A-Z Guide To Product Discovery In eCommerce Stores

Ellie Ho

June 17, 2024

December 12, 2025

•

7 min read

Level up your product discovery with Boost

21-day FREE trial to test all AI features

Get started

As eCommerce competition heats up, your on-site experience becomes a key differentiator. A fast site and clean UI aren’t enough anymore. If shoppers can’t quickly find the right products, they leave. That’s where online product discovery comes in. Today, shoppers expect instant, intuitive, and relevant results - and that requires tools that understand intent, not just keywords

Modern discovery must remove friction and guide shoppers effortlessly from intent to product fit. Our A-Z Guide To Product Discovery In eCommerce Stores will help you with that.

What is covered in this guide:

The problems with traditional search and filtering tools: issues with understanding synonyms and near-identical words in product-type queries.
How to optimize search relevance, filtering, and personalization using AI-driven technology.
Benefits of optimized product discovery: dramatically reduce abandonment rates, increase engagement and sales, and more.

What is online product discovery?

Online product discovery is the process that helps shoppers move from “just browsing” to finding products that truly match their needs, tastes, and budget.

In a physical store, customers can:

Walk around and discover the items themselves
Ask a store assistant for help.

Online, it’s different. Shoppers face:

Too many choices → decision fatigue
Irrelevant results → frustration and drop-offs

This is why optimization across customer touchpoints, such as site search, filtering, and merchandising, is essential.

Trusted by fast-growing brands

Start your 21-day free trial

Get started

The cost of friction: Striking numbers about online product discovery

The difficulty in finding products online is a major roadblock to conversion. As global eCommerce sales are projected to reach $6.4 trillion in 2026, merchants cannot afford a fractured product discovery experience.

An in-depth study by Baymard highlights the severity of the problem:

Failed Searches: A significant 41% of websites cannot handle the eight most common search queries their users perform.
Synonym Blindness: A staggering 70% of search engines cannot return accurate or relevant results for synonyms of the product type. Shoppers often have to use the exact terminology as the website.
Inaccurate Filtering: Only 43% of benchmark sites offer all of the key filter types.
High Abandonment: Sites with subpar product list usability had abandonment rates of 67-90%. This is compounded by the fact that the average cart abandonment rate remains approximately 70%.

This table highlights the difference between an average eCommerce site and an optimized one:

Metric (as of 2024/2025)	eCommerce Average	Top Performing Stores (75th Percentile)
Conversion Rate	Under 2% to 4%	Up to 6.4%
Cart Abandonment Rate	approx 70%	approx 17–33% (with improved tools)
Mobile Traffic	Over 70% of total traffic	Seamless experience reduces friction

How to take product discovery to the next level

To turn browsers into buyers, you must remove complexity and deliver an effortless shopping journey. Online stores can optimize product discovery by focusing on AI-powered features that deliver enterprise-grade performance, without the enterprise complexity.

1. AI-Driven Personalization

Personalization is the cornerstone of a successful eCommerce experience. By leveraging shopper behavior, online stores can offer customized recommendations based on past purchases and browsing history. Boost’s AI goes beyond basic search by analyzing browsing behavior and engagement patterns to continuously refine search rankings and recommendations. This helps customers save time by only viewing products aligned with their interests.

"Boost's Al goes beyond basic search: it analyzes purchase history, browsing behavior, and engagement patterns to continuously refine search rankings and recommendations to maximize conversions. This behavior-based ranking ensures that the most relevant items are prominently displayed." Nadia Riyasat, Sr. Product Marketing Manager at Boost Commerce.

2. Advanced Product Filtering

Filtering options allow customers to narrow down their search by attributes such as price, brand, color, size, and more. This powerfully reduces the time spent searching.

To optimize filtering:

Offer Clear and Consistent Options: Ensure filter categories are relevant and easy to understand to minimize confusion.
Use Accurate Product Data: Accurate filtering depends on providing accurate product details and specifications.
Make Filters Visible: Place filtering options in a prominent location, especially for mobile users who account for over 70% of traffic.

Boost Commerce improves product discovery by enabling customers to filter products by virtually any attribute. It offers Dynamic Filtering that adjusts based on selected criteria, allowing shoppers to refine search results effectively.

Helpful to know: 6 Best UI/UX practices + 5 Mistakes to avoid for your filter design (with Case studies).

3. Smart Search Functionality

Effective search is critical since an inaccurate search can lead to a dead-end experience.

Relevant Results: Your search algorithm should accurately match keywords to product names and descriptions.
Typo Tolerance and Synonyms: Al-Powered Search uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) to interpret shopper intent, correct typos, and recognize synonyms (such as ‘blazer’ and ‘jacket’) to deliver context-aware results, even for complex queries.
Auto-complete and Suggestions: These features help customers quickly find products, improving the user experience and saving time.
Zero-Result Mitigation: When no exact matches are found, the system suggests relevant alternatives to keep shoppers engaged in the buying journey.

4. Merchandising and Content

Merchandising and content are where you influence the buying decision.

Visual Merchandising: Boost's Visual Merchandising Tools allow merchants to strategically arrange products by pinning, boosting, demoting, or hiding them based on sales objectives. This ensures prioritized items, promotions, and bestsellers are visible.

High-Quality Media: High-quality product images and product videos are the main way customers interact with products online, and videos can provide an engaging, interactive experience.
Social Proof: User-generated content (UGC), such as product reviews and ratings, provides an unbiased perspective that builds trust and increases the likelihood of a purchase.

Top Shopify apps to power product discovery

To create an optimized shopping experience, you need best-in-breed tools that integrate seamlessly with your platform.

1. Boost Commerce for on-site discovery

Boost Commerce is the AI-driven product discovery and merchandising platform built for Shopify. It helps merchants turn more shoppers into buyers by improving discovery, increasing conversions, and boosting Average Order Value (AOV).

Value Proposition: Boost delivers enterprise-grade features like AI-Powered Search and Dynamic Filtering without the high cost or complexity of competitors like Algolia or Searchspring.
Core Features: AI-driven search with natural language processing, visual merchandising tools, and real-time analytics.
Advanced Features: Pre-Order Management, Proactive Notifications (Back-in-Stock logic), and Predictive Bundling can be layered on top to support deeper merchandising strategies tied to inventory and lifecycle stage. Stores using Boost report a 29% conversion rate.

2. REVIEWS.io for trust-based discovery

REVIEWS.io specializes in collecting and showcasing customer feedback, which acts as valuable social proof.

Value Proposition: Review data can significantly boost SEO and increase the likelihood of being featured in Al Overviews.
Core Features: Encourage customers to leave detailed, Keyword-Rich Reviews. Critically, use Review and Product Schema to help search engines understand and display your social proof effectively.
Advanced Features: Integration with Boost Commerce to enrich search and recommendation engines with reviews and sentiment data. Users can also create merchandising rules based on star ratings and review counts to prioritize trustworthy products.

Watch now: Exclusive webinar to turn customers’ voices into revenue with Boost and REVIEWS.io.

3. Klaviyo for email discovery

Klaviyo is a powerful marketing automation tool that integrates directly with product discovery workflows.

Value Proposition: It ensures customer engagement and maximizes customer lifetime value by re-engaging shoppers through proactive, personalized notifications.
Core Features: Manage and segment audience for highly targeted email campaigns. Automate communications with triggers and flows.
Advanced Features: It works seamlessly with Boost’s Pre-Order Management and Proactive Notifications (Back-in-Stock) features to alert customers when high-demand items are back in stock.

Turn browsers into buyers in an instant

Adopting AI-powered solutions moves beyond traditional tools, delivering the effortless, personalized shopping experience modern customers expect. Tools like Boost Commerce integrate seamlessly with your Shopify store, offering the enterprise-grade performance needed to significantly reduce cart abandonment and increase conversions.

Ready to transform your product discovery and sales?

Stop losing customers to subpar on-site search. Install and try Boost Commerce today to start leveraging AI-driven personalization, smart filtering, and powerful merchandising to turn more visitors into loyal customers.

Trusted by fast-growing brands

Start your 21-day free trial

Get started

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. What is the biggest challenge in eCommerce product discovery for 2026?

The biggest challenge is the subpar on-site search functionality. Many traditional search solutions still struggle with NLP, fail to understand user intent, and deliver irrelevant results, especially for mobile users who expect instant, tailored results.

2. How does AI-powered search increase my eCommerce conversion rate?

AI-powered search increases conversion by ensuring relevance. It uses NLP and behavior-based ranking to understand shopper intent, correct typos, and dynamically adjust product results based on the shopper's real-time behavior and purchase history. This leads to a faster product discovery experience, reducing friction and maximizing purchase intent.

3. How is Boost’s AI search different from the standard Shopify search?

Standard Shopify search relies on exact keyword matching. If a customer misspells a word or uses a synonym you haven't manually tagged, they get zero results. AI search uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) to understand the intent behind the query, correcting typos and recognizing synonyms automatically to deliver relevant results every time.

4. Can Boost support multi-store or international setups?

Yes. Boost is built for global growth. It supports multi-store management from a single account and is fully compatible with Shopify Markets. It handles multi-language and multi-currency settings seamlessly, ensuring international customers see the correct content, pricing, and search results for their region.

5. How long does it take to implement Boost Commerce?

Implementation is fast and often takes just minutes to get started with basic features. Unlike enterprise solutions that require months of development, Boost offers an automated, plug-and-play setup that integrates instantly with your Shopify store. Merchants can typically get up and running fully in weeks, not months, without needing a developer.

Trusted by fast-growing brands

Start your 21-day free trial

Get started

Ellie Ho

•

Content Marketing Specialist

June 17, 2024

•

7 min read

There's More

A-Z Guide To Product Discovery In eCommerce Stores

21-day FREE trial to test all AI features

Start your 21-day free trial

Related Posts

Plan Your eCommerce With AI: Strategies For Online Businesses To Try

Top 5 Strategies to Harness Social Commerce for BFCM

4 Tips To Prep For Year-end Sales With Boost's Analytics