/Insights/Algolia & Codal: Driving conversions with the fastest search engine in the world

AlgoliaandCodal:Drivingconversionswiththefastestsearchengineintheworld

Nov 4, 2024

7 min. read

Codal and Algolia team up to offer businesses a powerful, lightning-fast search solution that enhances the user experience, seamlessly integrating advanced search technology with modern, scalable architectures.

As a design and development consultancy that specializes in migrating businesses from legacy monolithic systems to composable architectures, Codal works closely with a number of Independent Software Tech Vendors (ISVs) in the MACH Alliance — vendors that provide flexible and scalable solutions for businesses looking to streamline internal operations and enhance their customer experience.

One of those ISVs is Algolia, a leading website search tool that powers over 1.7 trillion online searches per year for over 17,000 businesses across the globe.

If you’re interested in leveling up your search game, keep reading.

Website search functionality: Technical roadblock or competitive advantage?

For both B2C and B2B companies in the digital landscape, the importance of a fast, reliable search engine cannot be overstated. Customers expect to locate products, services, and other content without having to enter multiple queries, wait for pages to load, or scroll through multiple pages of results. Therefore, a site’s search functionality makes a significant difference in conversion rate, bounce rate, customer retention, and other key metrics.

Many businesses leverage off-the-shelf search plugins for their website, which is a fine approach for those with a standard site, straightforward goals, and minimal technical requirements on the back end. But for businesses selling thousands of products across the globe to various customer segments, these off-the-shelf tools often fail to satisfy user needs and scale alongside business growth. As a result, businesses with more complex search requirements—particularly enterprise organizations in manufacturing, healthcare, and automotive—end up building their own custom search engine from scratch.

While the homegrown approach may offer a high degree of control, it also requires hefty involvement from developers, who must constantly update, test, and maintain the software to ensure operational efficiency and scalability. As the business grows, so does the technology’s total cost of ownership (TCO).

Most business stakeholders today are looking for a solution that exists somewhere in the middle of these two approaches. They want the ability to customize their site search experience to align with ever-evolving customer expectations and business goals, without requiring significant time and resources from developers.

To help businesses achieve this, Codal often recommends Algolia.

Why Algolia?

Algolia offers lightning-fast search functionality with a composable, API-first approach, allowing non-technical users to customize the experience through a user-friendly dashboard. The SaaS provider currently serves thousands of clients across industries, including luxury retail, healthcare, manufacturing, and food and beverage.

Let’s dive deeper into the benefits of this cutting-edge technology:

Speedy results

Search engines powered by Algolia produce results for users in under 20 milliseconds (ms), while competing solutions tend to land between 200 and 300ms. This delta has earned Algolia its reputation as the “Lamborghini of search tools.” Remember, research shows that a 200ms delay in page loading time leads to an average 16% reduction in conversion rate.

Composability + scalability

Algolia is a go-to search tool for businesses aiming to migrate from monolithic legacy systems to more flexible headless architectures. As an ISV in the MACH Alliance, Algolia is recommended by System Integrators (SIs) — like Codal — to support custom, unified search experiences across various platforms and devices. One of the key benefits of a headless architecture is the freedom to seamlessly modify and update tools like Algolia as business needs change, without having to overhaul the entire front- and back-end system.

Support for complex discovery

Over recent years, the average search query has extended from 2.6 to 6.8 words. Why does this matter? Because traditional search tools don’t tend to produce quality search results with longer keywords. Algolia, on the other hand, leverages large-language models to recognize not only long-tail keywords, but also a wide range of phrases and concepts. For example, if a user enters “men’s shoes for a wedding” as their search query, Algolia understands that “wedding” is associated with formal wear, and will deliver results accordingly.

Unlock lightning-fast site search with Algolia + Codal

Codal plans and executes migrations from legacy systems to scalable, unified composable architectures, helping businesses implement technologies that solve complex problems and accelerate growth. And given the extreme importance of site search functionality in today’s climate, it’s no surprise that we regularly recommend and integrate Algolia for our clients.

“We are thrilled to be partnered with a team that knows how to make an impact on our merchants. Codal has consistently proven to be impactful through their endless innovation and data driven strategies and solutions. Here's to many more years of providing the best client experiences together,” said Rachel Clark, Sr. Partner Manager, Algolia.

Codal has collaborated with Algolia on many large-scale projects, including a modernized eCommerce experience for the international outdoor retailer, GOREWEAR. To learn more about that project, read the full case study here.

We’re incredibly proud of this partnership, as we’ve enabled our mutual clients to achieve a competitive advantage through best-in-breed site search functionality and UX design. Codal continues to work closely with Algolia on a number of ongoing projects that we’re excited to share soon!

Topic

Unified commerce

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