[SaaS only]{class="badge positive" title="Applies to Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service and Adobe Commerce Optimizer projects only (Adobe-managed SaaS infrastructure)."}

Merchandising Rules

Merchandising rules combine logic with actions to shape how products appear in search results, on default product listings (All product listings), and on category pages (category rules are in beta). You can boost, bury, pin, or hide products and apply intelligent ranking so listings reflect your business goals.

Each search rule has three main components:

Category rules use category selection instead of search query conditions; intelligent ranking and manual ranking work the same way as for search, with differences called out in Create and Manage Rules.

You can combine multiple conditions and actions for search rules, and schedule any rule to be active for a period. You can also set a default rule (All product listings) that applies when no more specific search or category rule applies.

Category rules category-rules

Category rules control product order on category pages. You select one or more categories, then apply intelligent ranking (for example, most viewed, trending) and manual actions such as pin, boost, and bury. They do not use search query conditions. For setup steps, rule types, and how ranking applies on category versus search, see Create and Manage Rules.

Requirements

A simple search rule can have a single condition and a single event, while a complex rule can have up to ten conditions that trigger up to 25 events. Category rules follow the same event limits for manual ranking; they do not use query conditions.

Rules can have:

Query text can contain:

Logical operators

The logical operators AND and OR join two conditions and return different results. All logical operators used in a rule with multiple conditions are the same. It is not possible to use both AND and OR in the same rule.

Match operators

The Match operators All and Any determine the logical operator that is used to join multiple conditions in the rule, and can be used to change the existing operator.

When composing a complex rule, it can help to write it out with indentation to describe the conditions, associated events, and product names or SKUs that are needed to return the results you want to achieve. Then, build the rule and test the result.

Default rule

You can set a default rule (All product listings) that applies when no search term is provided, or no other search rule can be applied. If you set the default rule to “Most Purchased”, then queries default to that ranking type unless superseded by a more specific search term. No search term can be set for the default rule. Category rules are separate: they apply only to the categories you select and do not replace the default listing rule.

Order of precedence with multiple rules

The following applies to search rules and how they interact for a given search. Category rules apply per category; see Create and Manage Rules for how they fit alongside search and default rules.

Only one search rule is applied to a search term at any one time.
If multiple rules are found to be applicable to a search phrase, then all these rules are applied. If there is a collision between two rules—rule 1 that boosts sku1 but rule 2 hides the same SKU—then the most recently applied rule (rule 2) takes precedence.

Storefront requests

If an active rule containing a query is condition matches the search phrase, it is applied. If there are multiple matching rules with a query is condition, the most recently updated active rule is applied.
Otherwise, the most recently updated active rule is applied.

Preview requests

Request made in Adobe Commerce Optimizer work slightly differently. When previewing Adobe Commerce Optimizer, all rules are applied, including those expired and scheduled.