Magento 2 - Merchandising Category Pages

Implementation steps

There are two steps to implement this solution:

Replace category pages with Algolia in the Magento 2 UI
Merchandise the category pages with Algolia and Magento 2

1. Replace category pages with Algolia in the Magento 2 UI

To merchandise category pages with Algolia, you must first create category pages powered by Algolia. You can find the detailed steps in the guide on how to implement category pages with Magento 2.

2. Merchandise the category pages with Algolia and Magento 2

Algolia offers four ways to merchandise category pages:

Using Category Merchandiser in the Magento 2 UI
Using the Visual Editor in the dashboard (Recommended)
Using the Manual Editor in the dashboard
Build your own custom merchandising UI using the Rules API

Recommendations:

It’s recommended to pick either the Algolia UI or Magento UI to make the changes because updating multiple UIs together may introduce conflicts.
It’s also recommended to use the Algolia UI directly instead of the Magento UI as the merchandising features are more robust.
If you want to add more merchandising features tailored to your use case, you can also build your own UI using Algolia’s API.

Category merchandising feature overview

Merchandising Options	Functionalities
Category Merchandiser in the Magento UI	• Pin and hide items in a list view
Visual Editor	• Pin and hide items • Boost, bury, and filter categories • Set priority on category ordering • Ban categories of items • Merchandise on filter selection • Merchandise based on date range, for time-limited promotions • Merchandise based on geolocation, device, user segment • Configurable preview UI
Manual Editor	• Display banners • Merchandise on filter selection • Facet Merchandising (Facet type and value reordering)
Build your own custom merchandising UI using Algolia’s Rules API	• Be creative with the features made available with Algolia’s Rules API

Using category merchandiser in the Magento 2 UI

You can navigate to this page in two ways:

Stores > Algolia Search > Merchandising > Category Merchandiser
Catalog > Categories > Algolia Merchandising

To merchandise a category:

Select a category on the left menu.
Expand on Algolia Merchandising.
Pin or Un-pin products directly in the UI.
Hit Save after you’re done.
See the changes directly on your category page.

Screenshot of Algolia Magento Merchandising UI

For more information on merchandising within Magento’s UI, take a look at the Magento merchandising guide.

Using the Visual Editor in the dashboard

You can navigate to this page through these steps:

Select the Rules section from the left sidebar menu in the Algolia dashboard.
Under the heading Rules, select the index you are adding a Rule to.
Select New rule. In the dropdown, click on the Visual Editor option.

To start merchandising a category, you need to set a Condition and a Consequence of a rule.

Condition

Under It all starts here section, select Set condition.
Under the Query > Your search, Pick is and leave the field blank.
Toggle Context, add the following text: magento-category-{{category_id}}.

Please substitute {{category_id}} with the category ID of the page you want to merchandise. You can find the category page ID in the Magento Catalog UI.

Consequence

Under What do you want to do section, select Filter results
Pick categoryId under Category and make sure the ID matches the category page’s ID
Select any of the other options in the menu or start dragging them in the preview UI to start merchandising.

Using the Manual Editor in the dashboard

The manual editor is flexible when it comes to category merchandising. There are a variety of different use cases you can build with the manual editor, such as adding a banner on filter and facet merchandising. This is covered in depth in a separate section – coming soon.

How-To Using the Manual Editor

Adding Banners