--- title: "Search, Personalization & Merchandising" date: 2026-03-04T11:45:00+01:00 author: Santiago Melluso canonical_url: "https://www.takefortytwo.com/en/services/search-personalization-merchandising/" section: Services --- [Services](https://www.takefortytwo.com/en/services/)[Back to listing](https://www.takefortytwo.com/en/services/)Ecommerce # Search, Personalization & Merchandising Onsite search is one of the most underinvested areas in eCommerce — and one of the highest-leverage. Customers who use search convert at significantly higher rates than those who browse. When search fails them, they leave. We implement and tune search experiences that actually work: relevant results, smart autocomplete, intelligent filtering, and merchandising rules that support your business goals. Combined with personalization strategies that adapt to user behavior, the result is a site that feels like it knows what each visitor is looking for. **This is for you if:** - Your onsite search returns poor results, and you know it because customers complain or analytics show high exit rates from search. - You have a large catalog and discovery is a genuine challenge for your buyers. - You want to use behavioral data to personalize the experience without it feeling creepy. **What you’ll get from this:** - Search platform evaluation and implementation tailored to your catalog and user behavior. - Tuned relevance, synonym dictionaries, and filtering logic that matches how your customers actually search. - Merchandising rules and promotional placements that serve your business goals without overriding user intent. - Personalization logic that improves with data over time. [Get in touch](https://www.takefortytwo.com/en/contact/) ## Frequently Asked Questions Our search technically works, results just aren't great. Is that still something you fix, or do we need a platform migration?Most of the time it’s a tuning problem, not a platform problem, and tuning is fixable without a migration. The usual culprits are relevance rules, synonym dictionaries, and filtering logic that don’t match how your customers actually search, plus autocomplete that guesses wrong. We evaluate whether your current search platform can be tuned first; replacement is only the recommendation when it genuinely can’t. We have a huge catalog. Does that make search personalization harder to get right?A huge catalog makes search personalization more valuable, not fundamentally harder: discovery is precisely where big catalogs lose buyers. It does mean more work tuning relevance, synonym dictionaries, and filtering logic so results reflect how customers actually search across thousands of SKUs. The payoff scales with the catalog, because customers who use search convert at significantly higher rates than those who browse. We want to personalize based on browsing behavior, but we're worried about it feeling invasive. How do you handle that line?The line we draw is simple: personalization adapts to behavior, but it never overrides what the user is clearly looking for. In practice, behavioral signals reorder and refine results, while explicit intent (the query, the applied filters) always wins. Done that way, personalization feels like a site that knows what each visitor wants, not one that’s watching them. Can't we just turn on our platform's built-in search personalization features?You can turn them on, and sometimes that’s genuinely enough; we’ll tell you if it is. Where this service adds value is the tuning the defaults can’t do: relevance, synonym dictionaries, and merchandising rules calibrated against your actual catalog and how your customers phrase their searches. Built-in defaults are trained on averages, and your catalog isn’t average. How do we know if poor search is actually costing us sales, versus customers just not finding what we don't stock?High exit rates from search results pages and direct customer complaints are the two clearest signals that search is costing you sales. Searches for products you do stock that return zero or irrelevant results are the smoking gun, and your analytics already record them. This often surfaces first during [Conversion Rate Optimization](https://www.takefortytwo.com/en/services/conversion-rate-optimization/) work, which is why the two services feed each other. Do merchandising rules and personalization launch together, or in phases?In phases, deliberately: search relevance and merchandising rules come first, and personalization layers in once there’s enough behavioral data to be worth acting on. Relevance and merchandising deliver value from day one and generate the interaction data personalization needs, so the sequence funds itself. Launching personalization on thin data just automates guessing. ## You might also like #### Conversion Rate Optimization CRO is not a tactic. It's a mindset. Ideate, test, measure, iterate — on repeat, until every visit works harder for your business. [ Read More ](https://www.takefortytwo.com/en/services/conversion-rate-optimization/) #### PIM Setup & Integration If your product data are messy, inconsistent, or scattered across spreadsheets, everything downstream suffers. We fix that. [ Read More ](https://www.takefortytwo.com/en/services/pim-setup-integration/) #### Analytics & Performance Review Data don't lie, but they require interpretation. We help you understand what your numbers are actually telling you, and what to do next. [ Read More ](https://www.takefortytwo.com/en/services/analytics-performance-review/) ![](data:image/png;base64,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)![Warm orange cinematic scene with a crowd of people in a marketplace](https://takefortytwo-new.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/media/blog/Finders-Keepers-Fix-search-fix-sales.webp?w=1648&h=898&auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=crop&dm=1774785495&s=1de84775a6c7428c5686b34cccdb6c91) #### Finders Keepers. Fix Site Search, Fix Sales. Optimize site search and watch your sales soar. Turn user frustration into satisfaction, outshine competitors, and enhance your bottom line. Even if you are not Walmart. [ Read More ](https://www.takefortytwo.com/en/blog/fix-site-search-fix-sales/)