Transforming e-commerce search with an upgrade to Algolia
When a client's Search as a Service vendor mandated a migration due to a merger, Quarry saw an opportunity to significantly upgrade the client's search capabilities. Instead of a like-for-like migration, Quarry proposed and implemented a shift to Algolia, a best-in-class search solution. This strategic decision resulted in improved experience, lower costs, and enhanced search and recommendation capabilities.
Photo by Jigar Panchal on Unsplash
The Challenge:
The client was using Nextopia as their Search as a Service vendor. Due to a merger between Nextopia and Searchspring, the client was required to migrate to a new platform. This presented several challenges:
- Mandatory migration with potential disruption to business operations
- Limited timeframe to make a decision and implement changes
- Need to justify any additional costs or efforts beyond the required migration
The Solution:
Quarry’s team saw this mandatory migration as a great opportunity to enhance the client’s search capabilities. They proposed migrating to Algolia, a superior Search as a Service vendor.
Acting as a fractional CTO, Quarry conducted a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis and business case for migrating to Algolia.
Then, we proposed Algolia as a superior alternative to the client’s current vendor and the merged entity. After getting buy in, we implemented the migration to Algolia, which required similar effort to the originally mandated migration.
Along the way, Quarry implemented event collection to power Algolia’s advanced machine learning capabilities as an added bonus.
The Results:
The migration to Algolia delivered significant improvements across multiple areas:
Better admin experience – Dramatically improved admin experience enabled self-service content management in Algolia, eliminating the frequent vendor support required with Searchspring.
Lower costs – Even with superior functionality, Algolia provided a more cost-effective solution.
Improved search merchandising – More relevant search results and improved ability to fine-tune and customize search outcomes.
Better recommendations and personalization – This is one of the biggest wins. We leveraged Algolia’s machine learning capabilities for better product recommendations and improved personalization without requiring constant manual intervention.
The client gained access to a powerful machine learning engine for both search and recommendations, which allowed the client to “outsource” complex optimization tasks to Algolia’s algorithms.
By acting as a fractional CTO, thinking strategically and looking beyond the immediate requirement, Quarry transformed a potential inconvenience into a significant upgrade for our client.
The migration to Algolia solved the immediate need and provided the client with a best-in-class search solution that improved user experience, reduced costs, and set the stage for future growth.
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