Omnichannel headwear retailer boosts search conversion rate

Hat Club is supporting customers in searches for highly specific product styles.

The Tempe, Arizona-based startup, backed by Boston Celtics legend Danny Ainge, sells headwear products online and in 10 brick-and-mortar stores. Rather than use polished online imagery, the retailer posts photos of real customers wearing items on the street. 

Hat Club found that its native search functionality was not strong enough to deliver an intuitive experience for customers seeking niche preferences. The retailer offers a wide range of product categories, in addition to a variety of color and sizing options.

In response, Hat Club implemented Searchspring search & autocomplete and category merchandising solutions to enable searches for highly specific styles. Leveraging the search & autocomplete solution, Hat Club can provide real-time product suggestions. The category merchandising application allows for category pages to be customized and easily adjusted based on campaigns or popular products.

Additionally, Searchspring’s analytics capability allows Hat Club merchandisers to gauge demand for future product development and design. In the first six months of using Searchspring, Hat Club reported a conversion rate with search that is 52% higher than without search. Hat Club has also increased its search conversion rate by 13% and revenue per visit with search by 7%.

“Visual merchandising is really useful on our general collection pages,” said Cameron Parker, head of brand, Hat Club. “We know, for example, that black and dark shades traditionally sell better than other colors. We also know the Yankees and Dodgers are two of our most-searched-for teams. “Setting up rules that allow us to boost and prioritize what the customer wants is definitely something we take advantage of.”

“Hat Club taps into the obsessive following of a really niche market in a way that many brands struggle to replicate,” said Dori Salisbury, VP of customer success & strategy, Searchspring. “We’re incredibly excited that Searchspring is helping their customers navigate such a wide variety of styles to quickly find the specific products that they’re so passionate about.”