Search Within Shopify Collections: Improve Product Discoverability and UX

Shopify Search collections are a great way to organize and present your products on your online store. However, they're only useful when shoppers can quickly sort through the results and choose the products they're interested in. To get the most out of your collection pages and boost product discoverability and UX, consider integrating site search within Shopify collections.

What Is Search Within Collections?

It typically works like this: shoppers visit a collection page (for example, a shoe collection) and enter phrases or keywords related to the product they need (for example, red heels size X) in the search bar. The smart collection page then returns a list of shoes that match the search criteria.

With the right Shopify search functionality for collections, you can boost the customer experience on various fronts.

Customers Find Exactly What They're Looking for

A Shopify search results page within collections can be highly valuable for shoppers. With robust search parameters, they can find the item they're searching for in the exact color, size, style, brand, etc. Collection search saves them from the virtual legwork of looking through all product variants to find the item they want.

For example, 401 Games allows their customers to not only search within their categories (like Board Games) but also refine their search results with filters (in stock, price, vendor, etc.).



» Do your product filters need some help? Try these product filter optimization methods

More Relevant Search Results

The default Shopify search results can be hit or miss with your customers. They may search for a specific product and instead get a sea of product pages that are only vaguely associated with the searched item. A Shopify search bar within collections can improve their experience by offering more relevant results. It accounts for things like alternative phrasings and natural language characteristics to ensure results are tailored to your customers' searches.

For example, Fragrance Buy makes it even easier for their customers. If a customer searches within the Womens fragrance collection, a list pops up with all the relevant brands. If the customer types in "giv" to search for "Givenchy", the search functionality immediately recognizes the customer's intent and gives "Givenchy" as the result. This removes the risk of spelling mistakes or typos.



» Discover why understanding shoppers' intent is important

Personalizes Product Discovery

Shopify search collections are great for personalization. By using data about customers' behaviors and preferences, you can offer them a personalized product discovery experience. This may involve tracking products your customer has viewed in the past and using that information to suggest similar products in future searches. Additionally, collection search may use data from personas and product rating systems to inform their Shopify search and discovery experience.

For example, a customer may search for "red dresses" on Princess Polly and initially get general search results. But after shopping for a while for long-sleeve red dresses specifically, their search results become personalized.





» Learn more about a personalized search and recommendation engine

Why Shopify Stores Invest in Search Within a Collection

Smart Shopify owners know that an effective site search feature within their collections makes all the difference for success. The right solution can help you:

• Improve the user experience If your Shopify store has a lot of collection pages, the navigation can get complex, and shoppers may end up struggling to find the right page for product purchase. Search within collections can help them escape the complexity of navigation and get straight to the page and buy products quickly.
• Tailor your marketing An effective Shopify collection search tool can gather valuable information about customer searches and interactions with your pages. You can use this data to generate analytics reports that give you insight into the popularity of products, allowing you to tailor your marketing strategy accordingly.
• Increase your sales Collection search also shortens people's path to purchase by not requiring them to perform extensive site exploration. This makes shoppers not only more likely to buy but also spend more. A study found that such shoppers spend 2.6 times more on average than those who were not facilitated by a search function.
• Strengthen your brand Robust search solutions for Shopify collections do more than just satisfy the search intent—they use data from search to dynamically present customers with the most relevant items, filters, and categories. Additionally, they help deliver a consistent user experience and look across all your store pages and results, which in turn strengthens your brand image and maximizes trustworthiness.

Make It Fast

Search within Shopify collections can be a game-changer for your eCommerce business. With the right search solution, you can enhance your customers' experience and improve your product discoverability, thereby improving retention and sales too.

Even though your customers aren't interacting with you face-to-face, they still want to feel that personal touch. This means giving them a personalized shopping experience and making sure they can find the products they're looking for without a fuss.

» Don't have a Shopify store? Explore your Magento Search and BigCommerce Search options instead