Improve Product Discovery with Category Search Suggestions in Ecommerce

Why Category Search Matters

Many shoppers don’t search for exact product names. Instead, they start with broad terms like “jackets”, “office chairs”, or “skincare” because they want to browse a relevant selection.

Category search helps by guiding users directly into the most relevant category, rather than forcing them to scroll through long lists of individual products.

Key benefit: Category suggestion in ecommerce search helps users reach structured browsing pages faster and with less friction.

How It Works

Search That Understands Browsing Intent

• Category suggestions — Relevant product categories appear as part of the search experience.
  
  
• Faster navigation — Users can jump directly to curated category pages instead of refining broad searches manually.
  
  
• Reduced friction — Broad searches lead to meaningful browsing paths instead of overwhelming result lists.
  
  

Clerk.io detects when a query signals browsing intent and surfaces matching categories directly from the search bar or instant search results.

Use Case: From Broad Search to Category Browsing

A home and living retailer sees frequent searches for terms like “lamps”, “storage”, and “sofas”.

Without category search, shoppers land on large result lists and must manually filter to find the right section.

With category search, users are guided directly to “Table Lamps”, “Storage Furniture”, or “Sofas” categories, making browsing faster and more intuitive.