Search¶

Search is an important part of any e-commerce site and typically caters for visitors who are looking for a particular product. These visitors tend to have a strong purchase intent which makes them a significant part of a site's sales.

The search in Voyado Elevate is based on sophisticated query analysis together with our product listing relevance capabilities, which include product life cycle analysis, visitor behavioral insights, and more.

Query analysis¶

The Voyado Elevate query analysis is used for both search results and product suggestions, and impacts the phrase suggestions in the Autocomplete query. Query analysis combines basic text processing with advanced features, such as natural language processing, concept understanding, and multi-level spelling corrections to truly capture the visitor's search intent.

Lemmatization and word scanning¶

All product searches employ advanced techniques like lemmatization and word scanning, if an ontological understanding is present.

Pluralization handling¶

Pluralization handling uses different techniques to analyze a search term and identify its corresponding term in singular/plural form to present relevant search hits. Pluralization is treated separately from stemming and includes special handling of cases where seemingly corresponding words are not related.

Example: shorts is not the plural of short.

Multi-level spelling corrections¶

When a visitor enters a search phrase, automatic spelling correction helps the visitor find an item even if it is misspelled in the search. Automatic corrections also help visitors find products when the product data itself is misspelled or has spelling variations. For example, if a visitor searches for adidas and the brand name of a product is misspelled as addidas, the product with the misspelled name is still found.

The level of differentiation between the phrase and the content is considered in the ranking. Relevant products are not left out but less likely interpretations are ranked lower.

Color¶

A search phrase often includes the color of a product, thus making color an important concept to understand. Based on identification of color terms in the search query and color analysis of garments, Voyado Elevate can apply color closeness as a part of the ranking. Ranking is affected both by how well the queried color matches the precise nuance of a garment, and how much of that nuance that is present in the garment.

Color distance¶

Using a color distant measurement called CIE-distance (Commission internationale de l'éclairage), Voyado Elevate can correctly consider the color match criteria based on the nuance of each product. This allows variations that lean slightly towards purple or lighter red to be incorporated, but ranked lower.

Color distribution¶

The more of the color in the search phrase that is present in the product, the better the product is considered to match the color criteria.

Title¶

Product titles often hold significant information and are considered especially important for match ranking.

Product titles often consist of a composition of other values. For example, a title can be a combination of both its proper name, the product type, and a color name.

Normally, a full match of an attribute is ranked higher than a partial match. Product titles are an exception due to the their special composition. This means that the search query shirt matches the titles shirt and Elana shirt - pink rose equally well.

Name¶

In some industries, it is common for products to have a proper name. For instance, in electronics a phone may have the name iPhone 14 Max Pro while the title may include additional information such as memory size and color.

Voyado Elevate allows the visitor to filter and sort product lists by name. Separating the name from the rest of the title also makes it easier to style the name on the product card.

Model ID¶

We have a designated model ID search feature that accommodate intricate patterns. For instance, when seeking a product with the ID XX-11YYY22-33, shoppers can enter queries such as 'YYY' or 'YYY22' and still receive accurate matches. Model ID search is designed to assist shoppers in locating their desired products, even if they only remember a partial Model ID. Additionally, it reduces the need for the retailer to enrich the data in custom fields.

Product taxonomy¶

To prevent misleading hits within categories with multiple product types and an & in the title, such as Scarves & Hats, Voyado Elevate differentiates product taxonomies. For example, products tagged with the category Scarves & Hats do not necessarily match the term hat as it might be a scarf.

Size¶

To avoid prefix matches that a visitor does not expect, an exact match is required when searching for sizes. For example, when searching for one piece a visitor does not expect to get all products that are available in onesize after typing one.

Measurements¶

For measurements, Voyado Elevate performs automatic unit conversion. A table with a height specified as 75 cm will match searches on “table 75 cm” but also “table 0.75 m” and “table 750 mm”. Elevate also supports range facets where products in different units are correctly positioned, such that 1 m > 50 cm > 3 in > 16 mm. This is especially important for search results with a mixed set of product types.

Phrase coverage¶

If a visitor is searching for a t-shirt, it does not matter if the search phrase used is t-shirt, tshirt, or t shirt. It will all return the same result. The dynamic phrase coverage ensures that not only is the queried data present in the product, but it also provides additional relevant matches.

Synonyms¶

Synonyms are used to extend searches of a phrase to include similar search phrases. For example, a synonym is used to also search for holidays when using the search phrase christmas. Synonyms are managed in the Synonyms tab in the Experience app. In addition to the manually added synonyms, the Natural language processing capabilities enables the use of automated conceptual synonyms.

Natural language processing¶

Natural language processing capabilities are made available through combining intelligent query analysis with deep knowledge of various concepts, their significance, and how they relate. This includes a variety of different concepts, such as colors, product types, events, materials, and shapes. Read more about how this enriched data is used by Voyado Elevate to bring more relevance to a visitor.

Concept differentiation¶

By differentiating between concepts and deduce the more likely intent by the visitor, products can be ranked with consideration to the intent. For example, a visitor searching for light blue is more likely searching for a garment in a light shade of blue, rather than a blue light, or a lightweight blue garment.

Intelligent prefix search¶

With regular prefix search, the visitor always gets an expanded view of the search phrase. For example a search for blue sh might result in blue shorts, shirts, shirt dresses, and so on. This is great in many cases but can also mean that irrelevant results are mixed with relevant results. With intelligent prefix, prefix results not matching the perceived visitor intent, can be strongly buried or even omitted.

For example, while a visitor is typing blue shirt in the search field, phrase and product suggestions may include blue shirt dresses. The visitor intent is not known as it is not clear if the visitor has finished typing. If a visitor executes a search on blue shirt however, Voyado Elevate understands that blue shirt dresses are a lot less relevant and will be buried or omitted from the results entirely.

Search result expansion¶

Sometimes a search result benefits from being expanded with additional products or product types, but all results must still be relevant to the visitor's search intent. Applying data knowledge of concept relations, Voyado Elevate can be used to expand search results with closely related products.

For example, a search for green cardigans may additionally to green cardigans, display green sweaters at the bottom.

Multi-language search support¶

For many sites, some visitors use English in their search phrases despite the site being localized in a different language. Searches and completions with known concepts in English are automatically understood and catered, even if product data is provided in the locale of the market. This reduces the need for manually localized synonyms for known concepts.

Automated conceptual synonyms¶

Since concepts are automatically extracted from the data and a concept can be identified through multiple terms, known synonyms automatically works for extracted concepts without any manual work.

The search engine applies knowledge of the fact that a concept can be expressed in multiple terms during both data processing and query analysis. This means that products are automatically made findable using terminology that does not appear in the product data at all. An example of a known synonym concept is lady to woman. Even if lady is not part of a product's data, but woman is, Voyado Elevate finds the product if lady is used in the search.

Hierarchical concept query analysis¶

Since Voyado Elevate understands concept hierarchies, all identified concepts are automatically made findable through known ancestral concepts. For example, a light blue shirt is automatically understood to also be a blue shirt. Another example is that a 'blouse' automatically means that it is a 'top', where as all 'tops' are not 'blouses'.

Understanding the relation also improves phrase suggestions to facilitate the user journey. An example is by applying the knowledge that a blouse is a top. A visitor typing wrap blouse will not suggest wrap blouse top as it would be redundant and the addition of 'top' insignificant. When typing wrap top however, wrap top blouse could be relevant as this refines the result.