Table of Contents
- Why Shopify Needs a Better Product Discovery System
- An Interesting Quiz: What Might Your Client Look For?
- 5 Effective Strategies for Enhancing AI Search & Discovery on Shopify
- 1. Make Your Shopify Search Capable of Understanding Natural Language
- 2. Avoid Losing Customers Due to Typos
- The 10-Second Search Challenge
- 3. Assist Customers in Discovering Products, Not Merely Locating Them
- 4. Analyze Your Search Data to Find Out About Your Clients
- 5. Utilize the Power of Search as Your Business Expands
- Search & Discovery Options from Shopify vs Search with AI
- One More Mini Game: Find the Better Search
- Turn Shopify Search Into a Sales Assistant
How to Boost AI Search & Discovery on Shopify: Convert more Searches Into Sales
Let’s say a customer visits your Shopify website with a wish to find “a black comfortable dress for a summer celebration.”
They might be aware of what they need but unsure about the actual name of the product, category, or keywords that you’ve used for it in your product catalog.
This is where AI search and product discovery can solve the problem.
An excellent Shopify search isn’t just identifying products that contain the precise words typed by a customer in the search field.
Instead, it understands what the customer intends to find, handles multiple search types, and sends the customer in the right direction toward the most likely purchase.
At the same time, for expanding Shopify businesses, this could be the difference between a customer finding their necessary item in a couple of seconds and leaving the page empty-handed.
Why Shopify Needs a Better Product Discovery System
When a Shopify store is running with 20 products, it’s possible to skim through the collections without any hassle. What happens when a store has 500, 5000, or even 50,000 products?
Scrolling through collections is no longer feasible.
Searching for products has to be done, however.
Nevertheless, there is one problem: shoppers don’t know how to perform a search on your platform.
Somebody can type the words “red dress for women” while your dress is labeled as the “Ruby Beautiful Evening Gown.”
This particular woman may be looking for your dress, yet retail searching in the regular mode might potentially fail.
AI-powered search system helps solve the problem through understanding users’ search ins and outs, contexts of certain products, and such concepts as synonyms, spelling mistakes, and natural human language.
An Interesting Quiz: What Might Your Client Look For?
Let’s spice this one up a bit.
Imagine a client in search of footwear that provides adequate comfort for everyday wear. What would you think he would be looking for?
A. “Comfortable footwear for everyday wear”
B. “Footwear for everyday use”
C. “Footwear with adequate comfort”
The answer?
All three of them.
A client may search in any of the ways mentioned above, although you could be describing the product in different words altogether.
Hence, Shopify search needs to be built around how clients would search and not merely based on the names used by the merchants.
5 Effective Strategies for Enhancing AI Search & Discovery on Shopify
1. Make Your Shopify Search Capable of Understanding Natural Language
Today’s consumers prefer to search in full sentences as opposed to a few keywords. Instead of inputting “blue shirt,” it is preferable to write “a light blue shirt for an office casual look.”
An efficient search engine understands the connection between words and finds products that fit the purpose of the search.
This is where ExpertRec makes it easier for Shopify businesses to provide intelligent search services to users. The AI-enabled search from ExpertRec can process all natural language queries and assist users in finding appropriate items faster.
Thus, consumers do not need to be aware of any specific name of a product to achieve their searches.
2. Avoid Losing Customers Due to Typos
Let’s play a little game.
Let’s say your customer searches in your shop:
What is going to happen?
A. “No results found.”
B. You will show completely different products.
C. Understand the typo and show sneakers.
Hopefully, the answer is obvious. C
The reality is that we all make typos all the time, especially when typing on the phone. A missing letter shouldn’t mean a lost sale.
Because AI can help businesses by using typo tolerance, autocorrection, synonyms, and many related terms to help customers reach the desired products even if their searches are not perfect.
With the use of ExpertRec, the Shopify platform can offer a better search experience, ensuring that your customers won’t have to look for something again and again just because they made a typing mistake.
The 10-Second Search Challenge
Put this to the test in your own Shopify store.
Look for an item using a phrase that is not as it is in the name of the product.
Next, search for the item with a mistake in the way you write the word.
Finally, conduct a search using broader terms, for example:
Now ask yourself:
Did the search engine understand my word, or was I the one who had to think like the search system?
If a person is forced to change their way of searching in order to have results, then this means the search system is not good enough.
AI-powered Shopify search and product discovery
Turn Shopify searches into smarter product discovery with ExpertRec
ExpertRec helps Shopify stores deliver intelligent search with natural-language understanding, instant autocomplete, typo-tolerant search, relevant product discovery, and scalable search experiences — without complex infrastructure or heavy development effort.
Smarter search • Better discovery • Happier customers
3. Assist Customers in Discovering Products, Not Merely Locating Them
Search and discovery share a strong relationship.
A visitor can come into the site in search of a particular product and leave with another product.
For instance, a person looking for a laptop bag may discover a waterproof backpack and a travel organizer in the course of their search.
At this stage, it makes sense to leverage suggestions, relevant products, and intelligent ranking.
Rather than focusing merely on exhibiting matching goods, a discovery experience powered with AI allows a visitor to consider relevant offerings.
ExpertRec merges smart search technology with product discovery to enable ecommerce websites to ease the exploration of their catalog.
The aim is straightforward: make it easier for customers to find a beneficial product before they exit the site.
4. Analyze Your Search Data to Find Out About Your Clients
Your Shopify search bar provides you with more than just details about what customers are looking for.
It can inform you of what they are hoping to find on your website.
Let’s say scores of shoppers search for “linen summer dresses,” while your e-store houses no relevant section.
This is significant information.
It can demonstrate that your clients are interested in something but are unable to find it.
Search analytics can help sellers identify popular queries, ineffective searches, product demand, and potential shortcomings in their shopping experience.
Rather than guessing what customers want, it’s better to rely on their searches.
5. Utilize the Power of Search as Your Business Expands
The search approaches used for smaller Shopify stores may require significant alterations as the inventory grows.
Creating specific rules for each query may soon become inefficient.
This is when AI enters the scene.
Instead of relying solely on predetermined search settings, ExpertRec is capable of bringing automation to various stages of the search journey by utilizing AI relevance, autocomplete, typo correction, and intelligent catalog search overall.
And this is how the search process can follow your business as it increases its inventory.
Search & Discovery Options from Shopify vs Search with AI
With Shopify’s Search & Discovery app, merchants get a chance to implement and control all important and simple search features such as merchandising and product recommendations. Smaller shops with limited resources will find this solution useful.
For more advanced stores, there is a need for more advanced functionalities.
Shopify Search & Discovery can be regarded as a simple control center. AI-driven search goes further and allows for adapting to customer needs.
With the help of ExpertRec, stores are able to incorporate features typically present in advanced solutions such as AI-driven search, instant autocomplete, typo tolerance, synonym usage, and so on.
One More Mini Game: Find the Better Search
A shopper asks:
Which search experience would you prefer?
Search A
Brings up products that have the word “black”.
Search B
Grasps the intent of the search and looks for colour, type of shoes, event, and price.
For an e-commerce store, customers are expecting the Search B experience. The smarter the search technology is, the easier customers to find the right product.
Turn Shopify Search Into a Sales Assistant
The search box may be small, but it is very powerful.
It helps customers search for the required products quickly, find products they weren’t even aware of, correct typing errors, and understand their needs better.
The most important thing that merchants have to take into account is to realize that the search bar is much more than just a field where customers input their keywords.
It’s like an automated sales assistant.
Companies that want to boost product discovery should use ExpertRec. It provides its clients with a smart AI search tool developed for eCommerce.
With ExpertRec, customers can speak naturally while searching, discovering the products they need instantly without any trouble.
It becomes a tool for transformation.
Are your customers looking for something but are unable to find what they target? Then it might be the right moment to improve your search process.
Check out ExpertRec’s AI Search for Shopify to learn how intelligent search and discovery can help customers find what they are looking for more effectively.
Better search is not only about discovering products but also helping others find the right product.
READY TO MAKE YOUR SHOPIFY SEARCH SMARTER?
Turn Better Search Into Better Product Discovery
ExpertRec helps Shopify stores deliver AI-powered search that understands natural-language queries, handles typos, provides intelligent autocomplete, and helps shoppers discover relevant products faster.
Smarter search • Better discovery • Happier customers
