Yahoo! partnered with marketing insight consultancy agency, AddedValue, to survey 2,000 consumers* around their online shopping habits, including their usage of search prior to making a purchase. We found that people who use search within the purchase process represent a passionate group of hyper-engaged shoppers.

In addition to being more knowledgeable, engaged and savvy shoppers, searchers used more online resources in their purchase process than their non-searching counterparts, such as:

• 50% of searchers source customer reviews and ratings online
• 43% of searchers visit shopping comparison websites to make an informed decision
• 37% of searchers visit coupon websites to check daily deals
• 25% of searchers check out a brand’s social media channels like Twitter and Facebook
• 53% use their mobile devices to help them research a purchase

So what were searchers looking for this holiday season? Searches for top digital cameras spiked 40% during the week prior to Christmas, while Gucci bag surged up 75%, However, the most traction on Yahoo! Search during the final holiday shopping surge was around the iPad – searches on iPad cases were up more than 50%, while searches on how to setup the popular gift experienced a 400% increase!

Are you a hyper-engaged shopper? If so, tell us what else helps you make your shopping decisions, and how Yahoo! Search can help to make your online shopping even easier. And don’t forget to check out Yahoo! Search’s shopping shortcuts to compare products and get through your shopping list faster.

Natasha Fatteded
Principal Product Manager, Yahoo! Search

Search for “gps” and the Shopping Shortcut will show you the top GPS products, along with price, rating, and number of reviews.

For specific products, you can also see items related to the one you searched for. Search for “Nikon d3000” and the Shopping Shortcut shows you related products viewed by other shoppers who searched for the same item.

At Yahoo! we are always aiming to make your shopping experience easier and more fun. These features are only the beginning – please stay tuned for more exciting features in the very near future.

Happy Shopping!

Natasha Fattedad
Principal Product Manager, Yahoo! Search

Along this launch, we?ve continued to improve Yahoo! Search shortcuts to make searching for shopping related content easier than ever. You can now get coupons, find sales and get product reviews by using these new Yahoo! Search shortcuts. Here?s a sampling?

Coupon Shortcuts
[product type] coupons  shoe coupons

As you can see above, you’ll also get coupon codes, expiration dates and direct links to merchants honoring those coupons, right at the top of the results page. Coupons for a specific store are also easily searchable.

[store name] coupons  best buy coupons

Reviews and Ratings
To get rating and reviews, you type [product name and model #] reviews  nikon d70s reviews

Sales Shortcut
You can also find out about sales. You type [product type] on sale  computers on sale. This will display a shortcut to all of those products that are 10% off or more on Yahoo! Shopping, arranged so you can narrow your search by percentage.

We hope you find these shortcuts useful as you gear up for the shopping season.

Happy Shopping!

Sundeep Tirumalareddy
Technical Yahoo!, Shopping

Michael Mulvihill
Product Manager, Shopping

What you may not know is that Yahoo! Tech’s search is powered by the same shopping web services available to anyone through the Yahoo! Developer Network. The shopping web services power Yahoo! Tech’s product search, search refinement, product information pages, and user reviews. We think this is a powerful example of what developers can do with our Shopping Web Services.

If you want to use these search APIs as part of your web site or application, you can learn more here. We’re looking forward to seeing your own hacks, mash-ups, and new businesses.

Vivek Gupta
Technical Yahoo!

Here’s an example from one of our first paid syndication partners, Family.com:

During this initial beta phase, we’re accepting a small number of applicants with special consideration given to sites with high traffic volume and fresh, unique content. But in the future, we plan to open this program to a larger audience. In the meantime, anyone can use our shopping APIs on a non-commercial basis.

Speaking of that, we’re also unveiling some useful enhancements to the Product Search API based on feedback from the developer community. The latest version includes:

• Search narrowing options. For example, if you query the API for ‘digital cameras’ in electronics, now you’ll find not only the product results that match that search term, but also sub-category and attribute narrowing options such as brand, product line, and number of mega-pixels.
• The ability to create a browse experience for your site based on Yahoo! Shopping’s comprehensive product hierarchy.
• Various product image sizes that allow developers to choose between thumbnail size and large photos of the merchandise.

Head on over to the Yahoo! Developer Network for details and full documentation on these enhanced features.

Thanks, and please let us know what you think!

Jen Faenza
Senior Product Manager

Pinank Gogri
Technical Yahoo!