Make sure customers can find what they are looking for on your company's website, says Paul Miller, vice president of global e-commerce, customer information and innovation for Grainger, in Grainger Tackles the Data Challenge.

People use different methods to search for products on a website, Miller says. The key is making sure that each of those ways works to find the right items, and Grainger has an entire team focused on taxonomy and ensuring the right connections are made. “A lot of this gets back to grungy, gnarly data work,” he says.

For Grainger, the work is paying off. More of the products that are searched for are being placed in customer carts, which Grainger translates to meaning the customer found what they wanted.

Continuously looking for ways to improve search functionality can help a company drive value to customers and, ideally, stay ahead of their needs.

Read more about what Grainger is doing to ensure customers can find what they are looking for in Grainger Tackles the Data Challenge.