Introduction:
The Product Finder is an AI-powered sales skill that helps your customers find exactly what they're looking for in your product catalog. When shoppers ask the AI about specific products or need recommendations, Product Finder intelligently searches your catalog, asks relevant follow-up questions, and displays results in an interactive carousel, making it easier for customers to find and purchase the perfect item.
What Product Finder Does:
Searches your product catalog based on customer queries and preferences
Asks follow-up questions to narrow down options when many products match
Displays matching products in a visual carousel for easy browsing
Guides customers through a personalized shopping experience
Increases conversions by helping indecisive shoppers find what they need
How to Configure Product Finder:
Basic Settings
Enable/Disable: Toggle the Product Finder skill on or off
Instructions: Customize how the AI should help shoppers find products
Search Results Threshold: Default is set to 15 items
How this works: When a customer searches for products (e.g., "I want socks"), the AI will continue asking intelligent follow-up questions (about color, size, style, etc.) to filter the results until the number of matching products is at or below this threshold. Then it displays those filtered products in the carousel.
Why adjust this number? A lower threshold (e.g., 10-15) creates a more focused shopping experience with fewer options, which can increase conversion for simple products. A higher threshold (e.g., 40-50) works better for stores where customers prefer browsing more options before deciding. Note that customers can still request to see all available products if they prefer not to filter further.
Product Display: When the number of matching products reaches or falls below the threshold, they'll be displayed in a carousel
Carousel Sorting Options
Choose the order products appear in the Product Finder carousel:
Search Query Relevance: Sorts products by how closely they match what the shopper asked for. (Default.)
Bestsellers: Shows your most popular products first.
Shopify Collection Order: Displays products in the exact order you've set for that collection in Shopify. Your store stays the single source of truth for merchandising — the products you choose to feature stay at the front of the carousel, with no separate order to maintain in Rep.
Choose the option that best suits your store's strategy.
How "Shopify Collection Order" works:
It applies when the carousel is showing products from a single Shopify collection (for example, when a shopper is browsing "Sale," "New Arrivals," or a specific category).
It mirrors whichever sort you've selected for that collection in Shopify — Manual (drag-and-drop), Best selling, Alphabetical, Price, or Product creation date. Whatever order you see in your Shopify admin is the order shoppers see in chat.
Shoppers only ever see products they can actually buy. Any unavailable items are skipped, and the remaining products stay in your chosen order.
Good to know:
Single-collection results. If a shopper's question spans more than one collection, or isn't tied to a collection at all, the carousel automatically falls back to Bestsellers order for that response. This setting has the biggest impact on collection-scoped shopping journeys.
Staying in sync with Shopify. Most changes you make in Shopify — switching the sort type, changing a smart-collection rule, adding or removing products — are reflected in chat quickly and automatically. Manually dragging products into a new order is the one exception: Shopify doesn't notify apps about drag-and-drop reordering, so those changes are picked up on a regular refresh cycle (typically within several hours) rather than instantly.
"Promote" (starred products). With Shopify Collection Order, ordering comes entirely from Shopify, so the "Promote" star is not applied in this mode — your Shopify position decides what shows first. The "Promote" star continues to work as usual under Search Query Relevance and Bestsellers.
This option is available on all plans. Your existing sort setting won't change — Product Finder keeps using whatever you already have selected until you switch it.
Advanced Settings
Keyword Match Strength: Adjust how strictly the search should match keywords
Loose: Returns more varied results, captures related terms
Normal: Balanced approach (recommended for most stores)
Strong: Stricter matching, returns only highly relevant results
Additional Instructions: Customize the product discovery flow with specific questions and approaches
This powerful feature allows you to customize exactly how the AI conducts product searches
Use this section to:
Define specific question sequences (e.g., "Always ask about size before color for clothing items")
Create product associations (e.g., "When customers search for 'hiking boots', also suggest our waterproofing spray")
Implement conditional logic (e.g., "If a customer mentions 'gifts', ask about the recipient's age and interests")
Set up alternative search terms (e.g., "When shoppers ask for 'sneakers', search for both 'sneakers' and 'athletic shoes'")
Add category-specific guidance (e.g., "For skincare products, always ask about skin type and concerns")
Instructions here take precedence over the default AI behavior, giving you precise control over the shopping experience
You can use the "Generate prompt" feature to get AI-suggested instructions
Product Discovery Templates
Choose from specialized templates for different shopping experiences based on AI analysis of common customer shopping patterns:
Budget-Conscious Discovery: Helps price-sensitive shoppers find affordable options
Premium Product Focus: Highlights high-end products with superior features
Quick Decision Helper: Streamlines the decision process for rushed shoppers
Category-specific options: Specialized flows for Skincare, Jewelry, Fashion & Apparel, and Home & Decor
These templates can be selected under the "Further AI Instructions" section to optimize the Product Finder experience for your specific customer base
Best Practices for Product Finder:
Customize Your Instructions
Provide specific guidance on how the AI should behave during product discovery
Examples:
"When customers ask about skincare, always ask about their skin type first"
"For jewelry searches, prioritize asking about metal preferences before style"
"If a customer is looking for similar products to 'Brand X', recommend our 'Brand Y' as an alternative"
"When showing electronics, always mention our extended warranty options"
Configure Keyword Match Strength Appropriately
Use Loose for stores with limited inventory or very specific products
Use Normal for most balanced results
Use Strong for stores with extensive catalog where precision is important
Optimize Your Product Data
Product Finder relies primarily on Shopify product titles and descriptions for search
Ensure product descriptions contain all relevant keywords, features, and attributes
Important: Information that is dynamically rendered on the product page but not included in the product description or title may not be considered by Product Finder
Keep product information up-to-date for best results
Monitor and Refine
Regularly check conversations where Product Finder was used
Look for patterns in customer questions to improve your configuration
Adjust settings based on performance data
Product Finder Flow Example:
Customer asks: "Do you have any gold necklaces?"
AI activates Product Finder skill and searches catalog
If many matches (>15), AI asks: "What style of gold necklace are you looking for? We have pendants, chains, and tennis necklaces."
Customer specifies: "I'd like a pendant necklace."
AI displays relevant products in a carousel, sorted by your preferred method
Customer can browse options and add directly to cart
Troubleshooting:
Product Finder isn't showing relevant products:
Check your keyword match strength setting - it may be too strict
Review your product descriptions and titles to ensure they contain relevant keywords
Note: Product Finder only searches text in product titles and descriptions and metafields - if important product attributes are only mentioned in dynamically rendered sections of your product pages, they might not be considered in searches
Verify that your product data is up-to-date
Customers are getting too many results:
Adjust your keyword match strength to be stricter
Customize instructions to ask more specific follow-up questions
Consider organizing your products into more specific categories
Customers are getting too few results:
Loosen your keyword match strength setting
Review your product descriptions to ensure they contain common search terms
Check if important product information is missing from descriptions and only exists in dynamically rendered parts of your store
Add more variety to your product catalog in popular categories
Search results don't include products with specific attributes:
Ensure all important product attributes are included in product titles or descriptions or metafields
Information that only appears in dynamic sections, or custom attributes may not be considered in searches
Consider adding key product attributes directly to descriptions for better searchability
Products aren't showing in my Shopify collection order:
Make sure the Product Finder sort is set to "Shopify Collection Order."
Confirm the result is scoped to a single collection - multi-collection and general searches fall back to Bestsellers order by design.
If you recently reordered a collection by dragging products, allow time for the next refresh cycle; drag-and-drop reordering isn't picked up instantly (see "Staying in sync with Shopify" above).