Overview

Welcome to our user guide!

If you're previously unfamiliar with either search or the Experience Orchestrator (XO) platform, then this guide is for you. The guide will cover topics ranging from the basics of search, to the available search features on the Experience Orchestrator platform, and use case examples. 

 

XO Search

XO Search refers to the search capabilities within the Experience Orchestrator platform (XO). It is a blazing fast and scalable e-commerce search engine.  

 

Capabilities

XO Search enables you to:

• Set up your search application in a matter of days
• Provide a top-notch search experience to your customers out-of-the-box
• Execute your vision regarding the presentation of search results using Result Modifications 
• Quickly navigate your product catalog and optimize underperforming search queries

Configuring Search

To benefit from all the capabilities of XO Search, the following elements must first be configured:  

 

Searchable Attributes

What are searchable attributes?

Searchable attributes represent the product attributes that you want your visitors to be able to look for when performing a search query. To be able to define an attribute as searchable, you must first enable it in the corresponding item kind as described below.

Example of searchable attributes that can be selected by a retailer: Title, product, color. 

 

Defining searchable attributes

Once you've uploaded your data, simply select which attributes you want to be searchable. This can be done through the Searchable Attributes tab in the Configuration menu:

You can select any of the Searchable attributes, that are specified in the Item kind attributes

The individual attributes within the kind can be marked as searchable, sortable, or facetable. The other two search properties will be relevant in the future sections, around sorting and faceting.

To make an attribute sortable, mark it in the Item Kind menu and add it as sortable in the XO Search Console. 

 

Best practices

It is usually a good idea to use all the relevant text fields as searchable.

 

Sortable Attributes

What are sortable attributes?

Sortable attributes allow you to provide the tools to your shoppers to reorder the search results page as they see fit, based on (usually) numerical variables. 

Example of sortable attributes for a retailer: Price, stock

 

Defining a sortable attribute

Similarly to selecting the searchable attributes, you can add sortable attributes to your search configuration. The menu is located just below the searchable attributes.

To add a new sortable attribute, click on the "Add sortable attributes" button and select the wanted attribute in the list that has appeared:

If your attribute is not listed, ensure that it has been set as sortable in the corresponding item kind.

 

Facets

What is a facet?

Facets (or faceted filters) allow your shoppers to further narrow down what they are looking for, by providing a quick way to select certain (usually, most popular/relevant) attribute values.

Facets in XO Search can be static or dynamic depending on whether they have a defined trigger. 

Static facets appear on every search results page, regardless of what the user is searching for, or any other user context (facet clicks, geolocation, etc).

Dynamic facets appear depending on the trigger rules defined for them.

 

Creating a static facet

To add a facet, navigate to the Facets menu in the Configuration tab (same as searchable & sortable attributes).

Then, you simply need to fill out the necessary fields in order to create the facet:

• Technical facet name - this field is only for developer use and will only appear in the API responses
• On-site displayed facet name - this is the name that will be visible to your shoppers (and appear on the search preview page)
• Attribute - this is the attribute that is used to generate the facet; you can select the default way to order values of a facet 

Creating a dynamic facet

To transform a static facet into a dynamic facet, you need to specify a triggering rule that will define under which conditions the facet should appear:

From the Faceting menu you can see if a facet has a trigger enabled (whether it's static or dynamic).

If you want to create a new dynamic facet or add a trigger to an existing static facet, you can simply create/edit a facet and navigate to the triggering tab in the edit menu.

You can create triggering rules of any complexity by using variables, such as search query, facets, and any user variables you're collecting with XO. Conditions can be simply added either through an OR or an AND operator. If several conditions are connected with OR, that means only one of the conditions needs to be true to trigger the facet to appear. In the example below, it is sufficient for the search query to be equal to "handbag" in order for the brand facet to appear.

If conditions are connected with an AND operator, then all the conditions in that group need to be true in order for the facet to appear. In the example above, each of the facet's values in the AND group need to be equal to "handbag" and "designer" respectively.

Modify Search Results

Redirects

One of the easiest ways to customize search results is to redirect the shopper to a custom landing page. This could be either a category landing page, or some non-product related information page (e.g. returns or shipping). 

You can create a redirect by going to the redirects menu in the Configuration tab:

You can quickly find and edit any existing redirect rules by using the search box. 

All you need to do to create a redirect is to specify the URL to which the user will be sent and the keywords which will trigger the redirect.

You can test if the redirect works by going back to the search preview and searching for the words you have added as triggers. The Console will automatically redirect you to the desired page.

 

Synonyms

Product catalogs can often lack all the relevant words that might describe a product. For example, it is not uncommon for items such as "jeans" to not feature the word "denim" in the title or in the description. Similar issues can arise if you're not using the product description as a searchable attribute as a lot of the words describing a product will be obscured from the search engine.

These issues can be easily fixed with synonyms. Synonyms allow the search engine to extend its search to all the words listed as synonymous with the original query. You can configure synonyms by navigating to the Synonyms menu in the Configuration tab.

 

In search on XO, there are 3 types of synonyms: equal, one-way, and synonym group.

 

Equal synonyms

Equal synonyms are represented by the sign. If two words are linked with an equal synonym operator, then whenever either of the words is searched for, the other will be searched for as well and included in the search results.

In this example, whenever a shopper searches for "jeans", any items matching "denim" will also be presented, and if a user searches for "denim", then items matching "jeans" will also be found.

 

One-way synonyms

One-way synonyms, as expected by the name, only work in one direction. This means that if a shopper search for the word on the left of the operator, the word you added on the right will also be found, but not vice versa. This option is convenient in case the word on the left is more general, and you don't want to decrease the relevance of the search results for a more precise term you included on the right.

   

Synonym groups

An easy way to create many synonym pairs at once, where all the words are pairwise synonymous, is to create a synonym group. In this case, no matter which word from a group gets searched, all the other ones will be searched for as well.

 

Rules

What is a Rule?

A rule allows you to influence the search results by modifying them when your defined conditions are met. It can be used for example to promote certain products during a sales operation or to promote a new collection.

A rule is composed by:

• A list of modifications to apply
• A triggering rule, similar to the dynamic facets

Defining a rule

To define a new rule, go to the Rules tab of your Search configuration, and click on "Add a rule":

All the options to define your new rule are available on the left panel. The right panel allows you to view your rule in the search playground:

The first action to take is to define in what conditions your rule will be applied. To do so, click on Define triggers:

A trigger is a set of conditions. Variables are used to provide the context of the query: query terms, activated facets, etc.

Remember that if you don't define triggering conditions, the rule will be applied by default on all search queries performed.

Once you've defined a triggering condition, you can now select which constraints you want to apply. Two types of constraints can be applied:

1. Adding filters to force/exclude tags or products, force a price range

2. Boost and bury specific tags

Once your modifications and triggering conditions are defined, you can save your rule and give it a name. We recommend you be as comprehensive as possible when naming your new rule.

Your new rule is now available in the Rules list but it is not yet applied to your search experience. To apply it, you have to click on the 3 dots icon and click on "Publish":

Use the same menu if you need to unpublish a rule