A Shopify product finder guides customers to the right product with just a few questions. It’s especially worthwhile when products look similar but differ in specific features. At Ritter Decken, it uses existing metafields, displays up to four results side by side, and can be maintained by the team themselves. Working with an experienced Shopify agency, you should plan for around two months.
In this article, we’ll walk you through our approach step by step.
- What is a product finder on Shopify?
- When is a product finder worthwhile?
- What does the product finder at Ritter Decken look like?
- How do you plan a product finder?
- How does the technology behind it work?
- How much work goes into a product finder?
- Where should the product finder be placed in the store?
- How can you measure and improve the product finder?
- What should you keep in mind when building a product finder?
- Frequently asked questions about Shopify product finders
1. What is a product finder on Shopify?
A product finder is a guided quiz in an online store that helps customers find products suited to their needs by asking just a few questions. Instead of clicking through categories and product pages themselves, they answer questions step by step and receive a tailored selection at the end. This approach is also known as guided selling.
2. When is a product finder worthwhile?
A product finder is worthwhile when customers need help navigating their product choices. Two signs point to this:
- Distinctive user behavior: Visitors jump back and forth between product pages, comparing products without making a decision.
- Products that look similar: At first glance, the range appears uniform, but the products differ in features that matter to the purchase decision.
Our CRO analysis clearly showed that both applied at Ritter Decken. A product finder is also especially useful for new customers who are not yet familiar with the brand or its range.
3. What does the product finder at Ritter Decken look like?
The Ritter Decken product finder asks a maximum of six questions about category, purpose, warmth, material, size, and color to help customers find the right blanket. It runs on its own page and is designed as follows:
- Simple navigation: A progress bar shows how many questions remain. Customers can go back or start over at any time, and single-select answers take them automatically to the next question.
- Help with technical terms: A tooltip explains the warmth ratings. We already use this pop-up on the product pages.
- Smart branching: Questions that are irrelevant to a particular path are skipped. For example, customers who choose duvets are not asked about the intended purpose. For smaller ranges, such as pillows or scarves, the finder goes straight to the results.
- Results in a comparison table: Up to four matching blankets appear side by side, so there is no need to switch between product pages.
- A fallback, not a dead end: If there are no matches, the product finder displays four bestsellers, explains that no matching results were found, and provides a way back to the quiz.
See how complex products can be compared clearly using metaobjects in our IVARIO example.
4. How do you plan a product finder?
Planning determines whether the product finder will deliver useful results. At Ritter Decken, we started with our CRO analysis, which showed that visitors often jump between products because they lack the understanding and guidance to make a choice. Based on this, we followed three steps:
- Define the decision criteria: Together with the client, we identified which criteria really influence product choice and should be covered by the questions.
- Review existing product data: Thanks to the store’s SEO work, a lot of information was already stored in metafields. We only needed to add a metafield for intended purpose.
- Map the questions as a user flow: A table of questions and answers quickly became hard to follow. Only when we created a user flow in Figma did it become clear which questions followed each answer.
The user flow made planning much easier. It helped both us and the client see which questions were unnecessary for certain answers. It also proved to be a useful reference during development.
Learn what Shopify metafields are and how to create and use them in our guide.
5. How does the technology behind it work?
The product finder matches customers’ answers against product metafields, filtering down to suitable products step by step. Because it uses existing data, it creates very little additional maintenance work for the team.
In the theme editor, each question and answer is its own block. This lets the team manage the following without developers:
- Content: Questions, answers, images, colors, and single- or multiple-choice options
- Mappings: Which metafield an answer searches and which terms it looks for
- Branching: Which questions are skipped, when users go straight to the results, and which answers appear only on certain paths
This makes it easy to keep improving the product finder over time.
6. How much work goes into a product finder?
For a product finder like the one at Ritter Decken, we recommend allowing around two months for implementation. Our project ran in two phases:
| Phase | Scope | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Planning | Decision criteria, user flow, design | Month 1 |
| Implementation | Development and fine-tuning | Month 2 |
Because the product finder builds on existing metafields, the client has little additional data to maintain. The time is spent mainly on coordination: at Ritter Decken, we developed the product finder alongside the comparison table, which meant several rounds of feedback.
7. Where should the product finder be placed in the store?
A product finder only works if customers can find it. That’s why it should be featured in several places throughout the store, wherever customers may feel uncertain:
| Placement | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Search | An entry point for customers actively looking for guidance |
| Mobile menu | A prominent entry point, for example with a background color and icon |
| Homepage | A dedicated section for new customers who are not yet familiar with the brand |
| Product pages | Help for customers who still can’t decide despite all the information |
| Collection pages | Guidance while browsing the product range |
| Landing pages | An entry point for visitors arriving from ads who are not yet familiar with the product range |
From previous projects, we know that a guide can convert very well yet still get little use if it is hard to find. It’s also helpful to show the most important decision criteria, such as warmth or thickness, directly on product and collection pages.
8. How can you measure and improve the product finder?
The product finder provides data on what customers are actually looking for. At Ritter Decken, tracking is set up via Google Tag Manager and can be switched on or off in the theme editor. The data can reveal, for example:
- which product groups and features are selected most often
- whether demand is greater than previously assumed
That’s why we deliberately included pillows and scarves in the product finder, even though the range is small. If demand proves high over time, that’s a sign that the range could be expanded.
9. What should you keep in mind when building a product finder?
Based on our experience at Ritter Decken, these four points are especially important when building a product finder:
- Allow time for planning: Questions, answers, and branching evolve during the review process. Make sure the project schedule leaves room for this.
- Visualize the flow: A user flow shows which questions are unnecessary and where special cases arise. This helps you resolve these questions early.
- Check data quality: Results are only as good as the product data behind them. Check existing metafields for completeness before launch.
- Go live early: A product finder can always be refined further. Real usage data is the best way to see where changes are worthwhile.
10. Frequently asked questions about Shopify product finders
What data does a product finder need?
A product finder needs product data for the criteria covered by its questions, for example in the form of metafields. If those fields are already populated, they can be used as is. At Ritter Decken, we only had to add one metafield.
Can the team make changes to the product finder themselves?
Yes. The team can change questions, answers, images, and branching in the theme editor without developers.
What happens if no product is a good fit?
The product finder then displays four bestsellers, explains that no suitable result was found, and takes customers back to the quiz.
Does the comparison table work without the product finder?
Yes. The comparison table can also be used independently of the quiz.
