Search Lab

Search your live catalog the way your integration will, and tune the selectivity dial that controls every search-driven surface. Search Lab calls the same endpoint your code or your storefront would, so what you see here is what shoppers (or your integration) get.

What it's for

Three things you'd use it for:

  • Spot-check relevance. Type a query, see what comes back. Is the right product on top? Are obvious near-matches surfacing? Are any glaring misses missing?
  • Confirm variant matching. Try a query that names a color or size, like "small olive cardigan" or "navy blazer 42R". The result for each card shows which variant got matched, so you can see whether the right color or size lands.
  • Tune selectivity. If results feel too narrow or too padded, adjust the Selectivity slider at the top of the page and rerun the query.

Selectivity

Selectivity is a single dial from 1 to 10 that decides how broadly search reaches into your catalog before showing results. One dial across every search-driven surface: storefront search, similar items, Search Lab itself, and any custom search call you make through the API.

1

Relaxed

Generous matching. A query for "merino sweater" surfaces every wool top you sell, even loose adjacencies. Best when shoppers are exploring or your catalog is small.

3

Default

Balanced. Matches a healthy spread of options without surfacing unrelated items. The right starting point for almost every store.

10

Strict

Only the closest matches appear. A query for "merino sweater" returns merino sweaters and nothing else. Best for large catalogs where loose matching feels diluted.

The dial adapts to each query, not to a fixed score. A specific search like "navy linen blazer 42R" will show fewer results than "linen blazer" at the same selectivity setting, because there are simply fewer close matches. You don't have to retune for different queries.

How to tune it

Try the default (3) for a few days and watch your Search queries page. If shoppers are running queries that you'd expect to match products you carry but the result count is small, drop the selectivity to 2 or 1. If results feel padded with loosely-related items, push to 4, 5, or higher. Most stores settle at 2-4.

Running a query

Type a query in the box and hit Search. Results render below the form as a table, ranked the same way they'd appear in your storefront. The query stays in the URL (?q=...), so you can copy a link to a specific search to share or revisit.

Reading the results

Each row is one item.

#
Rank in the result set, 1 at the top.
Image
The matched variant's image, if there's one. For a "navy" query against a multi-color jacket, you'll see the navy photo. Falls back to the item's primary image if no variant matched (or if there are no variants).
Item
Title, with the item ID shown in mono underneath. The title links to the Items page filtered to that item.
Match
Which variant was selected, when variant matching applies. Shows the matched option values (e.g. "Color: Navy · Size: M") and the variant's stock state.
Price
Price of the matched variant when there is one, otherwise the item's price.
Stock
In-stock state for the matched variant (or the item, if no variant).

What's different about Search Lab

It's the same endpoint your integration calls, with the same selectivity and the same variant matching applied. Two practical differences:

  • Each search counts as a search query. A search you run from this page lands in your Search queries corpus the same way a real shopper search would. Live source, full processing. That's intentional: the corpus represents real demand on your catalog, and dashboard-driven searches are part of that.
  • No storefront-specific layout. The storefront renders results as a single ranked grid with a sort dropdown; Search Lab shows the same flat ranked list, useful for relevance evaluation. For the storefront preview (with theme tokens applied), the Shopify page has a live card preview that matches the actual storefront layout.

Variant matching

Variant matching runs on every query automatically: when a search names a color, size, or other option, the result for each card carries the matched variant. There's no setting to toggle it; it's always on.

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