Algolia - That's why we rely on the high-performance search tool

The search process has almost revolutionized in recent years, especially for online stores on the Internet. The idea behind Algolia is to provide project teams with a customer-centric search capability with easy integration into the existing online infrastructure. This fact is most evident in the discovery and e-commerce search platform characteristics. Through this, retailers can deliver fast and, most importantly, personalized online shopping experiences to customers. In the following article we introduce you to Algolia and its added value for you.

What is understood by Algolia?

Algolia is a so-called modern software-as-a-service solution that has become increasingly popular in recent years. With Algolia, it is possible for companies to place content and products in the best possible way for the relevant target group. In addition, users can get valid and appropriate answers to the search queries made in an extreme speed.
In addition, the platform can be used without complications in different technological areas, also the implementation in front-end technologies, is just as easy to initiate. The areas of application and possibilities can be summarized as very complex for all parties involved. Algolia is built in such a way that a multivalent use is possible. So it is not surprising that you can implement Algolia both in a full text search on an online portal, a product search in an online store or in contextualized searches. The offered APIs of Algolia offer many possibilities and functions for your search.

Features of Algolia at a glance:

• Synonyms can be used as alternatives;
• Error-tolerant search entries are possible;
• There is a bundled personalization;
• A/B testing is available;
• There is a filtering of relevant search results;
• Recommendation as well as promotion of relevant products as well as product categories is enabled;
• Ranking factors can be chosen flexibly;

Algolia offers a valid standard for search integration in e-commerce systems, such as Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Adobe Commerce or even Shopify. In addition, there are further integration options, such as to Contentful or to Commercetools. In addition, further software supplements can be implemented and adapted by using the software development kits provided.
Algolia also offers users extensions in the area of artificial intelligence. Here, the system learns from the searches already performed and the learned user behavior of the relevant target group. 

Distinguishing criteria of Algolia compared to other searches

To understand the principle of Algolia and to understand its added value, it is important to understand the differences between Algolia and open source solutions such as Elasticsearch.
The most important added values are the high flexibility in terms of possible uses and integration options as well as the high speed in delivering search results. With Algolia you can integrate a classic search into your website and in parallel index data from sources that are structured. Furthermore, it is also possible for you to capture unstructured documents as well as data and websites through your own crawler.

You will find further added value in additional integration options for dynamic content offers, which serve as a basis for integrating product lists and category lists in online stores as well as in overview pages. With Algolia, it is possible to fill relevant lists with data within a few milliseconds and use this basis to store the relevant filter criteria. To make these process steps as efficient as possible for you, you can use AI functions and personalization criteria in this combination to optimize your conversion. To increase your rankings, it is also advisable to use external personalization tools. This allows dynamic adjustments of the processes based on the search behavior. It should also be noted that you can actively push your contribution margin if you focus on the ranking. This means that particularly profitable products can take center stage. 

Why do we rely on Algolia?

Based on extensive experience in modifying and scaling search technologies, such as Instantsearch or Elasticsearch, we rely on the active use of Algolia. Providers such as Elasticsearch offer a resilient system environment, but very quickly reach their limits in the live phases, especially for very demanding and complex e-commerce projects. In addition, these systems also involve an enormous amount of configuration and maintenance work. With Algolia it is possible to implement fast implementations and continuous improvements in e-commerce projects. Furthermore, it is possible to keep entry costs low, but still develop fast proof-of-concepts in parallel. Because of this, we trust in the smart search technology Agolia. 

Which projects are suitable for use?

Not every project is suitable for the use of Algolia especially project approaches that work in an open system with structured data or e-commerce approaches that want to exploit the maximum search potential can benefit from Algolia.

• Online stores with a wide range of products;
• Headless Commerce as well as cloud platforms;
• Online offenders with various data sources;
• Content portals with a dynamic rubric approach;

Through the use of Algolia you can benefit from a very fast search in real time for your projects, whose results are easy to evaluate and configure for you. A high compatibility with WooCommerce, WordPress or Shopify round off the application possibilities and offer an enormous potential for our customers. 

Algolia Pricing - How much does the search tool cost?

There are different packages that Algolia offers offers. There is a distinction between a free package, which is free of charge, a mandatory $1/month package as a standard version, and a premium package of $1.50/month.

The free version is suitable for beginners and is ideal for smaller projects with up to 10 units per month. One unit corresponds to approximately 1,000 searches per month.

The standard package for $1/month comes with volume discounts. You can handle consumption-based searches, A/B testing, collection management, and discounts for services that are committed.
The premium package includes all the features of the standard package plus personalization, merchandising of collections and products, and an advanced relevancy setting.

Conclusion - that's why we rely on Algolia for high-performance search

Over the past years, we have been able to accumulate a great deal of expertise in the integration of special search software components, and we continuously adapt our solution recommendations to take into account new technological developments in the interest of our customers. Algolia was able to convince especially by an easy integration, the high speed as well as in the configuration flexibility. If you are interested in integrating Algolia into your store, for example, in order to optimize your search, please contact us. We will advise you in a solution-oriented manner and individually tailored to your needs.