Co-op scales search and improves customer experience with Algolia
As Co-op rapidly scaled its online grocery business during the pandemic, its existing search system proved too limited — unable to tag products or be easily modified — and could not provide customers with real-time inventory visibility or useful alternatives when products were out of stock.
How it works
Common implementation structure
How this type of workflow is generally built, generalized across documented cases — not tied to any one vendor's stack. Click any stage to read what happens there. Specific products that implement these stages appear in “Tools commonly seen” below.
Stage 1 · Customer searches for products
Algolia powers Co-op's search drop-down menu and search results pages, from which customers can directly add products to their baskets.
Algolia delivered a 39% conversion rate increase, a 45% increase in people adding to basket, and 6% larger basket sizes with £2 higher spend. Recommendations for out-of-stock products drove a 7-percentage-point lift in add-to-basket rates and 6% higher basket spend, while Dynamic Re-ranking saved merchandising team time.
What failed first
Co-op's prior search solution was too limited to tag products or accept easy modifications, and required extensive manual rule management to maintain relevance.