Search

STOAR's search is powered by Meilisearch via Laravel Scout. The index is kept in sync with the product catalog in real time and scales comfortably to 150,000+ products without degrading response times.

Search Results #

Shoppers can search by keyword from any page using the search toggle in the navigation header. The results page supports:

• Keyword search — full-text matching across product names, descriptions, and SKUs.
• Category filter — narrow results to a specific category.
• Sort options — sort by relevance, price (low to high / high to low), or newest.
• Results per page — configurable by the store operator; shoppers can also adjust this within the allowed range.
• Recent search history — both guests and logged-in customers see their recent search terms listed below the search input for quick re-execution. Guest history is stored in the browser; customer history is stored in their account.

Autocomplete #

As a shopper types into the search bar, live product suggestions appear below the input without requiring them to submit a full search. Each suggestion shows the product image and price alongside the product name, giving enough context to click through directly from the dropdown. The number of autocomplete suggestions shown is configurable by the store operator.

Search Health #

STOAR monitors the health of the search index automatically. A background check runs every minute and verifies that Meilisearch is reachable and that the product index is in sync with the catalog. If either check fails — for example, if the search service goes down or an index synchronization job falls behind — the store owner is notified immediately by email so the issue can be resolved before it affects shoppers.

Analytics #

Every search interaction is recorded to help you understand how shoppers use search and where gaps exist:

• Query tracking — each search query is logged along with whether the shopper clicked a result.
• Zero-result searches — queries that returned no results are surfaced in the admin dashboard, highlighting gaps in your catalog or opportunities to add synonyms.
• Search-to-order conversion — STOAR tracks when a search session leads to an order, so you can measure which queries are actually driving revenue.