There are three gateways in an eCommerce store across which visitors discover products. They are
- Site Search
- Category or Collection Pages (Product Listing Pages)
- Product Recommendations
Of these, eCommerce site search is preferred by visitors who have an intent to purchase. Engaging these visitors with great search experience is critical because 80% of visitors are likely to click on products within the first 3 pages of any listing page, including search. This is where merchandising techniques help retailers grab the visitor’s attention and trigger their interest in the products.
e-commerce Merchandising is the art of displaying products in the desired order to engage the visitors at an online store.
When should retailers merchandise the search results?
Marketing Requirements - Retailers merchandise selected search queries when they want to promote particular products related to the query. These products can be pinned within the top results so as to gain the visitor’s attention. E.g., you may have a promotion with a particular brand that requires you to promote those products on top of search results when they are part of the mix.
External Trends - Intelligent search engines, use internal store data to determine what is trending. Sometimes external factors also influence consumer purchases and need to be considered within an online store. E.g., A celebrity wears a certain brand or design of dresses and it becomes trending on twitter. In this case, the merchant will promote those dresses on top of search results, even though it is not yet trending within the online store.
How should retailers merchandise search results?
Promoting products: For a particular search query, retailers have the option to pin/promote one of many products for a desired period of time.

(Search query merchandising using Tagalys)
Redirection: For a particular search query, retailers have the option to redirect the visitor to another page within the site that already meets the desired product sorting of the retailer.
Tagalys maximizes conversion rate & gives merchants visual control of products displayed in Site Search, Category pages and Product Recommendations at their online store. To know more about our solutions and features, get in touch with us now.