Merchandising rules

Merchandising rules modify VIBE’s relevance ranking. A rule can boost, bury, or pin products, add synonyms, or redirect a query.

Manage rules under Merchandising.

1Define goalState the query, business outcome, and success signal.

2Choose typeBoost, bury, pin, redirect, synonym, or behavioral ranking.

3ConfigureSet trigger, target, strength or position, timing, and priority.

4PreviewTest the exact trigger and check interactions with other rules.

5Publish and measureVerify storefront behavior and monitor the intended metric.

What each rule type does, and when to use it

Choose the rule type that matches the required change.

Boost pushes chosen products or product groups higher for matching searches. Use it to put new arrivals, high-margin items, in-season stock, or a promoted brand near the top of the results shoppers already see.

Bury pushes chosen products or product groups lower without hiding them. Use it for end-of-line, low-stock, out-of-season, or low-margin products you still want available but not front and center.

Pin locks one product to a fixed position for a search. Use it when a specific product must always hold a set slot for a key query, for example pinning your hero product to the top of “gift”.

Synonym treats different words as the same search, so “sneakers” and “trainers” return the same products. Use it for regional wording, brand nicknames, abbreviations, and common misspellings, so shoppers find products whichever word they use.

Redirect sends a search straight to a page instead of showing results. Use it for searches that are really navigation, for example sending “sale”, “shipping”, or “size guide” to the right page.

Boost, Bury, and Pin are available on every plan. Redirect and Synonym require Growth or higher. Boosting a specific variant requires Pro. Check Plan and billing for the current plan.

The rules list

The Merchandising rules page, showing the rules table, filter tabs, and the impact panels below.

The table lists every rule you have created. Each row shows:

Priority, the order a rule applies in when several rules match the same search. Higher priority applies first.
Rule name and the trigger it was built from.
Type, shown as a colored tag (Boost, Bury, Pin, Redirect, or Synonym).
Trigger, the search the rule responds to.
Action, a plain description of what the rule does.
Searches affected, how many searches the rule changed, with the share of total searches.
Orders and Revenue influenced, the sales tied to the rule.
Status, an on or off switch.
Last edited, and the row Actions (edit and delete).

Above the table you can:

Filter by type with the All rules, Boost, Behavioral, Bury, Pin, Redirect, and Synonym tabs. Each tab shows a count.
Search rules by name or trigger.
Sort with the Priority (high to low) control.

Create a rule

Select Create rule in the top right. A three-step wizard opens.

Step 1. Choose what the rule does.

Step 1 of the Create rule wizard, choosing the rule type.

Pick one of the types available for the current plan and search profile. The wizard groups them into Reorder results (Boost, Behavioral, Bury, Pin) and Change search behavior (Synonym, Redirect). Behavioral ranking requires Growth or higher. Variant boosting appears under Boost on Pro and Enterprise when variant embeddings are enabled. This example uses Boost products. Select Next.

Step 2. Set the trigger and what to act on.

Step 2, the empty configuration for a Boost rule.

When shopper intent is close to is the trigger. Type the search you want the rule to respond to. VIBE matches the exact words and related shopper intent, even when a shopper phrases the search differently. Leave it blank to apply the rule to every search.
What to boost is the group of products the rule acts on. Choose Product, Collection, Tag, or Type, then select the specific products, collection, tags, or types.
How strong sets how far matching products move: Low, Medium, or High.

In this example, the trigger is “casual summer”, the target type is Tag, the selected tag is collection-dresses, and the strength is Medium.

Step 2 filled in with trigger casual summer, the collection-dresses tag, and Medium influence.

Select Next.

Step 3. Set the timing and priority.

Timing is Always on on every plan. Pro and Enterprise can choose Scheduled campaign, which runs the rule only between a start and end date.
Priority is Low, Medium, or High. When several rules match the same search, higher priority applies first.

Select Next to create the rule. Active rules apply to live search immediately.

How the other types differ in Step 2

Step 1 and Step 3 are the same for every type. Step 2 changes to fit the action:

Bury matches Boost, but the strength setting lowers products instead of lifting them.
Behavioral ranking reorders close matches using shopper behavior for that search.
Pin asks for the one product to lock and the position to hold it in.
Synonym asks for the words to treat as equal.
Redirect asks for the search to catch and the page to send it to.

Choosing what to act on

For Boost and Bury, Step 2 asks what the rule applies to. You have four ways to pick the products, and they suit different needs:

Product acts on specific products you choose by hand. Use it for a small, exact set, for example boosting three hero products.
Collection acts on every product in the collections you select. Use it to lift or lower a whole merchandised group at once, for example boosting your “New in” collection. Products added to the collection later are covered automatically.
Tag acts on every product carrying the selected tags. Use it for groups that cut across collections, for example “vegan”, “waterproof”, or “casual”.
Type acts on every product of the product types you select. Use it for broad category moves, for example burying “Accessories” for a clothing search.

Collection, Tag, and Type rules follow catalog changes. Product rules apply only to the selected products.

You also set how the rule matches the search:

Type a phrase in the trigger to apply the rule to that search and to closely related shopper intent. Leave it blank to apply the rule to every search.
The strength control (Low, Medium, High) decides how far matching products move.

Edit a rule

Select the edit icon in a rule’s Actions column. The same three-step wizard opens, titled Edit rule, with your current settings filled in. Change any step and save.

Turn a rule on or off

Use the Status switch on a rule’s row. Off keeps the rule and its settings but stops it from affecting search. Turn it back on at any time.

Set priority and reorder

Priority decides which rule wins when more than one matches a search. Set it in Step 3 when you create or edit a rule, or drag a row by its handle on the left to reorder rules directly in the list.

Delete a rule

Select the delete icon in a rule’s Actions column. There is no confirmation step. Deleting cannot be undone, so turn a rule off if you only want to pause it.

Import rules in bulk

To add many rules at once, select Import and choose a CSV or JSON file. Select Example CSV first to download vibe-rules-example.csv, a ready-made file you can edit and upload back without reformatting.

The template has five columns and one row per rule. This is its exact content, with one example of each rule type:

ruleType,triggerQuery,target,priority,active
boost,summer hat,"{""targetScope"":""collections"",""collections"":[""Summer""],""boostFactor"":2}",5,true
boost,wedding guest outfit,"{""productIds"":[""2222222222""],""boostFactor"":1.5,""triggerMode"":""semantic"",""startsAt"":""2026-06-01"",""endsAt"":""2026-06-30""}",5,true
bury,clearance,"{""targetScope"":""tags"",""tags"":[""clearance""],""buryFactor"":0.3}",10,true
pin,bestsellers,"{""productId"":""1111111111"",""position"":1}",1,true
redirect,sale,"{""url"":""/collections/sale""}",1,true
synonym,bag,"{""terms"":[""bag"",""purse"",""handbag""]}",5,true

Reading the columns:

ruleType is boost, bury, pin, redirect, or synonym.
triggerQuery is the search the rule responds to.
target is a JSON object describing what the rule acts on. It changes by type:
- Boost or bury: a targetScope with collections, tags, vendors, or productTypes, or a list of productIds, plus a boostFactor or buryFactor. Add triggerMode: "semantic" to match by intent rather than exact words, and startsAt and endsAt to schedule a campaign window.
- Pin: the productId and the position to lock it to.
- Redirect: the url to send the search to.
- Synonym: the terms to treat as equal.
priority is a number. Higher applies first.
active is true or false.

The double quotes inside the target column are how CSV escapes quotes inside a field, so leave them as they are. The importer accepts only rule types supported by the current plan. Use import for large sets of synonyms or boosts.

Understanding the metrics

The Merchandising page reports how your rules perform. Every metric is measured over the period set by the date control on the Impact on search results card (for example, 30 days), compared with the period before it.

The metric columns in the table

Searches affected is how many searches the rule changed in the period, with the share of all searches shown below it. A search is affected when the rule fired on it.
Orders is the number of orders from shoppers whose search this rule changed.
Revenue influenced is the revenue from those orders. This is influence, not split credit: when several rules fire on the same search, each rule is credited the full amount, so figures across rules can overlap. Read it as how much revenue each rule touched, not a division of sales.

Impact on search results

This card is the funnel for the searches your rules changed:

Results changed by rules is the share of all searches that at least one rule changed, shown against the previous period. It tells you how much of search your rules are shaping.
Views is how many products shoppers viewed in sessions where a rule fired.
Add to cart is how many of those shoppers added to cart, shown as a share of views.
Orders is how many of those sessions ended in an order, shown as a share of carts.
Most used rule is the rule that changed the most searches, with its share.

The small sparklines show the day-by-day trend for each metric across the period.

Summary of rules

Active saved rules is how many saved rules are switched on, out of how many you have created.
Saved rules used is the plan-wide capacity count. Inactive saved rules still count because they are stored and can be switched back on.
The tiles below break active rules down by type: how many Boost, Bury, Pin, and Redirect rules are active, plus how many saved rules exist in that type.

Compare rule use with attributed orders and revenue. Consider changing or disabling a frequently triggered rule that has no attributed outcomes.

Recipes

Boost new arrivals when shoppers search “summer”.

Tag your new summer products with a shared tag in Shopify, for example summer-new.
Select Create rule and choose Boost products.
In Step 2, set the trigger to “summer”, choose Tag, and select summer-new. Set the strength to Medium or High.
In Step 3, choose Always on. On Pro and Enterprise, you can use a Scheduled campaign for the season. Set a priority and save.

Shoppers searching “summer” now see your new arrivals near the top.

Send “sale” straight to your sale page.

Select Create rule and choose Redirect a search (Growth and above).
Set the trigger to “sale”.
Set the destination to your sale collection, for example /collections/sale, and save.

Now a search for “sale” takes shoppers to the page instead of a results list.

Treat “sneakers” and “trainers” as the same search.

Select Create rule and choose Add a synonym (Growth and above).
Enter the words to treat as equal: sneakers and trainers, and save.

Shoppers find the same products whichever word they use. The same pattern fixes common misspellings and regional wording.

Troubleshooting

My rule is not changing results. Check that the rule is active, the trigger matches the test query, its priority is correct, and a full sync has run after target changes. Confirm the result in Search Preview.

Why can’t I create a Redirect or Synonym rule? Redirect and Synonym require Growth or higher. Boosting a specific variant requires Pro. See Plan and billing.

Why is Scheduled campaign disabled? Scheduling requires Pro or Enterprise. On Starter and Growth, keep the rule set to Always on and turn it off manually when the campaign ends.

Why is Behavioral ranking missing? Behavioral ranking requires Growth or higher. It also needs enough shopper behavior before it can meaningfully reorder close matches.

What happens if two rules match the same search? Both apply, in priority order, with the higher-priority rule applied first. Use the Priority setting, or drag rules in the list, to decide which wins.