Facets are an essential tool to strategically narrow down search results for shoppers searching for their intended products. For a single query, the Product Listing Page (PLP) might display an overwhelming number of products. By using product attributes as facets, you can effectively refine and narrow down the listing, enhancing the shopping experience.

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Advantages of using Facets

  1. Increases product discoverability

    Imagine scrolling through hundreds of products, navigating page after page, only to feel exhausted and frustrated. This is the typical experience of users who cannot quickly find the products they are looking for. Faceted navigation addresses this issue in multiple ways:

    • Streamlines the search process.
    • Provides targeted filters to reduce unnecessary scrolling.

  2. Fewer clicks to the desired product

    Faceted search minimizes the effort required to find specific products:

    • Helps users skip the tiresome task of endless scrolling or browsing through multiple pages.
    • Users can find the desired product in just a few clicks.
    • Provides an intuitive way for users to navigate back and forth between different product options with ease.

  3. Higher conversion rate

    By simplifying the path to the desired product:

    • Users can reach their products of interest more quickly.
    • Reduces decision fatigue, enabling users to make purchase decisions faster.
    • Facilitates a smoother shopping journey, leading to higher likelihood of completing a purchase.

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Types of Facet merchandising available

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All queries

  • Applied universally across all search queries and shopper segments on the site.
  • Only one “All Queries” rule can exist per site.
  • Influences the facets displayed for all shopper searches by default.
  • Automatically generated when the site is initially set up.

Example for the “All Queries” Rule: For an ecommerce site selling a wide range of products, you can define an “All Queries” rule to include facets like:

  • Price: Allows filtering by price range across all product categories.
  • Brand: Displays a list of brands regardless of the search query.
  • Customer Ratings: Enables filtering by user ratings for all searches.

These facets ensure shoppers always have the essential filtering options available, irrespective of their search query. For instance, a search for “laptops” or “sneakers” would still show facets like Price, Brand, and Customer Ratings.

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Field-based Facets

Field-based facets dynamically adapt to the search results. These facets appear on the search results page only when 80% or more of the products match the specific attribute-value conditions you’ve defined.

  • Field-based facet rules apply universally to all search queries. Unlike query-driven rules, they are determined by the characteristics of the search results rather than the query itself.
  • Query-specific facet rules take precedence over the “All Queries” rule, ensuring tailored results for specific searches.
  • All campaigns run indefinitely. To prevent a facet rule from being applied, you must delete the rule.

Example:

Imagine you’ve created a campaign called “Sneakers” with a facet condition for the attribute “Type” set to the value “Sneakers.” Within this campaign, you’ve defined the facet items to be activity type, material, and style.

Now, when a shopper enters any query, if 80% or more of the search results are products categorized as “Sneakers,” the system will replace the default facets with the merchandised ones like activity type, material, and style. This new configuration will override the preexisting facets, including those defined under the All Queries rule, ensuring a more relevant and streamlined browsing experience for shoppers.

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How to edit and publish the All queries rule?

1

Locate the All queries rule

  1. Login to Netcore Unbxd’s self-serve console ↗
  2. From the Site Key Picker, click the site you want to apply a merchandising strategy.
  3. After selecting the appropriate site key, navigate to Merchandising.
  4. Hover over Search and click Facets.
  5. On the Facets Overview page, the All queries rule is listed as the first item by default and is initially set to draft mode.
2

Edit the All queries rule

  1. Click the Edit icon in the top-right corner of the rule. The targeted query cannot be changed.
  2. Under the Add/Configure Facets section, click the Edit icon. A window displaying all available facetable fields will appear.
  3. In the Status section, use the toggle switch to show or not to show any specific fields.
  4. Adjust the properties of each field as needed by clicking the edit icon of the respective field.
    • Display Name: Specify the name to be shown as the facet’s title.
    • Facet Length: Set the maximum number of values to display for the facet field.
    • Sort Order: Determine the order in which the facet field values will appear.
  5. After making the desired changes, click Ok and then Apply Changes.
  6. Once satisfied with the configuration, click Publish Rule to make the changes live.

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How to create a field-based facet rule?

1

Configure the fields

You can merchandise facets for up to 5 fields of your choice. To configure the fields:

  1. Go to the Facets Overview page and click the More Options button.
  2. Select Field Settings from the drop-down.
  3. Search for the attributes you want to merchandise and choose up to 5 fields.
  4. Once selected, click Apply.

You’re now ready to set up your facet campaign based on fields.

2

Set up the campaign

  1. On the Facets Overview page, click New Facets.
  2. You’ll be directed to the Add Facets interface.
  3. From the drop-down menu, select the attribute you want to base the condition on. The options will match the attributes configured in Field Settings.
    1. If no options appear, navigate to Field Settings and configure the fields.
  4. After selecting the attribute, specify the value you want to use as the condition.
  5. Once finalized, click Next.
3

Configure the facets

  1. Click + Add Facets. A window displaying all available facetable fields will appear.
  2. In the Status section, use the toggle switch to show or not to show any specific fields.
  3. Adjust the properties of each field as needed by clicking the edit icon of the respective field.
    1. Display Name: Specify the name to be shown as the facet’s title.
    2. Facet Length: Set the maximum number of values to display for the facet field.
    3. Sort Order: Determine the order in which the facet field values will appear.
  4. After making the desired changes, click Ok and then Apply Changes.
4

Save or publish the facets rule

After configuring the attributes to display, you can do one of the following.

  1. Click the Save button to retain the Campaign as a draft.
  2. Click the Publish rule button to push it live.

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What can you do with the Facets overview page?

  1. View a comprehensive list of all campaigns
  2. Configure field settings
  3. Edit existing campaigns
  4. Publish draft campaigns to the live site
  5. Stop active campaigns
  6. Bulk upload facets
  7. Bulk download existing Facet rules