The facets management tool in the Empathy Platform Playboard allows you to configure how your catalog products are grouped depending on certain characteristics, attributes, or attribute values (price, brand, fabric, etc.). Products are then grouped by categories in your commerce store according to these characteristics. Facets are filters that change dynamically, and multiple ones can be selected to be applied simultaneously. Facets use product attributes and their values to narrow your catalog when shoppers search or navigate your commerce store.

Whether a search query is broad and the number of results is so large, facets help shoppers to go straight to what they're looking for more efficiently. On the other hand, when shoppers navigate your commerce store, facets help them discover and explore your catalog easily as they clearly see how your product catalog is organized.

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Wanting to know more about what are facets and what they're used for? Check the Facets and Filters overview.

Getting started with the Facets management tool

When you access the Facets management tool in the Playboard, you view the list of facet configurations created for your commerce store. The list displays all turned-on and off facet configurations, details on when the configuration was last modified, and options to search and filter the list. If no facet configurations have been created yet, the list contains no rows.

You can create, edit, delete, or even temporarily turn off a facet configuration without having to delete it. You can also schedule a facet configuration to appear in the results at a future date.

List view of Facets - (A) Filters and search, (B) Action tools, (C) Facets configuration list, (D) Row selector, and (E) Page navigation options.

The configurations list (C) displays the details of the facets configurations:

• Name: the identifying name for the configuration. You can sort the results by name.
• Queries/Attributes: when the context of your configuration is Search, this column displays the queries applying to the configuration. When the context of your configuration is Browse, this column displays the attribute, child attributes (if any), and value applying to the configuration.
• Language: the language set up for your implementation.
• Filters: the values selected for one or several segments based on your implementation to customize different scenarios, if applicable (store, country, scope, etc.).
• Updated on/by: the date and time when the last changes were made to the configuration and the person who performed these changes. You can sort the results by date using the Updated on field.
• Status: the configuration's status. It shows whether the facet configuration is on or off.

Use the filters and search box (A) of the configuration list view to find the facet configuration you need. You can search by configuration name or update date. When using the search box, you can search for strict matching results to get results that match exactly the query you entered. You can choose to have non-strict matching results, including either the configurations whose name matches exactly or partially your query terms.

You can select the number of configurations to be displayed in the list with the row selector (D) and navigate to other pages in the configuration list using the page navigation options (E).

To add a new configuration from the list screen, select the + NEW button. To edit an existing configuration, click its row to open the edition screen. To edit, clone, delete, turn on/off any configurations, select the checkbox next to the corresponding configurations and use the action tools (B) or the options displayed on the three-dot icon on the left.

Creating a Facets configuration

You create a Facets configuration from the configurations list screen. Select the + NEW button.

Edit view of the Facets functionality - (A) Details, (B) Filters, (C) Facets settings, (D) Preview, and (E) Facet configuration.

Follow these steps to create a Facets configuration:

1. In the Details section (A), set up whether the configuration is turned on and running for the filters and settings you are establishing.

   note

   If you turn off the configuration, you can turn it on later using the action tools in the facets configurations list screen.

2. Define a name for your facets configuration.

3. Select the context your configuration applies to:

   • Search: the configuration applies to the queries you add to the Queries field.
   • Browse: the configuration applies to the attributes you select in the Attributes field and the value you select for it in the Attribute value field.

4. In the Filters section (B), set the specific context for your configuration. Depending on your implementation, you have different segments to filter by, such as language, country, store, device, etc.

5. In the Facets settings (C), add or remove the facets you want to display when searching or browsing in your commerce store.

6. Click a facet to edit its properties. The Edit your facet (E) right-side panel appears.

7. In the Edit your facet (E) panel, change the name that the facet displays in your commerce store.

8. Change how the facet values are sorted in the Values sorting field. The available options are:

   • Custom: drag and drop the facet values to customize how they're sorted.
   • Alphabetically: the facet values are ordered alphabetically.
   • Results number: the facet values are ordered decreasingly by number of results.

9. Click the + button next to the Metadata section to add key-value metadata pairs to the selected facet. Facet metadata is used, for example, to indicate how the facet is displayed in your commerce store, such as a checkbox, radio button, toggle button, etc., or to give shoppers more information about a facet attribute or attribute value, for example, what an A means in the food Nutri-Score rating system.

   • Fill the Key and Value fields. For example, a key-value pair for the facet Size could be "Clarification-Sizes corresponding to the EU standards".
   • Click + Add to add the metadata to your facet configuration and Save at the bottom of the Edit your facet panel.

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   If you cannot see the Metadata configuration section within the facets configuration right-side panel, contact your Key Account Manager. Remember that you can edit or delete the key-value metadata configured for a facet if needed.

10. In the preview (D) area, check the visualization of the facets and their values as shoppers would see them in your commerce store. This way, you can adjust their configuration according to your business needs.

11. Click Save.