There are multiple elements that can be suggested in the Autocomplete. Based on best practices, we recommend suggesting keywords* and products.

Product suggestions - When a user starts typing letters in the search box, after the 2nd letter, Nosto’s search starts suggesting products that match the entered phrase. Suggested products are the same products that would be found in the search results page if searched, therefore, the same merchandising is applied.

Keywords suggestions - When a user starts typing letters in the search box, after the 2nd letter Nosto’s search starts suggesting keywords that match the entered phrase. Keywords are generated only from product data. Large assortments ecommerce companies like Amazon or Zalando widely use this approach. You can choose the fields that are being used to generate the keywords in the "Search&Categories -> Settings -> Searchable fields" section of you Admin UI depending on your data.

Example:

Keywords suggestions within a category - same as a feature above but specifying query for a category. If a user searches for dress, we can suggest them in different categories e.g. dress in Evening Dresses, dress in Petite Dresses, dress in Prom Dresses. You can finetune these settings in "Search&Categories -> Settings -> Autocomplete"

Usually, the autocomplete shows up after a few first letters are typed, but it can also show up when an empty search box is clicked. In this case, Nosto’s Search can suggest:

You can suggest content in your Autocomplete with Nosto’s On Content Personalization (OCP) module. Simply create a campaign and add the placement to your Autocomplete via search’s code editor (Search → Templates) or search API.