1. What the app is
Shopify Search & Discovery is developed by Shopify and listed as free in the Shopify App Store. The listing names filters, synonym groups, product boosts, related and complementary products and analytics. The search itself stays Shopify's built-in online store search: it already handles typos, different word forms and semantic matching without the app, and the Help Center says semantic understanding does not need to be turned on in the app.
What the app cannot change: according to the Help Center there is no setting that controls how broadly search matches, and you cannot change how results are ordered. You can only influence ranking through your product data and the app.
2. Filters and their limits
Filters for collections and search results are set up in the app, not in the theme. You can combine standard and custom filters, up to a maximum of 25 filters for your store.
The Help Center lists hard limits: filters and their value counts on search results are based on up to the first 1,000 results of a search, a filter displays a maximum of 100 filter values on your store, and collections that contain more than 5,000 products don't display filters. If a page exceeds these limits, customers see no filters there.
3. Product boosts and search result types
With product boosts you assign search terms to products so they rank higher for those terms. A boost can have a maximum of 10 search terms, and only products available for sale are boosted. Shopify advises boosting a single product or a small number of products per term and says it isn't necessary to boost misspellings or singular and plural forms. Boosts aren't applied when a query contains search syntax.
In the app settings you choose which result types the search results page and predictive search request (products, pages, blog posts, and for predictive search also collections and queries) and how out-of-stock products appear: displayed, hidden or placed last. By default they are displayed after all other matching results. If your theme sends its own type parameter, it overrides these settings.
- In your Shopify admin, go to Apps › Search & Discovery.
- Click Search, then Product boosts, then Create product boost.
- Select the products, add up to 10 search terms and click Save.
4. Synonyms
The App Store listing still names synonym groups, so product descriptions match the terms shoppers use. The Help Center page on modifying search (checked October 2026) only covers result types, combined listings and product boosts, and describes semantic understanding as the built-in way to match related words. Check in your own admin which options your store shows before you plan around synonyms.
5. Product recommendations
Related products are generated automatically for each product, based on products commonly bought together, similar descriptions or related collections. Complementary products are ones you select manually. Both only show if your theme has the matching sections on product pages. Complementary products need stock above 0; related products can also show when selling out of stock is switched on.
6. Search reports
The app shows click rate, purchase rate, searches by query, searches with no results and searches with no clicks, each for the last 30 days. The reports cover the search results page only; interactions with predictive search aren't included. For other date ranges, use Analytics › Reports.
The searches with no results are the most useful list: each entry is a term your customers used and your store could not answer. The app's remedy is a product boost, which needs one entry per term.
7. Hiding products from search
Hiding products isn't done in the app. Setting a product to Unlisted hides it from search results including predictive search, Shopify-powered collection pages, product recommendations, internet search and your sitemap; it stays reachable by direct URL. Alternatively the seo.hidden metafield with the value 1 hides a product, page or blog post from sitemaps, search engines and your online store search. If both are set, Unlisted takes priority.
8. When a separate search is worth a test
The app is enough if your catalogue is small and your no-results list stays short. A separate search is worth a test if you hit the filter limits, want to decide yourself how results are ordered, or keep adding boosts for terms the search should understand on its own.
Grumeria has no Shopify app. You connect it with a product feed and add the widget to your theme. The feed can come straight from your store's public product data via https://grumeria.com/api/shopify-feed?shop=your-shop.com, or from a feed app (CSV or XML). The search runs on its own servers, finds products despite typos, searches every feed field you mark as searchable and uses your own synonyms. It works without cookies, with data hosted in Frankfurt. The free feed check reads your products from the store address and shows three example searches plus your own search terms.