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Shopify Integration

The Marqo Shopify app is purpose-built for theme-based Shopify storefronts (Online Store 2.0 and earlier). It replaces native Shopify search and collection results with Marqo's AI-powered ranking, while giving merchandisers full control over how products are presented on the storefront — without requiring any custom theme development work on your side.

What's Included​

The app ships with everything you need to run Marqo-powered discovery on a Shopify storefront:

  • Real-time catalog sync — Product creates, updates, deletions, inventory changes, and metafield changes are streamed into Marqo automatically. No manual reindexing required.
  • Product card editor — Customize the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript of search and collection result cards directly from the app. Match your existing theme exactly, or build something new.
  • Storefront banners — Create and schedule promotional banners (hero banners, inline banners, collection-level banners, query-triggered banners) without touching theme code. Banners can be targeted by query, collection, customer segment, or schedule.
  • Full merchandising controls — Every merchandising capability available elsewhere in Marqo is available here: boosting and burying, pinning, exclusions, scheduled rules, synonyms, redirects, ranking strategies, A/B testing, and analytics. See Merchandising Controls for the full feature set.
  • App parity, handled for you — The app and integration take care of keeping the storefront experience in sync with your Marqo configuration. You don't need to manage parity between Marqo and Shopify — installing the app is enough.
  • Third-party Shopify app compatibility — Marqo works alongside the third-party Shopify apps you already use in your storefront (reviews, loyalty, subscriptions, upsell, personalization, etc.). The integration is designed to coexist with the rest of your Shopify app stack rather than replace it.

Quick Setup Guide​

Follow these simple steps to add AI-powered search to your Shopify store:

Step 1: Install the App​

  1. Reach out to your Marqo contact to request the Shopify app install
  2. Marqo will provide a private app install link for the custom Shopify app distribution
  3. Open the install link in your Shopify admin and complete the install flow

Step 2: Choose Your Search Model​

  1. Select your model:
    • Generalized Ecommerce - Best for most stores
    • Fashion - Optimized for clothing and accessories
  2. We'll automatically spin up and configure your search index with optimized settings
  3. Wait for setup to complete (usually 2-3 minutes)

Step 3: Connect Your Marqo Account​

  1. Enter your Marqo API key when prompted
  2. Click "Validate & Connect"

Step 4: Sync Your Products​

  1. Click "Sync All Products" to import your product catalog
  2. Large catalogs may take a few hours to complete
  3. New products (incuding updates, deletions, and additions) will sync automatically going forward

Step 5: Configure Collections (Optional)​

  1. Choose Which Collections to Enhance:
    • Select specific collections to replace with AI-powered search
    • Leave others using Shopify's default search if preferred
  2. Collection-Specific Settings:
    • Configure how products are filtered within each collection
    • Set collection-specific search behavior and sorting

Step 6: Customize Your Search Results (Optional)​

  1. Start From Your Existing Theme:
    • The app automatically inherits styling, layout, and product card structure from your current Shopify theme — your Marqo-powered results will match the rest of your storefront out of the box
    • No need to pick from preset templates or rebuild your design from scratch
    • From there, you can edit the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript directly in the app to refine the look or extend functionality
  2. Customize Product Cards:
    • Edit what information appears on each product card
    • Adjust card layout, colors, and fonts
    • Configure grid columns and spacing for different screen sizes
    • Add custom CSS for complete visual control
  3. Layout & Sorting Options:
    • Set default sort options (relevance, price, newest, custom)
    • Configure responsive breakpoints for mobile/tablet/desktop
    • Choose which collections to enhance with AI search
  4. Preview all changes before going live

Step 7: Adding Additional Product Attributes (Optional)​

Want to enhance your search with data from third-party providers? Use the Marqo API to update existing products with additional attributes.

Common third-party integrations:

  • Review platforms: Customer ratings and review counts
  • Web analytics: Page views and conversion data
  • Email marketing tools: Engagement scores and customer segments

Setting up data sync: Most third-party platforms provide APIs or webhook systems that can automatically notify your system when data changes. Here's how the integration typically works:

  1. Initial Data Import: First, pull all existing data from your third-party platforms using their APIs to populate your Marqo index with historical ratings, view counts, and engagement scores
  2. API Keys: Obtain API credentials from your third-party platform
  3. Webhook Setup: Configure webhooks to trigger when data updates (new reviews, page view changes, etc.)
  4. Data Processing: Create a script or service that receives the webhook, processes the data, and calls Marqo's update API
  5. Scheduling: For platforms without webhooks, set up scheduled jobs (daily/hourly) to pull fresh data via their API

Example workflow: When a customer leaves a new review, your review platform sends a webhook to your server, which then updates the product's rating in Marqo using the code below.

import requests

url = "https://ecom.marqo-ep.ai/api/v1/indexes/your_index_name/documents"

headers = {
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
    "Authorization": "Bearer your_api_key",
}

# Update existing products with third-party data using product SKU
payload = {
    "documents": [
        {
            "_id": "SKU-ABC123",
            "review_rating": 4.8,
            "review_count": 127,
            "page_views": 2450,
        },
        {
            "_id": "SKU-XYZ789",
            "review_rating": 4.2,
            "review_count": 89,
            "page_views": 1200,
        },
    ]
}

response = requests.patch(url, json=payload, headers=headers)
print(response.json())

Step 8: You're Done!​

Your customers can now enjoy faster, smarter search results. The app automatically replaces your store's search functionality with AI-powered recommendations.

Need Help?​

Contact our support team if you encounter any issues during setup.