Warehouse Stationery Selects Christchurch Based SLI Systems

An increasing focus on e-commerce led Warehouse Stationery to select Christchurch-based SLI Systems, the international provider of on-demand search services for Internet and e-commerce sites, as its site search partner.

Pete Barnett, Business Market Manager for Warehouse Stationery said, “Warehouse Stationery stocks over 8,500 products so we needed to ensure that our customers could quickly find what they needed when visiting us online. This is consistent with our ongoing determination to find new solutions that improve the customer’s experience of Warehouse Stationery.

“We launched our Business to Business initiative in September 2001 to better meet the needs of our commercial customers, enabling them to order and pay online with delivery direct to their door. The expansion of our e-commerce site has meant that many of our customers, who have visited one of our 46 retail stores, are now choosing to also do some of their stationery shopping online.”

Since March, SLI Systems has provided the Warehouse Stationery website with two key services, Site Champion and Learning Search.

Learning Search is a hosted site search solution that continually learns from site visitors by analysing their aggregate search terms and the corresponding items clicked on, and uses that data to improve the relevance of the site search results for customers. Learning Search gives customers the option to refine search results by category or price band, sort them by highest or lowest price, and provides additional related search terms.

These features mean that customers can quickly find exactly what they want. The ability of Learning Search to provide the most relevant search results helps attract and retain customers, and increases sales. Studies show that almost half of people search within a site as opposed to using the site’s navigation and that they expect to find what they’re looking for on the first page of results, or they’ll look elsewhere.

Mr Barnett said, “The decision to adopt the SLI solution was made after a 30 day trial of Learning Search late last year. We had increasingly found that our existing search facility wasn’t meeting our customer’s needs, and so we started reviewing the options available to us. SLI came highly recommended, and after doing due diligence, we selected a world-class product that meets our customers’ expectations and was extremely easy for us to implement.”

“We have since seen a marked increase in the quality of the site experience, which has helped lift the number of repeat visits and online revenue. SLI’s experience offshore was another key issue. The American e-commerce market is several years ahead of us in New Zealand. Being able to access a solution which has proven itself in the competitive US market means that we are able to implement the ‘best of breed’ search solution, while supporting a New Zealand business.”

Warehouse Stationery’s website also uses Site Champion, SLI’s user generated search engine optimisation service. Site Champion makes it easier for people to find the website by ensuring that the site uses the language and terms used by customers who search for and visit the site.

The last 12 months have seen the number of websites using SLI’s services increase to more than 350 websites. Customers include FTD (the 2nd largest flower retailer in the US), Qantas, Tupperware, YLighting and A&S BMW Motorcycles, New Zealand clients include, Dick Smith Electronics, Noel Leeming, and the Department of Statistics. Seventy percent of SLI Systems’ revenues are generated in the US market, 20 percent in the UK, and the balance in the Asia Pacific region.

About SLI Systems

SLI Systems is the developer of learning-based search and navigation technology for corporate Internet sites, e-commerce destinations and consumer Internet portals that Searches, Learns and Improves the user experience.  SLI Systems’ hosted site search and user-generated SEO solutions empower businesses to enhance customer satisfaction while increasing sales, reducing costs and yielding valuable customer information.  Unlike traditional search software, SLI Systems’ patented technology continuously “learns” from the behavior of visitors over time to deliver more relevant results. SLI Systems is a privately held company, with offices in Silicon Valley, London, and Christchurch, New Zealand.  For more information, visit www.sli-systems.com, or see the company’s blog at http://blog.sli-systems.com/.

About Warehouse Stationery

Warehouse Stationery has enjoyed huge growth since opening its’ first store in Wairau Park, Glenfield in October 1991. This retail concept revolutionised the stationery retail business in New Zealand by replacing the traditional stationer with larger format stationery stores, allowing customers to conveniently purchase all their stationery, office products, technology and furniture requirements under one roof. Through 46 stores nationwide plus a transactional website allowing customers to shop 24/7, Warehouse Stationery is focused on delivering the widest range of home & office stationery at market-leading prices.

www.warehousestationery.co.nz