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Think of a customer who comes to your Shopify site, enters the name of a product in the search box, and waits for suggestions to come up. But nothing happens. The customer may try a different keyword, click around, or simply press the Enter key hoping to see results.

At first glance, it may look like a trivial problem, but lack of search suggestions may make shopping very inconvenient. Many customers depend on the autocomplete feature to discover different products and avoid typing full queries. When the feature is not working properly, customers may face difficulties in finding the required product or leave the store in frustration.

Fortunately, it is important to understand that this problem does not mean something is wrong with your Shopify store. The reason may lie in either a theme setting not being configured properly, predictive search settings, JavaScript conflicts, or compatibility issues with your search application and theme.

Let’s now analyze the possible reasons and how search suggestions may be restored again.

First, Check Whether the Problem Is With Your Theme

The first thing you need to do is see if the issue lies with the theme itself.

Instead of altering the code or looking for other applications, check whether the option for search suggestions is turned on in your theme settings.

Most of the recent themes for Shopify allow the predictive search function, but it does not always have to be activated.

The option’s name and location can differ depending on the theme.

You can now open your storefront in another browser and check if the suggestions appear when searching for an item.

One thing to have in mind is that if you use a heavily customized or old theme, it’s possible that predictive search might not work properly with this theme.

Is Shopify Predictive Search Actually Working?

Shopify comes with an inbuilt predictive search feature that shows suggestions as the customer types in. The suggestions may include products, collections, pages, and other relevant results depending on the configuration.

However, activating predictive search in your theme does not guarantee that everything is configured correctly.

If the endpoint returns product suggestions, it can be considered that Shopify predictive search is functioning. The absence of relevant products means that you should verify that the products are published at the Online Store sales channel and that the keyword is consistent with product information.

Also, you should ensure that the search component of your theme correctly sends the request and displays the received suggestions.

For instance, Shopify predictive search API may return results while the theme’s JavaScript does not process those results properly affecting the search dropdown.

A JavaScript Conflict Could Be Hiding Your Suggestions

This is one of the most frequent reasons why the search bar stops providing suggestions and might have happened just after you implemented a new app or changed the theme.

Shopify themes use JavaScript to carry out search functionalities. In other words, when the customer types the search term, JavaScript generates an output by searching for the input through other relevant results and displaying it in a dropdown format.

If another script interrupts this process, the search bar becomes functional but the suggestions are never shown.

Follow the steps outlined below to troubleshoot this issue:

Here’s how to investigate:

1. Check your browser console

• Visit your Shopify storefront.
• Right-click on any part of the page and select “Inspect”.
• Select the ‘Console’ tab.
• Write something in the search bar.
• Identify the red errors that you can see when typing.

Errors which are going to refer to JavaScript, search components along with failed network requests might be examples of what may be going on.

2. Temporarily disable recently installed apps

Did you have the popup, analytic, filtering, or page builder app added recently? If so, consider disabling its storefront functionality temporarily in order to test the search bar.

3. Check for duplicate scripts

When the theme was customized or multiple search applications were installed, it’s likely that two conflicting search scripts have been applied. In this case, one script is trying to control the same search dropdown as another.

Check Whether Your Search App Is Compatible With Your Theme

Make sure that your search application is in line with your theme

The use of a search app does not mean that it is compatible with all themes of Shopify.

This is important if you’re relying on third-party search software on top of the standard predictive search by Shopify.

For instance, the theme may be programmed to show the default proposals by Shopify, while the installed search application applies its own autocomplete element. If two systems try to take over the same search bar, it will not work for the clients.

If you operate a customized theme, read the installation guidelines attentively. Some integrations need activation of the app embed and others request more settings.

What If You Want More Than Just Basic Search Suggestions?

Once the issues with the missing suggestions are resolved, it’s wise to analyze the efficiency of the suggestions.

To start with, Shopify has some predictive search features that can be applied but may not be good enough for stores with more extensive catalogs or for people looking for extra features in a product.

For example, suppose someone wants to search for running shoes. Then why wouldn’t it be better to show the relevant products, their photos, and useful suggestions rather than making people go through a long list of search results?

With a solution such as ExpertRec, this creates no difficulty whatsoever.

ExpertRec provides an AI-based search option for e-commerce stores which includes making suggestions when typing, instead of relying solely on keyword-based suggestions.

The following situations can benefit Shopify merchants using the search capabilities of a new app:

• The need for product detail autocomplete suggestions
• The desire to facilitate quicker product discovery
• The necessity to manage extensive product catalogs and numerous product variations
• The need for improvement of the search experience
• The wish to enhance product discovery without completely relying on default theme search

Finger Check out the search functionality of ExpertRec. However, it is important to keep in mind that installing a new search app does not necessarily solve the issue of theme integration failure. Make sure to configure the app correctly, check if the autocomplete feature is activated before performing tests on your working theme.

Don’t Forget to Test Search on Mobile

An important aspect that a number of store owners fail to take into consideration is that while search suggestions might work flawlessly on desktops, they might not function on a mobile device.

The reason for that could be the fact that different mobile themes employ separate search layouts, functions, and user behavior. When a store owner made changes, here are some points he/she should test:

• Desktop browsers such as Firefox and Chrome.
• Mobile browsers of Android and iOS devices.
• Logged-in and private browsing.
• Individual products and parts of related search terms.

Make sure that the dropdown is not hidden behind another object. The problems with z-index css, for instance, might stop the suggestions from appearing even if searching is working fine.

If suggestions work on the desktop version of the site but do not function on the mobile version, a store owner should check mobile search separately instead of blaming the whole search system.

A Quick Checklist Before You Finish

Examining all of the above points one by one helps in recognizing the problem faster than trying to adjust too many settings.

Final Thoughts

Usually, when you don’t see Shopify search suggestions any more, you should at first check if the problems are with your theme settings or the configuration of predictive search or JavaScript functionality or with integrations of several third-party solutions.

To fix it, start with the simplest checks: confirm predictive search is activated, check that Shopify returns the necessary results and then check the compatibility of the scripts and apps.

And once you solve the problem, ask yourself if your current search options are really helpful for your clients.

Although the search bar should work, it should also make the life of your customers easier.