Searchandising is a tool that allows users to influence the C.io ranking with their own unique business knowledge. Searchandising can be used for a variety of merchandising activities including sales, promotions, and seasonality.

Searchandising is available for Search, Autosuggest, Browse, and Collections. Searchandising can also be utilized at a Global level.

Types of searchandising rules

Boost and bury

Boosting and burying are meant to influence the ranking generated by Constructor's algorithms, not to override it. Both of these rules can be applied with a weak, moderate, or strong influence. Boosting and Burying can be utilized for search, autosuggest, browse, collections, and globally.

Boost

Applying a boost rule to an item or attribute will increase the ranking of the affected products in the results.

Bury

Applying a bury rule to an item or attribute will decrease the ranking of the affected products in the results.

Slotting

Slotting an item will lock it into a specific position within Search, Autosuggest, Browse, or Collection results. An item can be slotted within the Searchandising tab by dragging and dropping or searching for the item to place it in the specific position.

Sponsored Badge - Slotted items can be labeled sponsored by using the sponsored badge tool next to the slotted item. Whenever this is applied to a slotted item, a label will be displayed on the product card whenever the item is slotted in search, browse, or autosuggest.

Blocklisting

The blocklisting tool gives the ability to remove an item from a result set (Search, Autosuggest, Browse, Collections, and Globally).

Content

Content in search, browse, and collections allows users to add contextually relevant content to these respective pages. Content is an open ended tool that allows merchandisers to provide site visitors with the best possible experience, especially in instances where some additional content around a new product launch, a promotion, or key information adds value to the experience. Examples of Content include: banners, in-cart discounts, or special messaging. Rendering for Content will be handled on the user side by references the data created within Searchandising.

Manual vs. automatic rules

In addition to manually creating searchandising rules, Constructor's machine learning algorithms work to optimize your results by creating automatic searchandising rules based on user behavior. For instance, our algorithms may notice that at a grocery store, a search for "pepper" usually results in the purchase of the pepper spice, while a search for "peppers" usually results in the purchase of bell peppers. In that case, our algorithms will add a "boost" for the spice category in a search for "pepper" and a boost for the vegetable category in a search for "peppers."

Automatic rules are shown next to manual rules on searchandising pages. They can be manually deleted if necessary.

Using Searchandising

Searchandising is best used in conjunction with your business objectives or learnings provided by Constructor analytics. Using these tools can help boost new items if there is a new product release or bury items with low inventory to avoid customer frustration. By utilizing the Opportunities section of the Constructor analytics you will find the Search Insights report. This report provides learnings about customer behavior and suggestions for how to utilize Searchandising as a result.

Time Boxing - The time box tool allows users to set a start and end date for searchandising rules. It is recommended to use a time box for all rules to ensure they do not become stale and allow

For additional help with searchandising or creating a strategy to best utilize these tools, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager.