E-Commerce Search Relevance

Overview

E-commerce search is a pipeline: query understanding → retrieval → ranking → presentation. Each stage affects relevance. Optimization requires diagnosing WHICH stage fails, not just tuning one component. Zero-result rate, click-through rate, and add-to-cart rate are key metrics.

When to Use

Trigger conditions:

• Diagnosing why search results don't meet user expectations
• Implementing query processing features (spell check, synonyms, intent detection)
• Reducing zero-result searches and improving conversion

When NOT to use:

• For ranking algorithm design only (use e-commerce ranking skill)
• For text relevance scoring only (use BM25)

Algorithm