Technological progress can’t be stopped. Just like horse-drawn carriages are no longer the mode of transportation, the cars we drive today will someday give way to self-driving vehicles. This is the trajectory of every industry, including commerce. It’s easy to see innovation on the horizon.

New technology is something everyone can appreciate, but, as a rule of thumb, acceptance of innovation is a slow-moving process. How do you know when it’s worthwhile to be an early adopter versus waiting for technology to establish itself?

This is the debate many e-commerce operators are having right now when it comes to voice shopping.

More than 5 million developers have downloaded and currently use Elasticsearch for managing huge databases of information. This includes eCommerce developers, who have extensive collections of data for customer information, behaviors, inventory items and much more, which all come together in a marketplace that’s driven by conversions.

Celebros is bringing the power of its Natural Language Processing (NLP) technology to Elasticsearch database users in a way that helps them directly leverage the power of the data they have, to drive better eCommerce conversions. A new plugin—called Celastic (Celebros + Elastic)—will bridge the gap between shopper queries and extensive Elasticsearch databases, generating better search results and more satisfied shoppers.

The modern online shopper wants to find exactly what he is looking for ... instantly and without knowing the exact product description! The average online customer today is tired of scouring category pages in order to find the right product. Therefore, the onsite search in a modern online shop must be fast and intelligent, thus making it easier for shoppers to find the right products.

The days when it was enough to provide a simple search function are long gone. For example, as the Internet has undergone a complete search evolution, search technologies are now equipped with natural language processing, for example. Sophisticated algorithms, voice searches and many other innovations make it possible to predict and better coordinate searches. With the introduction of the semantic Instant Search, online shoppers can now find the desired products in an online shop easier and faster than ever before. Because only if the shoppers find the products quickly and easily, they can also buy. The online retailers can no longer afford to lose potential online customers to Amazon and others due to a bad onsite search technology.

Internet of things (IoT) devices, such as Amazon’s Echo and dash buttons, Google’s Home and others are starting to take a more active role in the shopping process. While it is possible for big conglomerates to convince shoppers to buy and use their devices, this option is entirely unavailable for smaller (and some even bigger) online merchants