Each word is treated as a unique component in the search, and each component is individually searched across all of the above fields for Products. The potential matching possibilities are;
The search works in an "Inclusive" style, so if any of the search components match text in the Product fields then they are included in the results set. Once the search results are collected, the system then ranks the results based on relevant to the search term/s. This means it applies a weighting to each individual match a Product has to the search term, totals the weightings and then sorts the products by the weighting (applying a results ranking).
When a user enters the search term: Red Frames
Product #1
Product Name: Red Glasses (exact match: weighting 10 pts)
Product Code: REDFRA010 (partial match: weighting 4 pts)
Product Tags: Red Frames Glasses Glass Eye Specs (exact matches: 20 pts)
Weighting: 34 pts
This product would be displayed in the search results - these are exact matches in multiple of the searched fields, so it should rank very highly in the results.
Product #2
Product Name: Comically Large Red Frames (exact matches: weighting 20 pts)
Product Code: REDFRA0101
Product Tags: Glasses Glass Eye Specs
Weighting: 20 pts
This product would be displayed in the search results - again these are exact matches, so should still rank well.
Product #3
Product Name: Framed Glasses
Product Code: REDFRA0101
Product Tags: Frame Glasses Glass Eye Specs (exact match: weighting 8 pts)
Weighting: 8 pts
This product would be displayed in the search results (the search supports pluralisation, so should pick up "frame" from the "frames" search term). This is technically an exact match, however it probably wont rank as well as an exact match without pluralisation.
Product #4
Product Name: Redding Framing Goggles (partial match: weighting 4 pts)
Product Code: REDFRA2331 (partial match: weighting 4 pts)
Product Tags: Glasses Redding Glass Eye Specs Framed (partial match: weighting 4 pts)
Weighting: 12 pts
This product would be displayed in the search results (the search supports "starts with" matching results). A partial match wont rank as well as an exact match.
Product #5
Product Name: Reading Glasses
Product Code: READERSRED101
Product Tags: Glasses Glass Eye Specs Reading
Weighting: 0 pts
This product would not be displayed in the search results. It doesn't support a "Contains" (LIKE) search, the search component either needs to be a "starts with" or "exact" match.
So the above results would be ranked;
- Product #1
- Product #2
- Product #4
- Product #3
As you can see the number of matches (partial or exact) does affect the ranking result, so comprehensively using the fields available in Inzant Sales will help more accurately rank the results. Product #5 probably should be returned in the results given they are likely Red glasses, however as the product contains no matches to the search term (i.e. that the product is Red, or that its a frame/s) the system has no way of knowing this, and so it cannot return it in the search results.
To help avoid this try to make sure you include the search terms you believe will be common in your site in the Product Tags field. Making sure Products have information like colours, textures, categorisation, industry terms and anything else you can think of in the Product tags field will help improve the search on the website by including more products, and more effectively ranking them (meaning users don't have to go looking for products, the site is bringing the products to them).