Add search synonyms

Teach your storefront search that different words mean the same thing, so a customer who types عباية finds the abayas you named in English, and one who types thobe finds your ثوب. Synonyms live on the Operations tab of Settings and work on every plan.

What a synonym does

Your storefront search looks for the words a customer types inside your product names, descriptions and brands, in every language you have translated them into. It cannot guess that two different words mean the same thing. If your products say abaya and a customer types عباية, the search finds nothing.

A synonym row fixes that. It has two parts:

• The term — a word your customers type.
• Its synonyms — other words that should count as a match when they type it, usually the words your products actually use.

When a customer searches for the term, the search also looks for each synonym, and shows every product that matches any of them. For example, with the row abaya → عباية, abaye, jilbab, a search for abaya also finds a product named عباية سوداء and one named Black jilbab.

The same synonyms apply in three places:

• the results page of your storefront search;
• the products suggested while a customer types in the search box (a new row can take up to a minute to show there);
• the search box of your own products list (opens in a new tab) in the console.

Add a term and its synonyms

1. In the sidebar, under Administration, open Settings.
2. Select the Operations tab.
3. Scroll to the Search synonyms card. The rows you already have are listed, each term in bold with its synonyms beside it. Under the boxes, the hint Applied when a customer’s search matches the term exactly. sums up the first rule below.

Enlarge

4. In the box that reads Term (e.g. thobe), type the word your customers search for, for example kaftan.
5. In the box that reads Synonyms, comma-separated (e.g. ثوب, thawb), type the other words, separated by commas, for example قفطان, caftan, kaftan dress. You can type the Arabic comma ، between Arabic words; both commas work.
6. Select Add.

Enlarge

The row appears in the list straight away and the two boxes empty. It is saved at once: you do not need Save changes at the bottom of the tab, and you can use the rest of the tab without losing it.

Seeing the card needs the View content permission, and adding and removing synonyms needs Edit content. The Store owner and Store manager roles have both out of the box. A Store manager’s Settings opens straight on the Operations tab and shows this card alone, beside the Account tab, with no Save changes button. The header then reads Your own account and the store’s search synonyms. The rest of the store’s settings are shown to roles allowed to view them.

Enlarge

A role with View content alone sees the rows, without the two boxes, Add or the ×.

Enlarge

See Staff roles: what each one can see and do.

When a synonym applies

Three rules decide whether a row is used. Knowing them saves you from rows that never fire.

The whole search must be the term. The row is used only when everything the customer typed, ignoring capitals and spaces at either end, is exactly the term. With the row abaya, a search for abaya or ABAYA uses it; a search for black abaya or abayas does not. So keep terms to the single word or short phrase people really type.

It works from the term outwards. A search for the term finds its synonyms. A search for one of the synonyms is not widened back to the term. With abaya → عباية, a customer who types عباية finds only products whose own wording contains عباية. To make two words find each other both ways, add a row for each: abaya → عباية and عباية → abaya.

The card’s own description suggests otherwise: Words that should find the same products — searches for any of them match all of them. In fact a row works only from its term outwards, so add the reverse row too.

It goes one level deep. A synonym’s own row is not followed. If you have abaya → jilbab and jilbab → جلباب, a search for abaya finds abaya and jilbab, but not جلباب. Put every word you want on the term’s own row.

A synonym, like the customer’s own words, matches anywhere inside a name, description or brand. That is why a search for dress already finds Terracotta linen dress and dresses. It also means a very short synonym can pull in products you did not mean, so keep synonyms specific.

Arabic and English spellings together

This is where synonyms earn their keep in Jordan. Customers type in whichever script their keyboard is on, and Latin spellings of Arabic words vary: thobe, thawb, thoub.

• If your products are named in English only, add the Arabic words as terms, each with the English word as its synonym: عباية → abaya, فستان → dress. That is the fix when customers search عباية and get nothing because you wrote abaya.
• If your products are named in Arabic only, do the reverse: abaya → عباية, kaftan → قفطان.
• If you have translated your products, the search already reads both languages for words of three letters or more, so you mostly need synonyms for the other spellings: thobe → thawb, thoub, ثوب.

Arabic spelling is matched letter for letter. عبايه with ه and عباية with ة are different words to the search, and so are a singular and its broken plural, such as فستان and فساتين. Give the common variants their own rows. See Translate a product to your other languages to give your products their Arabic names.

Examples a boutique keeps

Rows a fashion store like Layal Boutique finds useful:

To find what customers are really typing, try their words in your own storefront search: any word that brings back nothing, when you sell what it describes, is a term worth adding.

Change or remove a synonym

To change a row, add its term again with the full list you want. The new list replaces the old one.

To remove a row, select the red × at its end. It is deleted at once, with no question first, and the search stops using it. To bring it back, add it again.

If a row is not added

When a row cannot be saved, it does not appear in the list and the two boxes keep what you typed. What you see tells you why:

What to do next

• Check how your products show up in the console search: Find products in your catalogue.
• A customer still cannot find a product on your storefront, even with a synonym: Why is my product not on my storefront?
• Set the rest of the Operations tab: Set your fulfilment SLA and stock alerts.