Start your content search
8 min read

Related Tags overview

OK. I want to find a dress… Hmm, long?... Er, short?... Maybe midi? Yeah! Definitely, I’ll go for midi!

Related Tags are descriptive keywords that complement and enhance the search query to make it easier for shoppers to find what they’re looking for with just one click. They’re closely related to the search query, fine-tuning the search to get highly relevant results. They only appear after the search process is completed, and the results are displayed.

For example, people usually start searching using simple, broad term queries, such as “beer". When they get loads of results, they realize that what they’re really searching for is a specific kind of beer. That’s when Related Tags come into play, providing extra and relevant suggestions for a more precise search, like pilsen, IPA, non-alcoholic, or light.

With Empathy Platform, you can show organic, curated, and AI related tags in your commerce store:

  • Organic related tags: These are generated automatically based on collective behavioral information, offering related keywords to the searches that are used by other shoppers for a more accurate search.
  • Curated related tags: They let you curate the search experience and suggest related search terms that shoppers might like to use to complement their initial search to drive sales, for example, as part of a Christmas campaign. As search manager, you may want to guide shoppers towards party dresses by associating sequined or festive as related tags for the query "dresses", in addition to the organic related tags party, black, or long.
  • AI related tags: They're automatically generated using AI mechanisms from catalog data. They serve as a fallback when no organic related tags are available for a given query, extending coverage for instances with low organic traffic.

You can use the Related Tags management tool in the Empathy Platform Playboard to review the organic related tags generated for a query, create new curated related tags that respond to marketing strategies, change the order in which the curated related tags appear, and choose to show or hide organic related tags. AI related tags are not yet configurable in the Playboard, so you can't edit or delete them.

interact

Want to learn more about how you can tailor the search experience for Related Tags? Read how to manage related tags in the Empathy Platform Playboard.

The type of related tags that appear in your commerce store depends on what's available for a given query:

  1. Organic and curated related tags are always prioritized. When organic related tags exist for a query, the commerce store displays curated and organic related tags together.
  2. AI related tags appear only when there are no organic related tags for the query. If curated related tags exist but no organic ones, AI related tags are appended to the curated list to extend coverage. If there are no curated or organic related tags at all, the search engine falls back to AI-generated ones.

In short, curated and AI related tags are compatible with each other, but AI related tags never display alongside organic ones.

As curated related tags are keywords you willingly add to complement the initial query to promote products, anticipate trends, and more, they display in the first place in your commerce store to guide shoppers through the search experience you want based on your business needs. Organic related tags are placed after curated related tags and ordered following the preferences of other shoppers' experiences. AI related tags always appear after any curated related tags.

TIP

Curated and organic related tags can be distinguished somehow—with an icon, for example—when displayed in your commerce store whether you want shoppers to know which of them have been willfully created as a sign of transparency. Check the options available in the Related Tags UI component.

Brand value in personal care and beauty retail

See how curated Related Tags can benefit your shoppers and your business

Spot the difference

Don’t confuse Related Tags with Facets and Filters. Facets and Filters narrow down the search results to pinpoint products from a wide range of hits, while Related Tags complement the original search query, launching a new search that can bring up a new set of results or refine the existing ones.

For example, you can search for the term “dress”, then select the “midi” related tag to refine the initial search and get more relevant results. Finally, you can select the “XS” filter from the Size category to filter and display all extra-small midi dresses.

Likewise, try to not mix it up with Query Suggestions since they refine the query while you’re typing it before launching the initial search. Bear in mind, however, sometimes the suggestions displayed for Related Tags and Query Suggestions are the same.

You can identify Related Tags as they look like actual tags or labels located beneath the search box, once a search is launched and the results are displayed.

note

Remember that other types of suggestions can display hints based on search history or even trending products.

  • Sharpen query formulation. Educate shoppers on how to make better queries.
  • Speed up query entry, especially on mobile devices.
  • Improve product findability. Guide shoppers to the right products.
  • Enhance the shopper experience. Amaze shoppers with accurrate searches for what they’re looking for.
  • Improve search performance. More specific queries means more accurate results.

Each type of Related Tags follows a different generation path in the background to display in your search experience.

Organic related tags are generated by shoppers' actions in the search UI. As shoppers perform different searches and actions, behavioral information (queries, clicks, add-to-cart, etc.) is collected using the Tagging microservices and processed in the Query Signals batch process to extract the most relevant data for a specific query.

The information is then analyzed to select the appropriate candidate tags related to a specific query. So, from queries such as "long dress", "midi dress", or "maxi dress", long, midi, and maxi are identified as the related tags for the query "dress".

These candidate related tags are then reviewed to check whether they are valid according to different filters (i.e. blacklists, duplicity, etc.), resulting in a list of final Related Tags that is ready to go.

Curated related tags are created manually by the commerce merchandiser in the Playboard and sent to the Beacon microservice to be stored with the organic related tags. When the shopper performs a search in the search UI, Empathy Platform Interface X calls the Beacon API to retrieve a list of organic and curated related tags associated with the query, displaying them in the commerce store after the initial search.

AI related tags are generated using the underlying AI mechanisms that take advantage of the Related Prompts already built for your commerce store search experience. When a query returns no organic related tags, the Beacon microservice uses those Related Prompts to identify semantically related search terms and turn them into related tag candidates. Both V0 and V1 Related Prompts are considered: V1 Related Prompts, generated at query time using catalog data, shopper behavior, and store taxonomy, are prioritized first; V0 Related Prompts, generated offline from the product catalog using large language models, are used as a further fallback. These operations run on private, in-house infrastructure to guarantee data sovereignty and operational resilience.

The process starts by gathering the search terms that Related Prompts already associate with the original query. From that pool of candidates, Empathy Platform filters out duplicates, near-duplicates, and irrelevant terms. It then keeps only candidates that are a direct and meaningful refinement of the original query, meaning they contain the original search term along with something more specific. So, for a query like "dress summer", summer is identified as a related tag for the query "dress".

When the shopper performs a search in the search UI, Empathy Platform Interface X calls the Beacon API to retrieve related tags. If the response contains no organic related tags, the Beacon microservice transparently appends AI related tags to any curated results.

interact

Explore the interactive map to see how Related Tags relates to the other Empathy Platform features and microservices.

warning

For a correct performance, make sure that your current search service supports this type of feature.

Cookie-Less