Nobi’s Search Mode

While Nobi can handle any type of conversational interaction, search is at the heart of what makes Nobi powerful. Most customers start by replacing their existing search bar with Nobi after running an A/B test with us and seeing Nobi outperform their existing search engine. Search Mode now supports consolidated search, so a visitor can find matching products, relevant website pages, or both from the same search experience.

Why Search Matters

Search is often the highest-intent action on an ecommerce site. Customers who use search know what they want and are ready to buy. But traditional keyword search has limitations:

Customers must use exact terminology that matches your product data
Typos and synonyms return poor or zero results
Long-tail queries like "waterproof hiking boots for wide feet" often fail
Customers can't refine results conversationally

Poor search experiences lead to frustrated customers and lost sales. Nobi solves this.

How Nobi's Search Mode Works

Nobi’s search mode in action - results are shown with no speedup in real time

Search mode: faster results

When a customer sends a short, search-like message from Nobi’s search bar launch component, Nobi automatically activates Search Mode. This specialized mode:

Sends the query directly to our search server
Uses retrieval across products and indexed website pages to find the most relevant results
Returns results in sub-second response times
Delivers accuracy that typically outperforms traditional search by significant margins

Search Mode is optimized for speed and precision. It uses the query intent and ranking signals to decide whether products, pages, or both should be shown first, so customers get immediate results without waiting for a full conversational response.

When using our Search Bar, customers will also get typeahead products and queries, which usually result in the highest conversion rates of any engagement type.

When it activates

Nobi’s search mode activates in the following cases:

A site visitor types in a query into Nobi’s search bar launch component
The search bar is has the use-search-mode-at-launch attribute either not set or set to true
The query has fewer than 5 words and no punctuation marks

What fields are taken into account when a user searches?

By default, Nobi takes into account all public product attributes, fields, and metadata that it has access to from the product catalog. For example, if you’re on Shopify, Nobi can take into account all product tags, title, description, etc. If you’ve installed Nobi using the advanced custom app method (see our installation instructions for more details), Nobi can also take into account admin metadata provided on a product or variant.
Nobi also standardizes certain fields, like normalizing a color name (i.e. Cherry → Red) to match how users tend to search.
If you’d like, we can also work with your team to enable additional fields or configurations for search results.

What you can search by

Standard searches: the same keyword-based searches that visitors use today, but with smarter and more relevant results from semantic search across enabled products and pages
SKUs: your team and your visitors can search for full or partial SKUs and Nobi will return the matching item. If no results are found, Nobi will expand its search to find the closest matching items in your whole catalog.
Website pages: visitors can search for policies, guides, support pages, landing pages, financing pages, and other indexed content on your site

ℹ️ Product availability in Nobi
Nobi can only search products that are available in your public catalog. If you’re on Shopify and you have unpublished products, or products that are not published to your online sales channel, they won’t show up in Nobi’s results.

Natural language follow-ups and filtering

Search Mode only activates for the first message. After customers see their initial results, they can follow up conversationally and Nobi seamlessly transitions to AI mode:

Customer: "running shoes"

[Search Mode returns running shoe results]

Customer: "do you have any in wide sizes?"

[AI Mode takes over and filters results conversationally]

Customer: "what's the difference between these two?"

[AI Mode provides detailed comparison]

This hybrid approach gives customers the best of both worlds: fast search results upfront, with conversational refinement available when needed.

Semantic understanding

Nobi doesn't just match keywords. It understands meaning and context, which means customers can search the way they naturally think:

Traditional search fails:

"Shoes for my wedding" → no results (products aren't tagged "wedding")
"Comfy office chair" → no results (products say "ergonomic," not "comfy")
"Gift for coffee lover" → no results (returns coffee, not coffee-related gifts)

Nobi understands:

"Shoes for my wedding" → returns dress shoes, heels, formal footwear
"Comfy office chair" → returns ergonomic chairs with comfort features
"Gift for coffee lover" → returns mugs, grinders, brewing accessories

This semantic understanding dramatically improves the customer experience and reduces zero-result searches.

Consolidated search results

Search Mode can return products, website pages, or both. Products come from the product catalog. Pages come from indexed site content, such as policy pages, guides, landing pages, FAQs, and other pages in the Knowledge Base.

How Nobi chooses what to show

Shopping intent leads with products. Examples include queries like black boots, leather cleaner, or dress shoes for a wedding.
Informational intent leads with pages. Examples include queries like return policy, boot fit, financing application, or how to care for suede.
Ambiguous intent can show both. If a page is especially relevant, or if product and page relevance are close, Nobi can show relevant pages near the top while still keeping matching products visible.

Result layouts

When products are the best match, the product grid appears first and relevant pages can appear below the products.
When pages are useful but products should still be visible, Nobi shows a compact Relevant pages section above the product grid, then shows any remaining page results below the products.
When pages are the primary match, Nobi shows a page results list. This is used for documentation, policy, support, and other informational searches.

Search result setting

Merchants can choose which result types Nobi is allowed to show: products and pages, products only, or pages only. Products and pages is the default. Options that do not apply to the store are hidden, so a store without products will not see product-only controls and a store without indexed pages will not see page-only controls.

Merchandising Control

Even with AI-powered search, you maintain complete control over what customers see. Use merchandising tools to:

Boost seasonal or promotional products in search results
Bury products you want to de-emphasize without hiding them completely
Pin specific products to top positions for certain queries
Hide products from search entirely (out of season, discontinued, etc.)

These controls work seamlessly with Search Mode, so your business priorities always take precedence over algorithmic ranking. Learn more in Merchandising Overview.

Nobi’s Search Mode Why Search Matters How Nobi's Search Mode Works Search mode: faster results When it activates What fields are taken into account when a user searches?What you can search by Natural language follow-ups and filtering Semantic understanding Consolidated search results How Nobi chooses what to show Result layouts Search result setting Merchandising Control Integrated search setup and quick links

Integrated search setup and quick links

Set up search from Website UX > UX Elements > Integrated. Choose Search bar, then use the setup actions to add it to a header, search page, or another supported surface.

Products and pages can appear together when the merchant has both a searchable product catalog and indexed page content.
Product-only and page-only controls are hidden when the account does not support that capability.
Search Quick Links are fixed links configured in Settings. They can appear alongside the chat/search experience when enabled.