Quick search and suggestions
Quick search is the experience that appears while a shopper types in the store’s search input. It helps the shopper reach a useful product or search page before submitting a full search.
Before typing, quick search can provide immediate paths into the catalog.
While typing, the overlay updates products and collection suggestions together.
What quick search does
Section titled “What quick search does”Quick search can return several kinds of content in one interaction:
- Product cards.
- Matching collections.
- Suggested search phrases.
- Pinned and popular searches.
- Matching articles.
- Matching store pages.
- Links to the full search page.
- Discovery actions such as Find similar, save to Your Vibe, and image search when those features are available.
The exact layout depends on the quick-search mode and the enabled discovery settings.
Why use it
Section titled “Why use it”Use quick search to:
- Reduce the number of steps from query to product.
- Help shoppers complete a partial query.
- Show important searches before enough traffic exists to make them popular.
- Surface collections, editorial content, or information pages next to products.
- Give uncertain shoppers a route into Explore.
Quick search is not a replacement for the full search page. It is the fast first layer. The full page is better for large result sets, filters, sorting, collections, and a shareable URL.
Choose a quick-search mode
Section titled “Choose a quick-search mode”Open VIBE admin > Appearance > Quick search.
VIBE’s search box
Section titled “VIBE’s search box”VIBE opens its own overlay and uses VIBE product cards.
Choose this when:
- You want the complete VIBE search, Explore, Your Vibe, and visual-discovery interface.
- Theme analysis cannot safely reproduce the theme’s cards.
- You want VIBE’s style controls to apply consistently.
Expected result: opening the theme’s search entry point shows the VIBE overlay. Product cards use the VIBE design.
VIBE’s search box with your theme’s cards
Section titled “VIBE’s search box with your theme’s cards”VIBE opens its overlay but fills the product areas with cards based on the analyzed theme.
Choose this when:
- You want VIBE’s complete interface.
- You need product cards to remain close to the theme’s native design.
- Appearance > Installation reports that the theme-card setup is ready.
Expected result: the overlay layout belongs to VIBE while product cards follow the analyzed theme.
If the Appearance page says the cards are not ready, use VIBE cards until a successful theme analysis and verification is available.
For the complete distinction between interface ownership, card ownership, readiness, and fallback behavior, see Product cards and search surfaces.
Your theme’s search box
Section titled “Your theme’s search box”VIBE works through the theme’s existing predictive-search surface.
Choose this when:
- Preserving the theme’s predictive-search interaction is more important than showing every VIBE surface in the overlay.
- The theme’s search input and result container were detected successfully.
Expected result: the shopper uses the theme’s search interface while the VIBE integration supplies or replaces search results according to the analyzed theme contract.
The theme controls the presentation in this mode. VIBE-specific overlay tabs and the VIBE image-search button are not added to a native theme search bar.
Configure suggestions and discovery
Section titled “Configure suggestions and discovery”On Appearance > Quick search, review the Suggestions and discovery settings.
Suggested terms
Section titled “Suggested terms”Suggested terms help a shopper finish a partial phrase or choose a related query.
Use them when shoppers may know the category but not the exact product name. Turn them off only when the store has a highly constrained catalog and every query should go directly to products.
Pinned searches
Section titled “Pinned searches”Pinned searches are phrases you choose. They appear before automatically generated popular terms.
Use them for:
- A new collection that has not collected search traffic yet.
- A seasonal phrase.
- A product category that shoppers should notice.
- A store-specific term that differs from common language.
To add them:
- Select Add pinned search.
- Enter the shopper-facing phrase.
- Add up to four phrases.
- Drag them into the intended order.
- Save.
Blank entries are not saved.
Popular searches
Section titled “Popular searches”Popular searches are based on storefront search activity. They become more useful after the store has real traffic.
Use pinned searches for deliberate promotion. Use popular searches to reflect actual shopper demand. Both can be enabled at the same time.
Articles and pages
Section titled “Articles and pages”Enable articles when editorial content helps answer product questions, such as a buying guide. Enable pages when shoppers commonly look for information such as sizing, delivery, returns, or store locations.
These results do not change product ranking. They provide a direct route to matching non-product content.
Result limits
Section titled “Result limits”Set the number of product, collection, and suggestion items shown in the quick experience. Keep the list short enough to scan. The full search page handles the larger result set.
What the shopper sees
Section titled “What the shopper sees”Before typing
Section titled “Before typing”Depending on the enabled settings, the initial state can contain recommended products, selected collections, pinned searches, and popular searches.
This state is useful for shoppers who open search without a query.
While typing
Section titled “While typing”VIBE waits briefly while the shopper types, then updates products, collections, suggestions, and enabled content groups. This avoids sending a new request for every keystroke.
The shopper can:
- Continue typing.
- Select a suggested phrase.
- Open a product or collection.
- Open a matching article or page.
- Use the keyboard to move through interactive items.
- Submit the query to the full results page.
- Clear the query.
- Close the overlay with its close control or the Escape key.
After selecting a product
Section titled “After selecting a product”The product link opens the product page. VIBE records the result click for Analytics when tracking is available.
On eligible plans, product cards can also show:
- Similar, which opens visually related results.
- A star or save action, which adds the product to Your Vibe in that browser.
Plan availability
Section titled “Plan availability”- Semantic search and autocomplete are included on every active plan.
- Explore in search, Find similar, and Tastes require Growth or higher.
- Image search requires Pro or Enterprise.
- Exact variant matching requires Pro or Enterprise and must be enabled in the active search profile.
- Full widget styling and multilingual storefront search require Growth or higher.
Always check Plan and Billing in the app for the current store’s plan and access.
Test quick search
Section titled “Test quick search”Use a repeatable set of queries:
- Exact product: a full product title.
- Partial product: the first few letters of a known title.
- Category: a common product type.
- Intent: a phrase such as “gift for a new apartment.”
- Misspelling: a realistic typo.
- Content: an article or page phrase if those groups are enabled.
- No result: an unrelated phrase to confirm the empty state is understandable.
For each query, verify:
- The search interface opens from every header search entry point.
- The result groups match the enabled settings.
- Product images, titles, prices, and links are correct.
- The full-results link keeps the query.
- Keyboard, close, and clear actions work.
- The layout works on mobile.
Troubleshooting
Section titled “Troubleshooting”The old theme search still opens
Section titled “The old theme search still opens”- Open Appearance > Installation.
- Confirm the VIBE Search app embed is on for the published theme.
- Save the Theme Editor.
- Confirm the selected quick-search mode.
- Hard refresh the storefront.
If the theme has more than one search trigger, test all of them. A custom header can use a different input or open action from the one VIBE detected.
The theme’s cards are missing or malformed
Section titled “The theme’s cards are missing or malformed”Switch temporarily to VIBE’s search box with VIBE cards. Then re-check the theme from Appearance > Installation. Theme-card mode should be used only when the current analyzed theme reports it is ready.
Suggestions appear but products do not
Section titled “Suggestions appear but products do not”Check:
- The product is active and available to the current sales channel.
- A sync has completed.
- The product is not hidden by product, collection, or tag.
- The out-of-stock setting does not hide it.
- The query returns the product in Search Preview.
Articles or pages do not appear
Section titled “Articles or pages do not appear”Confirm that the related discovery switch is on and that Shopify content contains terms matching the query. Product results and content results are separate groups.
The camera button is missing
Section titled “The camera button is missing”Image search requires:
- Pro or Enterprise.
- Images enabled and indexed in the active search profile.
- Search by image enabled.
- A VIBE-owned quick-search bar.
The camera is not inserted into the theme’s native quick-search bar.
Search works in preview but not in the storefront
Section titled “Search works in preview but not in the storefront”Search Preview tests relevance without the theme integration. If preview works, inspect the app embed, theme analysis, quick-search mode, storefront language, and browser console. Include the exact storefront URL when contacting support.