Online search technologies are the second most widely used online application, with 59% of companies using web site search in their existing navigational structures, according to Web Site Search: Revenue in the Results from Aberdeen Group Inc. That number is expected to grow to 96% within the next 24 months.

The pressure to enhance customer experience is the major reason cited by 78% of the e-commerce sites surveyed for seeking search tools that produce accurate and relevant results, Aberdeen says. 53% said they adopted search tools due to financial pressures to grow revenue and 35% said they were using search tools to better understand customer behavior.

Of those surveyed, 48% use search as a merchandising tool, 31% use it to cross-sell and upsell, and 31% use it to provide exposure to the product catalog, Aberdeen found.

The survey also found that search tools convert shoppers to buyers at conversion rates of 5% or higher for 60% of the companies that track this metric.

In terms of web site search models used by e-commerce sites, 9% of those surveyed use the hosted Software as a Service application, 46% deploy licensed third-party search applications, 30% use in-house designed tools, and 16% use search tools integrated with their e-commerce platforms, Aberdeen says.

For the report, Aberdeen surveyed more than 200 enterprises in retail, software, high-technology, online marketplaces and other industries between January and February.