Search¶
eShopping's search has 3 layers:
- Quick-search popover — appears as the user types in the header search box, showing matching products and (optionally) keyword suggestions
- Search-results page —
/search.php?search_query=…— full grid with filters - Voice search — optional mic button for browsers that support speech recognition
There is also a category-scope dropdown beside the search box — a folder/tree selector that lets a shopper limit a search to a specific category before submitting. Its depth is controlled by the Category dropdown depth in search setting (see below).
All theme search settings live in the Theme Editor; the underlying product/suggestion data comes from BigCommerce. Each setting below ends with a Customize: line that tells you exactly where to change it.
Quick-search popover¶
Auto-enabled. As the user types, the popover shows:
- The top matching products returned by BigCommerce's quick-search (image, title, price). The theme does not set a fixed count — the number shown comes from BigCommerce.
- Keyword suggestions (if Keyword Suggestions is set up).
Settings¶
The settings appear in this order in the Theme Editor, matching the table above. The exact field label (left column), setting id, value format and shipped default for each:
Voice search¶
Uses the browser's built-in Web Speech API and feature-detects support at load time: the mic button is hidden automatically in browsers that don't implement speech recognition (for example Firefox). Browser support changes over time, so treat any specific browser list as approximate. When supported, the user's browser still needs to grant microphone permission.
Search-results page¶
Settings same as Category page:
- Products per page — controls the grid size on the results page.
- Faceted filters: same as Category page (works on search results too).
- Sort options: Featured Items, Newest Items, Best Selling, A to Z, Z to A, By Review, Price: Ascending, Price: Descending, and Relevance. Relevance only appears on a query-based result set; the default sort order is set by BigCommerce, not the theme.
Empty-results page¶
When a search returns no products and BigCommerce has spelling or term suggestions for that query, the page shows a suggestions panel. If BigCommerce has no suggestions to offer for the query, this panel does not appear at all — a zero-result search on its own does not guarantee any message.
When the panel does appear, it can include:
- A Did you mean: X correction link, shown when BigCommerce has a spelling/term correction for the query.
- A "Your search for "X" did not match any products or information" notice, shown alongside that correction.
- Matching category and brand links. These come from BigCommerce's own search suggestions and are independent of the Category dropdown depth setting.
- A short list of generic search tips (check spelling, try different keywords, try more general keywords).
Because every part of this panel is driven by BigCommerce's suggestions for the specific query, none of it shows on a zero-result search where BigCommerce has nothing to suggest.
To add your own content below the no-results message, place an AI HTML Generator | PapaThemes widget in the search page's search_below_content region (see the widget regions reference). You can also override the message text by editing the theme's language file (advanced, requires theme file access).
.papathemes-ai-widget-… { … }
…your HTML…
</style>
Hiding zero-result products¶
To prevent out-of-stock products from showing in search:
Search analytics¶
BigCommerce records every search in Analytics → Marketing → Search terms. Use it to discover what people search for that you don't carry — then add the products or create a redirect.