{"id":1785,"slug":"caveats-searchable-catalogue-no-isolated-study-vendor-skip-thresholds","title":"Caveats for the searchable-catalogue brief: no study isolates catalogues as a variable; vendor-sourced skip thresholds; Baymard age; AI-eligibility under-sourced","kind":"reference","scope":"business","status":"current","audiences":["kevin","candid-team"],"topics":["ai-citation","structured-content","editorial-discipline"],"reference_body":"**The honest summary of source quality across this brief:**\n\n- **No study isolates \"searchable catalogue\" as a variable.** The independent self-service research ([[hbr-81-percent-attempt-self-service-first-2017]], [[forrester-faq-page-use-67-to-81-percent-2012-2015]], [[gartner-14-percent-self-service-resolution-2024]]) measures self-service broadly. The link from \"customers prefer self-service\" to \"therefore build a structured catalogue\" is a reasoned inference, not a directly-measured finding. **This is the single biggest evidentiary gap.**\n- **The skip threshold (~200 items) is vendor-sourced.** Three independent vendors ([[hawksearch-few-dozen-products-static-list-fine]], [[prefixbox-under-200-products-skip-faceted-cutoff]], [[luigis-box-few-hundred-products-skip-faceted-corroboration]]) converge — credible *because* it cuts against their commercial interest, but still vendor-sourced and not a validated cutoff.\n- **The Baymard 67-90% vs 17-33% figure is independent and primary but ~11 years old and e-commerce-specific** ([[baymard-list-usability-67-90-vs-17-33-abandonment-2015]]).\n- **No independent, current, generalizable CTR/conversion figure exists for structured data.** The only clean magnitude is the Nestlé 82% — a single company's self-measurement, RING-FENCED ([[nestle-82-percent-ctr-rich-results-ring-fenced]]).\n- **AI-answer eligibility is under-sourced** — the claim rests largely on vendor blogs ([[ai-citation-eligibility-via-structured-records]]).\n- **Bing's current rich-results behaviour** is documented mainly via a 2018 announcement ([[bing-json-ld-2018-supports-multiple-formats]]) and third-party SEO guides.\n- **Most documentation is e-commerce-framed.** Generalisation beyond products (to services, knowledge bases, registries) is principled but not heavily studied.\n\n**Practical posture for Candid:** the *mechanism* (structured records → individually-indexable, faceted-queryable) is verified from primary sources. The *magnitude* of any uplift is not generalisable — treat all vendor CTR/AI-citation multipliers as quarantined ([[rule-quarantine-vendor-ctr-multipliers]]) until independently proven.\n\nSee also the quarantine notes: [[quarantine-zendesk-67-percent-prefer-self-service]], [[quarantine-forrester-self-service-cost-0-10-vs-6-12]], [[quarantine-vendor-structured-data-ctr-and-ai-multipliers]], [[quarantine-microsoft-22-percent-ticket-reduction-spotify-30-percent]], [[quarantine-vendor-faceted-search-adoption-percentages]].","rationale_body":null,"metadata":null,"links":{"outgoing":[{"slug":"hbr-81-percent-attempt-self-service-first-2017","title":"HBR (Dixon et al., 2017) — 81% of all customers attempt self-service before reaching out to a live representative","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"forrester-faq-page-use-67-to-81-percent-2012-2015","title":"Forrester (2016) — web/mobile self-service overtook the phone; FAQ-page use rose from 67% (2012) to 81% (2015) of US online adults","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"gartner-14-percent-self-service-resolution-2024","title":"Gartner (Aug 2024) — only 14% of customer service and support issues are fully resolved in self-service; only 36% for \"very simple\" issues","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"bing-json-ld-2018-supports-multiple-formats","title":"Bing — supports JSON-LD, schema.org, Microdata, Microformats, Open Graph, RDFa via the Markup Validator (August 2018)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"nestle-82-percent-ctr-rich-results-ring-fenced","title":"Nestlé 82% higher CTR on rich-results pages — Google's own documentation, attributed to one named company; RING-FENCED, never present as typical","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"ai-citation-eligibility-via-structured-records","title":"AI-citation eligibility via structured records — DIRECTIONAL; vendor-blog driven, Google's own position is \"not a direct ranking factor\"","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"baymard-list-usability-67-90-vs-17-33-abandonment-2015","title":"Baymard Institute (2015) — sites with mediocre product list usability saw 67-90% abandonment vs 17-33% for sites with even a slightly optimised toolset","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"hawksearch-few-dozen-products-static-list-fine","title":"HawkSearch (vendor — concedes against interest) — for catalogs of \"just a few dozen products,\" basic search and navigation are adequate","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"prefixbox-under-200-products-skip-faceted-cutoff","title":"Prefixbox (vendor — faceted-search software, concedes against interest) — skip faceted search if catalog <200 products; implementation cost outweighs UX value","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"luigis-box-few-hundred-products-skip-faceted-corroboration","title":"Luigi's Box (vendor) — independently corroborates the skip cutoff: \"smaller catalogs with only a few hundred products may not require this level of complexity\"","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"}],"incoming":[{"slug":"research-brief-searchable-structured-catalogue-working-tool-june-2026","title":"Research brief: the searchable, structured catalogue as a working tool — when records-not-prose pays off (June 2026)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"}]},"created_at":"2026-06-21T13:17:12.708Z","updated_at":"2026-06-21T13:17:12.708Z"}