Pierce Mattie Public Relations New York & Los Angeles

Based in Chicago, ULTA was founded in 1990 as a new and different way for women to shop for beauty products by combining a salon, department store and retail store under one roof. ULTA started its e-commerce site as a way to provide 24/7 service, in 2000. Today, the company has more than 165 stores throughout the U.S., a number which is expected to grow to 200 by year-end. Also expected to grow is the company's online operations, which currently account for a small portion of its business.

The company began working with SLI Systems last fall in order to overhaul its existing site search functionality, which was drawing complaints from users on a regular basis, according to Director of E-commerce Kevin Metz.

"With more than 9,000 SKUs in our inventory, it's critical that people can find what they're looking for quickly and easily. Otherwise, they'll give up and go to a different site," said Metz. "Once we started working with SLI Systems -- which did most of our initial work as part of our free 30-day trial -- we saw the complaints instantly drop off. And our sales have increased as a result."

Nothing in Life is Free -- Unless You're an SLI Systems Customer

One of the things ULTA liked most about working with SLI Systems was the level of customization they performed at no cost, with no up-front commitment required. "The team at SLI is outstanding," said Metz. "We have been highly impressed with their work and continue to find them extremely flexible and easy to work with. And they've delivered exactly what we needed."

SLI Systems offers all new customers a 30-day free trial to test its products -- at no risk to the customer. "Our free trials are a big selling point with many of our customers, who usually sign contracts with us after getting such great service at no expense," said Dr. Shaun Ryan, CEO of SLI Systems. "It's one way we can demonstrate the value our solutions bring, and gain our customers' trust in knowing we're there with them every step of the way."

Automated SEO Complements Site Search

While working with SLI Systems, ULTA discovered that the company also offered an automated SEO solution -- Site Champion -- and decided to give that product a try as well. "With the combination of Learning Search and Site Champion, we're doing more than just improving our site search; we're better marketing and promoting our products," said Metz. "The solutions give us data that tells us which products are most popular for various keywords, and that helps us with merchandizing and inventory management. We're also seeing an improvement in where we show up on organic searches. In fact, Site Champion is driving tens of thousands of visitors to our site each month so we're getting a significant return on our investment."

About Learning Search and Site Champion

Learning Search and Site Champion are built on SLI Systems' patent-pending advanced search behavior analytics engine. Learning Search is a hosted site search solution that continually tracks visitors' aggregate search terms and the corresponding items clicked on, and uses that data to deliver results based on popularity. For example, if someone searches on "eyeshadow," Learning Search automatically ranks the items so that those with historically higher click-rates are listed at the top. Learning Search also shows how many assets exist and in what categories, and gives visitors the option to sort the results by ascending or descending prices, or by category. Learning Search is supplemented with a new, free Site Search Feedback Tool, which is designed to help e-commerce and other Web sites better understand the quality of their site search functionality based on customer input. More information is available at http://www.sli-systems.com/feedback.php.

Site Champion is an automated search engine optimization service that integrates with Learning Search, tracking visitors' search terms and using them to automatically create related search links for each page of a retailer's site. When visitors click on these 'related search' links they are presented with site search results for that term, directing them to additional relevant content and commerce opportunities -- making it easier for a site's visitors to find what they want, and helping retailers generate more sales. The links also drive more natural search traffic to the retailer's site by giving the retailer's results pages links that are crawled by search engine spiders.

Other companies using SLI Systems' hosted offerings include NBC, Tupperware, Fright Catalog and NRS (Northwest River Supplies), among others.

About ULTA

ULTA.com is the ultimate beauty site featuring over 9,000 products ranging from cosmetics to fragrances, appliances, hair care, and skin care. The one-stop beauty site is the essential destination to find over 400 brands including Bourjois, Ralph Lauren, Urban Decay, Calvin Klein, Too Faced, Armani, Sugar Baby, Revlon, and ULTA's own ever-expanding private label brand. ULTA stores have additional brands including Bare Escentuals, Prada, Chanel, Redken and more. As ULTA's website expands and its collection of popular and high-quality products increases, ULTA.com works to ensure customers' shopping experience is exciting and satisfying. ULTA Inc. is the leading beauty chain in the United States with over 170 stores in 24 states.

About SLI Systems

SLI Systems is the developer of learning-based search technology for corporate Internet sites, e-commerce destinations and consumer Internet portals that Searches, Learns and Improves the user experience. SLI Systems' hosted site search, and automated SEO and SEM solutions empower businesses to enhance customer satisfaction while increasing sales, reducing costs and yielding valuable customer information. Unlike traditional search software, SLI Systems' patented technology continuously "learns" from the behavior of visitors over time to deliver more relevant results. Current customers include Etronics.com, NBC, Tupperware, VERITAS and others. SLI Systems is a privately held company, with offices in Silicon Valley, London, and Christchurch, New Zealand. For more information, visit www.sli-systems.com.