Background Filters

Background Filters allow you to automatically apply a filter to a product set in specific shopper scenarios. These filters are applied to the product results, but the filters themselves are not displayed to shoppers.

Note: Background Filters will take precedence over any products promoted through our Merchandising tools. If a product is promoted to the top of a page, it can still be then removed with a background filter. 

There are two types of Background Filters that can be used with SearchSpring:

• Merchandising Background Filters: Query-triggered filters that are applied to the result set, but the filter itself is not shown to shoppers. Configured in the SearchSpring Management Console. 
• Front-End Background Filters: Custom filters that are hard-coded into the integration of SearchSpring on your site. Similar functionality, but often used in advanced scenarios. Must be specially requested as a code change from SearchSpring.  

Merchandising Background Filters

You can use Merchandising Background Filters to alter the kinds of products that are shown on a specific search term, or all search terms. 

To begin, go to the Background Filters page in the SearchSpring Management Console.

You can configure existing background filters by clicking the pencil icon, or create a new one by clicking the "Add New Filter" button below the table.

Edit Page

The edit interface for Merchandising Background Filters is where you configure how your filter rule should work. 

Query

Enter the search query that should trigger this filter. This filter will apply when someone searches for anything containing this query. To apply the filter across your entire site (for something such as filtering for in-stock products), leave the Query box empty.

Field

Select the field you'd like to filter on here. (Example: color)

Value

The value(s) of the selected field you want to filter on. Multiple values (Example: Red, Pink, Maroon)

Add New Field

If you want to apply multiple filters at once for this query, click "Add New Field" at the bottom of the interface. Fill out the new row below the "AND" just as you did with previous filters.

Delete

To remove one of the multiple filters, click the minus icon of that row in the Delete column. 

Remove query from search

Checking the "Remove query from search" box will remove this query from whatever was searched including this query. For example, if your Query is "Nike" and someone searches for "Nike running shoes", we'll simply show results for "running shoes". 

If you only have a single word in your Query and select this option, it will effectively show all of your store's products when someone searches that word. 

Example: "Remove query from search" is not checked. When a shopper searches for "dress", the results are filtered to be items that are "color=green". 

Example: "Remove query from search" is checked. When a shopper searches for "dress", the query relevancy is ignored and all products with "color=green" are shown. 

Save

When you're done making changes to your Background Filter, click the "Save" button. 

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Front-End Background Filters

Front-End Background Filters perform similarly to Merchandising Background Filters, but are hard-coded into your sites integration and often handle advanced scenarios that cannot be done with the normal Merchandising Background Filter. Please submit a request to your customer success representative if you are interested in setting this functionality up on your site.

Some common examples of instances where you might use a Front-End Background Filter: 

• Filter out certain kinds of products on all category pages, but not in search results.
• Different pricing for logged-in shoppers
• Filtering out certain kinds of products for defined customer groups (such as wholesale, etc.)
• Hiding non-product data (such as blog entries) from categories and/or search results