Does RecoMelon replace Shopify search or enhance it?

RecoMelon can enhance or extend Shopify search

RecoMelon does not require every merchant to replace Shopify search. The right approach depends on the storefront, catalogue and discovery strategy.

When Shopify search remains the primary search

A merchant can retain its existing search experience and use RecoMelon elsewhere to improve visual discovery, including Shop Similar, Reveal™, collections, LiveGrid™ and PDP recommendations.

When The Index™ takes a stronger role

The Index™ is RecoMelon's conversational search and dynamic merchandising layer. It is designed for queries that express style, colour, attributes, occasion and context rather than relying only on exact keywords.

The Index™ can combine

• Natural-language shopping queries.
• VisualDNA™ product understanding.
• Catalogue and commercial merchandising priorities.
• Inline Shop Similar from individual results.
• LiveGrid™ UGC and video within discovery.

Search versus Shop Similar

Search starts from words or a shopper request. Shop Similar starts from a product. The Index™ can connect both behaviours by allowing a shopper to search broadly and then branch into visual alternatives from an interesting result.

SEO considerations

Search functionality itself should not be confused with indexable catalogue architecture. Important collection and product pages should retain stable URLs, crawlable links and meaningful metadata regardless of which on-site search experience shoppers use.