Searchandising is a blend of "search" and "merchandising". It refers to all the techniques used to optimize search results in an online store to maximize sales and conversions, rather than purely textual relevance.

Concretely: when a visitor types "running shoes" in your search bar, searchandising lets you decide which products appear at the top of the list - independently of their natural algorithmic score.

The stakes in numbers: according to several industry studies (Baymard Institute, Econsultancy), between 30% and 60% of e-commerce visitors use the search bar. These visitors convert on average 2 to 3 times more than those who browse by categories only. Internal search is one of the most powerful - and most underexploited - conversion levers.

The 5 key searchandising techniques

1

Pinning (product pinning)

Pinning forces certain products to specific positions in search results, regardless of their natural relevance. It's the most direct searchandising technique.

Concrete example You're running a promotion on a high-margin Nike model. You pin it in position 1 for the "running shoes" query throughout the promotion - even if other products are algorithmically more relevant.
2

Boosting and burying

More subtle than pinning, boosting improves the relevance score of certain products without fixing them to a specific position. Burying does the opposite: it lowers products in results - typically out-of-stock items or low-margin products.

The most common boost criteria: product margin, historical conversion rate, stock level, catalog addition date, ratings and reviews.

3

Search redirects

When a user types certain terms, instead of displaying a results page, the engine redirects them directly to an existing page on your site.

Common use cases "sale" → /promotions  |  "contact" → /contact  |  "store locator" → /find-a-store

Redirects avoid empty or poorly relevant results pages for non-product queries and streamline navigation.

4

Contextual banners

Some search engines allow displaying a promotional banner at the top of results for specific queries. When a visitor searches "dress", a "Spring collection -30%" banner appears before products - without disrupting the search experience.

5

Synonym management

Synonyms expand query coverage: "sneaker" = "trainers" = "athletic shoes". Without configured synonyms, a "trainers" query won't return products listed under "sneaker" in your catalog.

Good synonym management is the fastest action to implement to reduce the zero-result rate - the main abandonment factor on a search bar.

How to measure searchandising impact?

Searchandising without measurement is blind merchandising. Here are the priority indicators to track:

Metric Definition and target
Zero-result rate Percentage of queries returning no products. Target: below 5%. Every zero result is an unsatisfied purchase intent.
Post-search CTR Percentage of searches resulting in a product click. A low CTR reveals a mismatch between displayed results and the visitor's actual intent.
Searcher conversion rate Among visitors who use the search bar, how many buy? Compare to the site's average conversion rate to measure the gap.
Revenue per search Revenue generated divided by the number of searches performed. A synthetic indicator of your engine's business value.

Priority queries to monitor:

  • Top queries by volume - even a marginal gain on the top 20 queries has a significant revenue impact
  • Zero-result queries - immediate opportunities to fix via synonyms or redirects
  • Low CTR queries - displayed results don't match the search intent

Ready to put it into practice?

Vectail integrates synonyms, search analytics and AI ranking in a single dashboard. 14-day free trial, no credit card required.

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Searchandising with Vectail

Vectail integrates searchandising features directly into the dashboard, with no development required.

  • Real-time synonyms: create and manage your synonym groups from the interface. They are instantly synchronized in Google Vertex AI Search via the Controls API.
  • Integrated analytics: view the most frequent queries, zero-result rate and most-clicked products directly from your dashboard.
  • Intelligent default ranking: Google Vertex AI Search for Retail automatically applies a ranking based on behavioral signals from your visitors (clicks, conversions, time spent).
  • Product boosting: highlight certain items for specific queries from the merchandising interface.

The fundamental difference from a standard search engine: Vectail relies on Google Vertex AI Search for Retail, whose base ranking already incorporates semantic query understanding, synonym detection, and learning from your visitors' actual behavior. Manual searchandising complements and refines this algorithmic foundation.

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