ROI with optimized ecommerce merchandising
e-commerce

How to increase your sales and ROI with optimized ecommerce merchandising

What happens if an online shopper arrives on your ecommerce site and: Your navigation provides no obvious or helpful direction ...

Catherine Dee

Search and Discovery writer

Mobile search UX best practices, part 3: Optimizing display of search results
ux

Mobile search UX best practices, part 3: Optimizing display of search results

In part 1 of this blog-post series, we looked at app interface design obstacles in the mobile search experience ...

Vincent Caruana

Sr. SEO Web Digital Marketing Manager

Mobile search UX best practices, part 2: Streamlining search functionality
ux

Mobile search UX best practices, part 2: Streamlining search functionality

In part 1 of this series on mobile UX design, we talked about how designing a successful search user experience ...

Vincent Caruana

Sr. SEO Web Digital Marketing Manager

Mobile search UX best practices, part 1: Understanding the challenges
ux

Mobile search UX best practices, part 1: Understanding the challenges

Welcome to our three-part series on creating winning search UX design for your mobile app! This post identifies developer ...

Vincent Caruana

Sr. SEO Web Digital Marketing Manager

Teaching English with Zapier and Algolia
engineering

Teaching English with Zapier and Algolia

National No Code Day falls on March 11th in the United States to encourage more people to build things online ...

Alita Leite da Silva

How AI search enables ecommerce companies to boost revenue and cut costs
ai

How AI search enables ecommerce companies to boost revenue and cut costs

Consulting powerhouse McKinsey is bullish on AI. Their forecasting estimates that AI could add around 16 percent to global GDP ...

Michelle Adams

Chief Revenue Officer at Algolia

What is digital product merchandising?
e-commerce

What is digital product merchandising?

How do you sell a product when your customers can’t assess it in person: pick it up, feel what ...

Catherine Dee

Search and Discovery writer

Scaling marketplace search with AI
ai

Scaling marketplace search with AI

It is clear that for online businesses and especially for Marketplaces, content discovery can be especially challenging due to the ...

Bharat Guruprakash

Chief Product Officer

The changing face of digital merchandising
e-commerce

The changing face of digital merchandising

This 2-part feature dives into the transformational journey made by digital merchandising to drive positive ecommerce experiences. Part 1 ...

Reshma Iyer

Director of Product Marketing, Ecommerce

What’s a convolutional neural network and how is it used for image recognition in search?
ai

What’s a convolutional neural network and how is it used for image recognition in search?

A social media user is shown snapshots of people he may know based on face-recognition technology and asked if ...

Catherine Dee

Search and Discovery writer

What’s organizational knowledge and how can you make it accessible to the right people?
product

What’s organizational knowledge and how can you make it accessible to the right people?

How’s your company’s organizational knowledge holding up? In other words, if an employee were to leave, would they ...

Catherine Dee

Search and Discovery writer

Adding trending recommendations to your existing e-commerce store
engineering

Adding trending recommendations to your existing e-commerce store

Recommendations can make or break an online shopping experience. In a world full of endless choices and infinite scrolling, recommendations ...

Ashley Huynh

Ecommerce trends for 2023: Personalization
e-commerce

Ecommerce trends for 2023: Personalization

Algolia sponsored the 2023 Ecommerce Site Search Trends report which was produced and written by Coleman Parkes Research. The report ...

Piyush Patel

Chief Strategic Business Development Officer

10 ways to know it’s fake AI search
ai

10 ways to know it’s fake AI search

You think your search engine really is powered by AI? Well maybe it is… or maybe not.  Here’s a ...

Michelle Adams

Chief Revenue Officer at Algolia

Cosine similarity: what is it and how does it enable effective (and profitable) recommendations?
ai

Cosine similarity: what is it and how does it enable effective (and profitable) recommendations?

You looked at this scarf twice; need matching mittens? How about an expensive down vest? You watched this goofy flick ...

Vincent Caruana

Sr. SEO Web Digital Marketing Manager

What is cognitive search, and what could it mean for your business?
ai

What is cognitive search, and what could it mean for your business?

“I can’t find it.”  Sadly, this conclusion is often still part of the modern enterprise search experience. But ...

Vincent Caruana

Sr. SEO Web Digital Marketing Manager

Looking for something?

Composable Commerce: how to help in-store sales associates find products easily by optimizing inventory management

Sep 23rd 2021 ecommerce

Composable Commerce: how to help in-store sales associates find products easily by optimizing inventory management
facebookfacebooklinkedinlinkedintwittertwittermailmail

In the previous blogs (on ecommerce product discovery and in-store kiosk and store locators), we covered how a Composable Commerce approach enabled you to leverage your product catalog to engage directly with shoppers. But shoppers are not the only audience that benefit from a seamless access to this catalog. Retail employees working in store or in customer care departments are often at the center of the most impactful interactions shoppers will have with your brand. Enabling your employees with advanced enterprise search applications to access your product catalog will ultimately benefit your shoppers.

Companion app 

App: Store Assistant mobile app / Companion app with Service Cloud and Voice Search integration for sales associates

Medium: In-store

Goal/problem solved:

  • Support store sales associates by providing real time information about stock availability in-store, online, or at nearby locations

Main user:

  • In-store sales associates

Ensure flawless in-store shopping experience by equipping sales associates with an Algolia store assistant app. One app combines in a single interface: POS (Place-of-sale), Stock App, and Clienteling Service Cloud App. Store sales associates don’t need to juggle multiple tools attempting to provide good customer service. Moreover, if the sales associates’ hands are full, they can simply use a voice search to find any product or customer related information they need on the fly, without the need to head to a static point of sale location. For example, saying “Find me a black overcoat size M in my store” will show a search result page of all the relevant items in stock in the current geographic location. The dataset is very dynamic and the inventory is constantly changing throughout the day, yet with a powerful search tool, the results returned are accurate and real-time updated.

Customers looking for help are always expecting accurate and reliable information about stock availability in-store, online, and at nearby locations for various items as well as smooth communication with sales associates and easy transaction process. Set up a high standard for your in-store customer service and eliminate mistakes and delays in customer care, encouraging customer loyalty.

Brands will be able to maintain high quality customer service not only by investing in customer supporting technology, but also by ensuring that their support associates are equipped with the best technology on their side as well. Ensuring that sales associates are equipped with a single, intuitive, and powerful app serving all their needs should be each retailer’s priority. Empowered store sales associates are more likely to provide more personalized customer experience, ensure higher customer satisfaction, and improve the brand image in the eyes of customers.

Inventory management, operations, and logistics

App: Algolia interaction with Service Cloud for Logistics Operations

Medium: Global operations

Goal/problem solved: 

  • Improving operational efficiency and processes productivity

Main user: 

  • Company employees

Large retail corporations need to ensure their global operation teams are equipped with top-notch technology tools in order to keep up with the fast pace of the industry. All the necessary materials should be easily accessible and searchable at a lightning fast speed. Integrating Algolia with Service Cloud providers helps empower the corporate employees by providing them with best in class operational tools, significantly improving employee performance and efficiency.

App: Image Search app (Optical Character Recognition/OCR) via integration of Algolia and Google Cloud Vision

Medium: In-store

Goal/problem solved:

  • Logistics operations productivity

Main users:

  • Store employees, warehouse employees, office employees

With the recent expansion of online shopping and the growing pressure on warehouses, optimizing logistics operations and productivity is vital for every retailer. Combining optical character recognition (OCR), Algolia search, and Slack notifications, lets warehouse employees scan a shipping label with a phone and send a Slack message to the recipient of the package. The label-scanning app combines optical character recognition (OCR), Algolia search, and Slack notifications.

https://github.com/algolia-samples/image-search-ocr-with-algolia-and-google-cloud-vision

App: Enterprise Search (GDrive, Confluence, Salesforce)

Medium: Global operations

Goal/problem solved: 

  • Improving operational efficiency and processes productivity

Main user: 

  • Company employees

Behind a successful retail brand stands a very efficient organization. To lead in the highly competitive retail market, companies must invest in improving their operational efficiency and processes productivity. To support these strategic efforts, Algolia offers an enterprise search tool, combining Lycos with Google Drive, Confluence, and Salesforce. All the essential elements of a highly efficient organization. 


About the author
Tanya Herman

Product Manager

Recommended Articles

Powered byAlgolia Algolia Recommend

Composable Commerce: how to build an In-Store Product Search Kiosk and Store Locator
e-commerce

Tanya Herman

Product Manager

Composable Commerce: how to improve omnichannel product discovery experience
e-commerce

Tanya Herman

Product Manager

Building Enterprise Search and Discovery for your customers and employees
product

Peter Villani

Sr. Staff Writer