Configure Catalog-Level Search Refinement Definitions
Search refinement definitions determine the selections shown in the storefront search refinement list.
Search refinement definitions enable you to configure one or more
attributes (including variation attributes such as Color) to be used as
refinement options in the storefront. This bucketing feature enables you to optionally define
any number of buckets per refinement definition to group the actual refinement values.
- By Category
- Phones (2)
- Televisions (8)
- By Brand
- Brand-A (3)
- Brand-B (2)
- By Price
- $0 - $50 (3)
- $50 - $100 (3)
- $100 - $200 (1)
- By Promotion
- 25% Off Online Only (3)
- Buy 1, Get 1 Free (2)
To configure catalog-level search refinement definitions:
- Select . Click the Edit link for the category (in this example, Communication).
- On the Search Refinement Definitions tab for a category, you see the list of search refinements defined for the catalog:
- Click New to define a new search refinement for the catalog.
- Specify the name of the search refinement as it appears in the storefront list (for example, Brand).
- Specify the refinement type:
- Attribute refinement indicates that
the refinement is based on a specific product attribute (for
example, Brand appears as a list of brands).
For the Attribute ID, click the ellipsis box to show the list of product attributes from which to choose. (Custom object attributes are not included here and can't be used for refining searches.)
- Category refinement indicates that the refinement is at the category level and includes all subcategories (this shows a list of the subcategories).
- Price refinement indicates that the
refinement is at the price level (for example, you might have price
refinements buckets defined as
$0 - $50,$50 - $100, and$100 - $200. - Promotion refinement indicates that the refinement is based on specific promotions (for example, you might have a promotion going on that has certain products 25% off).
- Attribute refinement indicates that
the refinement is based on a specific product attribute (for
example, Brand appears as a list of brands).
- Specify the sorting mode, how search
refinement will be sorted in the storefront list:
- By Value Name (alphabetically)
- By Value Count (number of values found for that attribute)
- By Category Position (For category refinements only). This is the refinements' explicitly defined position within the parent category.)
- Specify the sorting direction, whether the search refinements should be listed in ascending or descending order.
- Click Apply.
- If your developer has customized the template to enable
setting the cutoff threshold, you can now enter the
Cutoff Threshold, if applicable. This is the number of refinement categories that should be listed before the rest are scrollable in the list box.The cutoff threshold depends on the type of refinement. For example, for price refinements there is no cutoff threshold, because you are bucketing all search results into custom-defined price buckets.
The new catalog refinement appears in the storefront when a category with that attribute is selected, for example, Video.
Search refinement buckets let you manage the value buckets (grouped attributes) to be used when refining searches by this attribute. The bucket display name is used as a refinement option whenever the actual product value matches one of the values that are pre-defined here as a comma-separated list.
Merchandisers can define buckets of refinement values and provide a label for each bucket, which is eventually presented when drilling down on that attribute.
For example, consider the following product
search result and the corresponding refinement values if
Color is defined as a refinement attribute:
| Product | Color | Color |
|---|---|---|
| P1 | Light Red | + Light Red (1) |
| P2 | Lipstick Red | + Lipstick Red (1) |
| P3 | Dark Red | + Dark Red (1) |
| P4 | Dark Blue | + Dark Blue |
| P5 | Navy Blue | + Navy Blue |
The number of product options can easily become overwhelming for a user. Customers typically search for basic colors, such as red, green, or blue. The merchandiser should limit the refinement options to more general values (that is, the main colors). With this definition in place, the color drill-down links for the same product search result reads as follows:
| Bucket | Values | Color |
|---|---|---|
| Red | Light Red, Lipstick Red, Dark Red | + Red (3) |
| Blue | Dark Blue, Navy Blue | + Blue (2) |
Testing Tips
If you use bucketing and the value list changes, or you have updated the catalog, remember to rebuild the index, and view the buckets to ensure that all changes have been made correctly. Repeat this after every catalog update.
Localization
If you want to use localized bucket labels, supply a localized label for the bucket values for attribute refinements.
- Define the refinement.
Field Value Name Color Refinement Type Attribute Refinement Attribute ID A00373 Sorting Mode Sort By Value Count Sorting Direction Ascending Cutoff Threshold 5 -
Define the bucket values:
Bucketed Values Bucket Display Red Fire Engine Red Blue Sky Blue
Then make sure to rebuild the product index. When a customer searches on Fire Engine Red, the bucket values appear:
- By Category
- Phones (2)
- Televisions (8)
- By Brand
- Brand-A (3)
- Brand-B (2)
- By Price
- $0 - $50 (3)
- $50 - $100 (3)
- $100 - $200 (1)
- By Color
- Silver (3)
- Sky Blue (4)
- Shiny Red (1)
- Fire Engine Red (6)
If the attribute used for the refinement is defined as localizable, the values provided in the bucket value list are as well. For localized refinement attributes, one value list must be supported per active locale (for example, Red = Dark Red and Rot = Dunkelrot). If the attribute used for refinement is non-localized, only one bucket value list is necessary.
Category Refinement Sorting Modes Example
The following example shows the results of the three sorting modes using category refinement.
Assume that the storefront catalog, with sorted subcategories is as follows:
| Women's Apparel |
| Men's Apparel |
| Children's Apparel |
The customer searches for shoes.
| If the category refinement is... | Then the sorted order is... | The hit count is... |
|---|---|---|
| Sorted by Value Name (alphabetical) | Children's apparel | (56) |
| Men's apparel | (12) | |
| Women's apparel | (235) | |
| Sorted by Value Count | Women's apparel | (235) |
| Children's apparel | (56) | |
| Men's apparel | (12) | |
| Sorted by Category Position Same as the Storefront Catalog positions | Women's apparel | (235) |
| Men's apparel | (12) | |
| Children's apparel | (56) |
Price Refinements
Bucket definitions for price refinements capture the following information:
- The currency code of the price bucket.
- One localized bucket label per active locale.
- Price threshold of the bucket.
The localized bucket label can be used to
render the price range independently of the actual numerical bounds (for
example, Inexpensive as the label for price bucket <=
$10).
Promotion Refinements
This promotion refinement type is managed as part of the configuration of a category. Promotion refinements do not have explicitly managed buckets or values like price refinements do, and instead have values which are active at query time in the storefront.
At query time, when the promotion refinement values are returned, the values consist of all promotion IDs which are:
- active for the current customer (that is, returned by PromotionMgr.getActiveCustomerPromotions())
- marked as refineable
- marked as searchable
- relevant for at least one product hit of the unrefined search results