Klevu alternative for Shopify search and discovery
Klevu is AI search that learns from shoppers over time, now part of Athos Commerce. RecoMelon is enterprise visual discovery for large Shopify catalogues - before and after the purchase - that goes live within hours, configured remotely by our team, so you can see it side by side with your current setup before you commit.
Search that understands what shoppers mean. Conversational and contextual search interprets style, colour, attributes and intent. Dynamic merchandising balances commercial and catalogue priorities, while inline Shop Similar and integrated LiveGrid™ UGC keep shoppers discovering without returning to a static results grid.
Shop Similar, directly from the product image. When a product is "almost right", Reveal™ offers visually aligned alternatives from within the primary product image, above the fold. Shoppers stay on the PDP and keep their intent while finding an alternative without the attribute stopping the purchase.
Turn “almost right” into another relevant option. Shop Similar keeps high-intent shoppers exploring with visually matched alternatives based on the product they are already considering - helping them refine their choice without starting their search again.
Turn one product into a complete look. Complementary recommendations create multiple looks around a chosen product, with configurable discounts and multi-buy offers to increase AOV. Bundle Rescue swaps unavailable or unsuitable items for visually similar alternatives without breaking the set. Integrated LiveGrid™ content helps shoppers visualise the combination.
Abandoned Cart Email Rescue. Sending shoppers back to rejected products repeats the problem. SecondLook™ restores the abandoned basket and offers visually matched alternatives for each item - helping shoppers find a better fit while preserving basket intent and cross-sell opportunities.
The discovery problem
Klevu improves as it learns from shopper behaviour. On a visual catalogue, the shopper on the product page today needs something else: a route from this product to one with the right neckline, shade or finish.
Without visual matching, new arrivals sit unseen, bundles break when one item sells out, and abandoned carts and retired URLs end the journey instead of redirecting it.
Fit and implementation
Reveal™ and Shop Similar can support PDP alternatives, while Bundles™ addresses complementary choices. The Index™ and Smart Collections can be assessed separately if search or category discovery is part of the brief.
Define which platform owns each placement and review catalogue inputs, market rules and measurement with the storefront team.
Keep the current Klevu surfaces outside the test intact. No native Klevu connector is assumed.
Why enterprise teams choose RecoMelon
Built for large catalogues - up to 2 million SKUs on Enterprise - with the same engine on Starter and Growth for smaller merchants. RecoMelon covers all eight shopper-journey moments natively; Klevu's official materials document none of the eight. VisualDNA™ matches on cut, silhouette, colour, print and structure, and explains each match.
Enterprise teams we speak to typically plan 6 weeks to 3 months to take a discovery platform live. RecoMelon installs from the Shopify App Store and our team configures it remotely - hands-free for your developers and merchandisers - so it goes live within hours. Klevu is also self-serve to install through app embeds and blocks.
Brand Kit™ carries your typography, colours, buttons and spacing across every RecoMelon surface, and ThemeFlex™ fits Shopify 2.0 blocks and custom themes without a rebuild. Klevu uses theme app embeds and blocks.
ColdStart™ and IntentWeave™ give new and long-tail products matches and attributes from their images as soon as they are published, with no sales history or manual tagging. Klevu describes learning from shoppers over time and makes no cold-start claim.
Then prove it side by side. Run RecoMelon next to Klevu on the same product pages or categories, measure against your current baseline, and let the results make the case.
RecoMelon is enterprise visual discovery for large Shopify catalogues, live within hours and also available to smaller merchants. It covers all eight shopper-journey moments in the table below natively - before the purchase and around the basket. Klevu's official materials document none of the eight natively and make no image-analysis claim for similar products. RecoMelon reads cut, colour, pattern and finish from product images, so visual catalogues get relevant matches without waiting for behaviour data.
| Capability | | Klevu |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Enterprise visual discovery for large Shopify catalogues, before and after the purchase - also available to smaller merchants | AI search and merchandising, now part of Athos Commerce |
| Before the purchase: discovery and decision | ||
| Conversational and contextual search | Yes - The Index™ reads natural-language requests ("a neutral summer dress with sleeves") against what products look like, with inline Shop Similar | Partial - natural-language search; chat assistant in beta |
| Visually similar alternatives on the product page | Yes - Shop Similar gallery and Reveal™ on the main product image, matched by VisualDNA™ on cut, colour, pattern and finish | Not listed - pattern-based similar products, no image analysis claimed |
| Shopper refinement inside recommendations | Yes - Dealbreaker™ Filters let shoppers rule out a sleeve, neckline, fit or colour in the panel | Not listed |
| Shoppable UGC and video | Yes - LiveGrid™ links UGC and video to exact products and visual alternatives | Not listed |
| Around the basket and after: order value and recovery | ||
| Create the look bundles and multi-buy | Yes - Bundles™ builds several complementary looks around one product, with multi-buy and discount strategies | Partial - bought-together recommendations |
| Bundle Rescue | Yes - swaps an unavailable or unsuitable item for a visual match without breaking the set | Not listed |
| Abandoned-cart email alternatives | Yes - SecondLook™ restores the basket and adds visually matched alternatives per item | Not listed |
| 404 and unavailable product recovery | Yes - RescueGrid™ turns dead product URLs into visually similar, in-stock alternatives | Not listed |
| Enterprise deployment | ||
| New products on day one | Yes - ColdStart™ and IntentWeave™ build matches and attributes from product imagery, with no sales history or manual tagging | Not listed - learns from shoppers over time |
| Time to go live on Shopify | Within hours: Shopify App Store install, then configured remotely by the RecoMelon team - no tagging project or developer sprint | Self-serve app embed and blocks |
| Design fit with your theme | Brand Kit™, ThemeFlex™ and LayoutLab match your typography, colours and layouts without a rebuild | Theme app embed and blocks |
| Pricing and trial | Public: Starter $179/mo, Growth $349/mo, Enterprise custom - $1 per day for 30 days | Not public; tiers via Athos Commerce |
Klevu is a reasonable fit if your catalogue is mostly text-defined - parts, specifications, model numbers - and search learning over time is enough. RecoMelon is the better fit if shoppers choose on looks, if new collections drop often, or if bundles, carts and retired URLs are leaking sales.
Proof at enterprise scale: Across a 230,000-SKU home décor catalogue, DecoratorsBest reported about 5× more recommendation clicks and 4× more recommendation-influenced orders between 16 March and 15 April 2026. Read the case study.
Proof on the product page: Pretty Lavish raised average order value on recommendation-influenced orders from £126.75 to £159.18 (+25.6%) after adding Shop Similar galleries and Dealbreaker™ Filters. Read the case study.
Hours, not months. Install from the Shopify App Store and our team configures placements, styling and merchandising remotely - no catalogue tagging project and no developer sprint. Enterprise teams we speak to typically plan 6 weeks to 3 months for a discovery platform.
Yes - that is how we recommend starting. RecoMelon runs next to Klevu on the same product pages or categories, measured against your current baseline, so the results make the case before anything else changes.
No. Keep Klevu in the search bar and add RecoMelon on product pages, bundles and recovery surfaces.
Klevu now sits within Athos Commerce alongside Searchspring. Check with Athos which new AI features reach the Klevu product.
Sources: Klevu recommendation engine, Klevu Shopify app, Athos Commerce announcement, RecoMelon pricing. Checked 24 Oct 2026.
Our team configures RecoMelon remotely and it goes live within hours - no developer sprint, no catalogue project. Run it next to your current setup on the same product pages and let the results make the case.
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