When searching for products, character operators make your search refined and specific. For example, you can search by beginning or ending with a certain word (check out how here).
It’s important to note that by default, all searches include stemming. This means that your search will include variations of the word you search for, to ensure that all offers are being captured.
For instance, if you search for “grill,” your search will include grills, grilling, grilled, etc.
The exception to this rule is using the exact word character operator, which is an equals sign (=). Using an equals sign will cause your results to be the exact word that you searched for, with no stemming.
In this case, if you search for grill, your search will only return results with the word grill, not grills, grilling, grilled, etc.
While stemming is useful in most cases, there are some scenarios where using the exact word character operator can be beneficial.
For example:
- You are searching for a product from a specific brand.
- If you are searching for a product from a specific brand, an exact word search ensures that the results include only offers where the brand name appears exactly as entered. This excludes variations which may be from other brands.
- You know exactly what product you are looking for.
- Often times, searching with variations (stemming) of words can help you discover products and ensure you see all related products. However, if you know the exact product you are looking for, searching with exact words can help you find this result quickly and efficiently.
- You want to see narrow, targeted results.
- The more specific your search is, the more specific your results are. If you want to find targeted results, the exact word character operator can help you achieve that goal.
You can use the exact words character operator on various search fields. For instance, Any Field, Name, Description, etc. to help you get your desired search results.
To learn more about character operators, check out our written documentation here.
