Wal-Mart’s New Search Engine Boosts Online Business

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Big-box retailer Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) announced a new search engine for its website that’s intended to make online shopping  faster and easier.

The search engine was built from the retailer’s research and technology arm, WalmartLabs. According to the company, “Walmart.com has already seen an approximate 10-15 % increase in shoppers completing a purchase after searching for a product,” since the search engine — named Polaris — was introduced.

“With Polaris, we are giving users the ability to connect with the items they want but also surface items based on their interests and likely intent,” Sri Subramaniam, vice president for @WalmartLabs and head of the Polaris initiative, said in a press release. “This is the start of what we imagine search to be as we continue to deliver products to accelerate Walmart’s global e-commerce efforts.”

Polaris takes into account how a shopper is interacting with the site to find the best results for them.  It delivers a new results page when browsing for topics, which helps shoppers find  related items they may not have considered. For example, if a user types in the word “denim,” it returns results on jeans, according to the company.


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2012/08/wal-marts-new-search-engine-boosts-online-business/.

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