,
We are one of the world’s most trusted and experienced Shopify Plus Partners.
We are one of the world’s most trusted and experienced Shopify Plus Partners.
Introduction to Shopify Search Functionality
What is Shopify Search Functionality?
The Shopify search functionality is an important tool for helping customers find products, collections, pages and blog posts on a Shopify store more seamlessly. It is designed to return the most relevant search results with products that contain specific words in their title, description or tags that the customer has searched for. This plays a crucial role in improving user experience and helping visitors find what they are looking for as quickly as possible.
How Does Shopify Search Functionality Work?
Shopify search operates by indexing the store’s content to retrieve the most relevant results based on user queries. It ranks these results by relevance based on the keyword frequency and placement and product visibility. With the basic Shopify search functionality, customers can search by keywords, product names, or categories using the search bar. The search bar is usually positioned at the top of the Shopify store, near the main navigation menu.
However if you are looking to truly enhance your customer’s shopping experience, there are various ways you can boost your Shopify search functionalities through using advanced search techniques such as filters, query parameters, predictive search and more. By optimising your Shopify search function with the latest features, this can help improve the customisation and accuracy of visitors’ search query results and make it easier for visitors to find what they need.
In this article we are going to be discussing the most advanced search techniques to help you optimise your Shopify search function and ensure the best UX for your customers.
Check it out here!
We are one of the world’s most trusted and experienced Shopify Plus Partners.
We are one of the world’s most trusted and experienced Shopify Plus Partners.
7 Tips For Improving Your Shopify Search & Discovery Functionality
1. Faceted Search for Enhanced Filtering
One of the most effective ways to enhance your Shopify search is by enabling product filtering by attributes such as size, colour, price, and more. Filters are useful for narrowing down Shopify search results to make it easier and more convenient for customers to find exactly what they need.
We would recommend implementing Faceted search which is a powerful search and filtering system that allows users to refine their search results by applying multiple filters, called “facets”. Search facets enable customers to sort search results by various criteria all at once, like price, relevance, or newest items, which helps to decrease the search time and delivers more personalised shopping experiences.It is mostly important that stores with large catalogs or diverse product categories make this part of their Shopify search function.
Benefits of Faceted Search For Shopify
- Improved user experience
- Increased conversion
- Enhanced discoverability
- Reduced friction for customers
- Easier navigation
- Personalisation
How To Enable Faceted Search in Shopify
The two main ways to enable Faceted search for your Shopify store is by using advanced themes or third-party apps. You can also use storefront filtering or create your own filters. Your store’s theme must support Shopify 2.0. You can check if your theme supports filtering by going to Online Store > Navigation in your Shopify Admin.
Using Storefront Filtering
- Verify your theme to confirm it is compatible with Online Store 2.0
- Configure product attributes (e.g. size, colour) using tags, variants or metafields in Shopify Admin > Products.
- Enable filters in Shopify Admin > Online Store > Navigation > Filters. Click add filter and choose filters e.g. Price, Product Type, Availability etc.
Using Third-Party Apps Third-Party apps can be another powerful faceted search option. Here are the basic steps to setting up faceted search with a filtering app:
- Visit the Shopify App Store
- Search for a faceted search or filtering app.
- Install the app and follow its configuration guide to integrate it with your store.
- Customise the app settings to define facets such as categories, tags, ratings, and other attributes.
App Examples: Algolia Search and Discovery app Shopify Search and Discovery app Searchanise Search and Filter app Boost AI Search and Filter app
2. Leveraging Auto-Suggestions and Autocomplete
Another useful technique for enhancing your Shopify search is through leveraging Auto-Suggestions and Auto-Complete. Both of these search tools help customers to find the products they need more quickly by providing a list of related products as customers type their queries. This can reduce search times and help guide customers to popular items. It also eliminates spelling mistakes that customers could make when typing their query. It is best practice to allow 1-10 entries of auto-suggestions as this avoids customers feeling too overwhelmed or confused by the amount of results.
How does Auto-Suggestions / Auto-Complete work in Shopify?
As a user begins to type in the search bar, Auto-Suggestion displays a dropdown list of the most trending product results drawn from its indexed store data (e.g. product names, descriptions, tags, or categories). It highlights suggested products with keywords matching the user’s query, often with a thumbnail image, title, and price. The product suggestions are chosen based on their matching keywords in their descriptions, titles and tags.
Auto-Complete is a smart AI-powered feature that works by dynamically generating search term suggestions to the user as they type their query. The system predicts and displays potential queries based on partial input to help speed up a customer’s search. For example, if the user is typing “Sho”, it may suggest “Shorts” or specific product names such as “Men’s Running Shoes”.
Benefits of Auto-Suggestions / Auto-Complete
- Faster searches
- Improved user experience
- Increased conversions
- Reduces typos or incomplete search results
3. Semantic Search / Natural Language Processing (NLP)
Semantic Search is an AI-powered system used in Shopify search that leverages Natural Language Processing to analyse user input to match intent rather than relying solely on keyword matching. Such as identifying different terms that mean the same thing, e.g. “Trainers” and “Running Shoes”. NLP focuses on context, word relationships, and overall query meaning to enhance the search experience for customers.
The advantage of having Semantic Search / Natural Language Processing (NLP) is that your Shopify search will have a more accurate understanding of the keyword search intent based on a user’s query. Allowing Shopify search to provide more tailored, relevant results and search suggestions, leading to improved user engagement and satisfaction. Thereby increasing the likelihood of users purchasing from the store.
To add Natural Language Processing (NLP) capabilities to your Shopify search, you can use advanced third-party apps or implement custom integrations that enhance the default Shopify search with AI-powered features. We would recommend these apps as listed above in section 1.
When you have chosen a suitable app, this should allow you to manually define synonyms and rules to improve your NLP results. You can also define custom filters or promote specific products for high-priority terms.
Metafields are also a great way to improve your NLP capabilities as they can provide more context about your products. Shopify metafields can store additional product information like features, materials, etc.
Another way to integrate NLP is through installing external NLP platforms such as Google Cloud AI or Amazon Comprehend. These are a powerful NLP tool for search and text analysis, but a Shopify developer will be required to set them up.
Benefits of Semantic Search / Natural Language Processing (NLP)
- Improved accuracy and relevance in search results
- Delivers a more personalised search experience
- Enhances customer engagement and satisfaction
- Increased conversions
4. Query Parameters
To achieve the perfect customised Shopify search experience, query parameters are an essential tool that offer advanced filtering. Query parameters are key-value pairs added in the URL to send data to a server, which allows you to perform specific searches or filter results on your store.
They are often used in web development to filter, sort or customise the content displayed on a web page. Query parameters appear after a question mark (?) in the URL and are separated by an ampersand (&) if there are multiple parameters.
Examples Of Use Cases Of Query Parameters:
Search Queries: Specify what users are searching for. Example: ?q=red%20shoes
Filters: Limit results based on specific criteria. Example: ?color=blue&size=medium
Pagination: Navigate through pages of data. Example: ?page=2
Sorting:Order results by criteria such as price or relevance. Example: ?sort_by=price-desc
How Do Query Parameters Work?
Query parameters work by allowing customers to refine their search based on keywords, collections, tags, or product attributes, enhancing their ability to find what they need quickly. Example: ?q=shoes&filter=red narrows the search to red shoes.
Parameters enable precise filtering by categories, price ranges, or other attributes, improving the shopping experience.Example: Searching only within a specific collection with ?q=shoes&collection=winter-sale.
Query parameters integrate seamlessly with Shopify’s backend and can be used with third-party tools for analytics or custom functionality. Developers can use query parameters to build more sophisticated search functionality, such as combining multiple filters (?q=shoes&color=blue&size=9).
These features make query parameters a powerful tool to enhance search functionality, improve customer satisfaction, and drive better business outcomes.
5. Turn On Predictive Search
Making sure you have Predictive Search enabled for your Shopify search is another way to improve customer satisfaction. This feature works when a user starts entering a search query and will try to complete the query for the user by providing a list of possible relevant keywords/phrases. This can help users to navigate the site’s content faster and boost conversion rates by assisting users to find exactly what they are looking for.
6. Search Analytics for Continuous Improvement
By monitoring your search analytics, you can identify customer behaviour and sales performance to manage your Shopify business KPIs more effectively. For example, you can see useful insights into your store’s most popular searches, number of no-result queries, conversion rate, click-through-rate and filter usage. As well as discover the top-searched products on your homepage or in collections and seasonal keyword search trends.
All of these performance analytics allow you to make data-driven decisions to improve your Shopify search functionality, optimise the search experience, improve product visibility and increase conversions. By pinpointing searches that return no results, you can also take action by adding relevant products or content.
Best Ways To Access Shopify Search Analytics
- Go to Shopify Admin > Analytics > Reports > Behavior > Search Terms.
- Third-Party Tools / Apps – Install Apps like Searchanise, Boost Product Filter & Search, Klevu, which all offer advanced search analytics.
We are one of the world’s most trusted and experienced Shopify Plus Partners.
We are one of the world’s most trusted and experienced Shopify Plus Partners.
Advanced Shopify Search Technologies
7. Visual Search and Voice Search
As voice-activated gadgets and voice-assistants grow in popularity, integrating voice search and visual search into your Shopify store can significantly enhance the user experience by making the search process more intuitive and engaging.
Voice search is an advanced tool that allows the user to speak their queries instead of typing them. This is particularly good for mobile users who prefer hands-free navigation. To optimise your Shopify search for voice search, you should focus on providing content that is relevant to conversational language and genuine speech patterns, as well as use long-tail keywords, respond to FAQs and to make product descriptions sound more naturally spoken than typed.
To integrate Voice Search into your Shopify search, you need to leverage the Web Speech API to capture voice input. Then redirect the voice input to the Shopify search parameter. Example URL: https://your-store.myshopify.com/search?q=voice-input. Or you can instead use third-party apps such as InstantSearch+ or DooFinder.
Visual Search enables users to upload an image or use their camera to find similar products in the store without needing precise keywords. This helps to reduce the time customers spend typing or navigating menus and is particularly useful for items with complex descriptions or items from fashion, art and home decor brands. It also overcomes any keyword limitations where the customer may not know the specific names or terms they want to search for and creates a more seamless shopping experience. Thereby, leading to higher customer satisfaction and conversion rates.
How To Implement Visual Search In Shopify
The easiest way to integrate visual search in Shopify is through a third-party app from the Shopify App Store. The recommended apps to install include Pixyle AI, Fera.ai, and Syte. Once your app is installed, you need to map your product images and metadata to the app for accurate results.
The other ways to get Visual Search include:
- Integrating an AI-based visual search API
- Building a custom solution with TensorFlow.js
Once you have visual search functionality in Shopify, you need to ensure that it is mobile-friendly by adding a camera capture option for real-time searches and that you test the feature. Ensure that product images are optimised with relevant keywords in their alt text and tags.
We are one of the world’s most trusted and experienced Shopify Plus Partners.
We are one of the world’s most trusted and experienced Shopify Plus Partners.
Case Studies and Future Trends
Here are some great Shopify store examples with excellent search UX, including Kylie Jenner Cosmetic, Nathan James and Emma Bridgewater websites. In the screenshots below, you can see that as a query is typed in their search bar, each one has an auto-complete function where it provides a list of relevant keywords that the user may be looking for. There is also an auto-suggestion feature that provides up to four or more trending product results drawn from its indexed store data which have matching keywords in their product and descriptions. In particular the Emma Bridgewater and Nathan James stores offer the best UX as they offer products, pages and collections in clear lists laid out, including suggested queries that the user may need.
Kylie Jenner Cosmetics
Emma Bridgewater
Nathan James
We are one of the world’s most trusted and experienced Shopify Plus Partners.
We are one of the world’s most trusted and experienced Shopify Plus Partners.
Discuss Your Shopify UX Design Needs Today
At Eastside Co we have a specialist team of Shopify Designers who can help you achieve a seamless shopping experience for your customers and create the best search functionality tailored to your needs. Contact us today to tell us about your Shopify UX requirements and book in a consultation. Our team would be delighted to help you.
,
We are one of the world’s most trusted and experienced Shopify Plus Partners. A full-service, fully in-house digital agency of over 50 talented people, we’ve helped hundreds of ambitious brands exceed their goals.
,
Eastside Co leads the way in UX-focused Shopify web design, results-driven marketing strategies, and best-in-class Shopify applications and software. We help online businesses escape the ordinary and achieve ecommerce success.
