Ajax Search 101: Everything You Need To Know

If you own an eCommerce store, the search bar is a great feature that helps your customers quickly find the right item they need. And it can be even more convenient for them to immediately see the results in the dropdown list without waiting for the page to be reloaded. Do you want to provide customers with such an excellent search experience? So, Ajax search will be your perfect choice.

More and more online businesses have integrated this outstanding feature into their website to simplify the search process for their visitors. Once customers are satisfied with shopping experience on your site, they will be more likely to come back and buy again. In this article, we help you clearly understand what Ajax search is, how it works and how your business can benefit from this form of search.

What is Ajax search?

The term ‘Ajax’ stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. Ajax search is a search form that allows search results to appear on the dropdown list as users type in the Ajax search box.

How does it work? When a user enters characters in the search field, the script will send a request to the webserver and in return that script receives a response without a page reloading. Each time a new character is filled in the field, the server will get a new request. As its name, Ajax search requires the submitted data to be formatted in an XML structure.

Ajax search is basically similar to a regular web search query but the whole process takes place in the JavaScript background. The JavaScript code uses search value from a form field for the request, then the server will use the received data for a database query. The response is returned to the same Javascript file and passed to the HTML page at last.

Advantages and disadvantages of Ajax search

Advantages of Ajax search

Enhance users’ search experience

For eCommerce store owners, if you can help customers quickly find the product they would like to buy on your site, you will easily get more conversions. And Ajax search is the best way to simplify the search process for your visitors. Moreover, related suggestions of that item could also appear in the dropdown list, shoppers may click on and buy those products although they do not have interest from the beginning.

Reduce bandwidth usage and increase loading speed

Ajax search communicates with the webserver by using client-side scripting and exchange data through JavaScript. Therefore, using the Ajax search bar on your website can help you cut down on the bandwidth usage and network load, as well as retrieve the required data only. This provides you with better interfaces and faster response times, hence an improvement in site performance and loading speed.

Disadvantages of Ajax search

Incompatible with some browsers - Ajax search is operated mainly based on the JavaScript code that works differently on different browsers. The browser not supporting JavaScript or having it disabled can not use its functionality.

Increase webserver load - Because a new request is sent to the server every time a new character is typed in the search field, the load on the server can be increased.

Cannot use browser back button - While a regular search result page having a query string inside its URL allows users to return the previous search result by the browser back button, it is impossible to do that with Ajax search.

Conclusion

Ajax search is really a useful feature for online businesses to optimize user experience on their website. If you can lead customers to the right product they are looking for with a simple process, you will avoid the situation they leave your site just because it takes them too much time to find what they need, and as a result, your conversion rate will increase.

For Magento 2 store owners, you can take a look at our Ajax Search extension that can help you create your unique searching tools with advanced functions and attractive designs. What's more, the voice search feature of this module allows users to use the voice command to search for their wanted items with ease.