How Sportpaleis grew sales from better site search

Sportpaleis has been active as a renowned sporting goods store since 1926 and is part of Sport 2000, a cooperation of independent sporting goods stores. With a store of more than 1100 m² in the Citymall in Almere, Sportpaleis is a household name in the Flevoland region. In recent years, Sportpaleis.nl has grown into the most important online sales channel, with customers spread throughout the Netherlands.

Sportpaleis.nl chose Spotler’s on-site search, which was done with the advice of e-commerce partner Divide, to offer visitors an advanced search function. “We noticed immediately that it worked. More orders were placed, and the number of items per order also increased,” says Sportpaleis Webshop Manager Donovan Weide.

“The Search bar worked directly. We saw an increase in turnover and the number of items per order.”
Donovan Weide, Manager Online Store Sportpaleis

Strategic partnership with the agency Divide

Sportpaleis.nl chose Divide because of its reputation in omnichannel retail and its cooperation with interesting e-commerce parties. “We have very regular contact with Divide. We discuss trends and developments to see if they are relevant for Sportpaleis.nl,” says Weide.

“We offer basic functionality from our platform. However, customer feedback has led us to look for a partner that offers more possibilities,” says Sherwin Shabazi, Account Manager at Divide. “Spotler is easy to integrate, and customers see concrete improvements in figures after just a few weeks.”

Football is the most significant driver of turnover

“If you look at our turnover distribution, a large part comes from football,” says Weide. “We dress and sponsor several football clubs in Almere, and we make the difference compared to our competitors with our stock and high level of service. What you see on our website is that we have physical stock, and we can deliver immediately.

Especially in the last two years, we have noticed a significant increase in the number of views. This year’s focus is on improving national brand awareness, which should lead to even more traffic.” Currently, 40,000 visitors are welcomed to Sportpaleis via the website every month.

Fully operational within a day

Based on a proposal from Divide, Sportpaleis started using Spotler’s on-site search software in mid-2023 to increase the number of conversions. “We had two hours of training, and it took us less than half a day to set up Search,” recalls Weide. “Spotler is very pleasant to manage. After explaining it once, everyone can work with it. Now that a custom template has been implemented, the search results are even clearer, and we offer customers more filter options.”

Search results in line with search intent

The Webshop Manager of Sportpaleis does not have to think long about examples of results that the e-shop achieves thanks to Spotler Activate Search. “Nike Tech products are a popular product category. Previously, searching for ‘Nike Tech’ would bring up all Nike products. After we started using Search, you can see that we can bring the right results to the fore. This means that we sell a lot more Nike Tech products.”

Another example is football socks. “We always called Ajax socks ‘stockings’, by the official product name.” But whoever searched for ‘Ajax socks’ did not see the products. “Because we have set up synonyms in Search, visitors now see what interests them,” says Weide.

Leads for new items in the shop

Through Search, Sportpaleis gains insight into trends that previously remained under the radar. “Thanks to the success of Almere City in the Eredivisie, we noticed a strong increase in football club shirts. Unfortunately, we did not sell these kits, but it was a reason for us to contact the club about this large demand to facilitate purchasing. Without Spotler, we would not have had that knowledge.”

Longer visit duration and more site interaction

Since the implementation of the on-site search module, visitors’ average time on the website has increased considerably. “We always thought we could best improve the website’s user experience with the navigation. With Search, we know that this is not the case. Many visitors go directly to the search function and start their customer journey there. Thanks to our large range, customers encounter more products via Search. They browse via the search function. If customers are on your website longer, they also view more articles.”

Weide is looking forward to what is still possible with further setup optimisations. Since the implementation of Search, we have received more positive website reviews, stating that our website is user-friendly and that customers find it easy to order something. Now is the time to start tweaking Search further, but the fact is that we are delighted with it now.