Merchandising Overview

Merchandising gives you control over which products appear in Nobi's search results and where they're positioned. Use merchandising rules to promote seasonal items, manage inventory visibility, and align search results with your business priorities.

What is Merchandising?

Merchandising lets you influence search results without changing your product data or waiting for algorithm updates. You create rules that tell Nobi how to handle specific products or queries:

Hide products - Remove items from search results entirely
Boost products - Increase prominence of specific items in results
Bury products - Decrease prominence without completely hiding items
Slot products - Place specific items in exact positions for certain queries
Set default variants by attribute - Show a preferred variant when shoppers have not requested that attribute
Catalog synonyms - Map shopper terms to specific catalog attributes or products

These rules work alongside Nobi's semantic search to ensure customers see relevant products while respecting your merchandising strategy.

Why Use Merchandising?

Manage seasonal inventory - Hide winter coats in summer, boost swimwear in spring
Promote campaigns - Boost sale items or new arrivals for specific queries
Control visibility - Bury low-stock items without removing them completely
Test positioning - Pin products to specific slots to test customer response
Align with strategy - Ensure search reflects your current business priorities

How Merchandising Works

Create Rules

Set up rules in the Nobi dashboard by defining:

Action - What to do (hide, boost, bury, slot, or set a default variant by attribute)
Conditions - When to apply the rule (product attributes, customer location, date ranges, queries that trigger the rule)

Rules Apply at Search Time

When customers search, Nobi:

Retrieves relevant products using semantic search
Checks active merchandising rules
Applies matching rules to modify results
Returns final ranked list to customer

Merchandising Actions

Hide Products

Completely remove products from search results. Hidden products won't appear no matter what customers search for unless you specify query conditions.

Boost Products

Increase product prominence in search results. Boosted items appear higher in rankings without being pinned to specific positions.

Bury Products

Decrease product prominence without completely hiding them. Buried items appear lower in rankings but remain findable.

Bury Sale Items

Use a sale-item bury rule when you want full-price products to appear ahead of discounted products without removing sale items from search results.

Slotting (Pinning) Products

Place specific products in exact positions for certain queries. Pinned items appear in their designated slots regardless of relevance score.

Set Default Variants by Attribute

Show a merchant-preferred variant when a shopper has not requested that attribute. This changes the final variant shown for a product without changing search ranking or result order.

Catalog Synonyms

Map shopper terms, abbreviations, alternate names, and model shorthand to catalog attribute filters or specific products. Catalog synonyms are configured under Account → Products → Synonyms and apply before normal semantic product search when a matching synonym has live products.

Rule Conditions

Control when rules apply using product attributes, visitor location, search queries, and date ranges.

Rule Priority and Conflicts

When multiple rules affect the same product:

Hide always wins - If any rule hides a product, it's hidden regardless of other rules
Boosts and buries stack - Multiple boost/bury rules add together
Slotting override ranking - Pinned products appear in their slot regardless of boosts/buries
Default variants preserve ranking - Preferred variants replace the final variant for a result without moving the product in the ranked list
Query-specific beats general - Rules with query conditions take precedence over general rules

Best Practices

Begin with one or two clear rules, apply ranking changes to specific queries, monitor conversion, and remove rules that do not improve results.

Warning: Ranking Modifications

Boosting and burying modify Nobi's AI-powered ranking algorithm. Use low or medium strengths, apply them to specific queries, and monitor performance.

Getting Started

Step 1: Access merchandising in your dashboard under Account → Products → Merchandising

Step 2: Create your first rule

Step 3: Preview affected products before saving

Step 4: Monitor performance in Analytics & Reporting

Step 5: Refine rules based on results

Learn More

Hiding Products - Completely remove items from search

Boosting Products - Increase product prominence

Burying Products - Decrease product prominence

Slotting Products - Place products in exact positions

Setting Default Variants by Attribute - Show a preferred variant when shoppers have not requested that attribute

Catalog Synonyms - Map shopper terms to specific catalog targets