What are Redirects?
The Redirects feature allows to forward your users to a custom URL instead of the search results page for specific queries. Redirects are case in-sensitive.
Examples
If a merchant has a special landing page for the brand "Nike", they can simply target the search query Nike and set up the URL of the brand page for this query. Whenever a user searches Nike, they will land directly on the specifically designed brand page.
If a user searches for delivery and a merchant has a page about delivery information, they can simply target the search query delivery and redirect there to an informational delivery page - even if it lives under another domain (e.g. hosted in Zendesk).
Best practices
Redirecting search queries to category pages is not always the best solution. Sometimes merchants think that category pages are more relevant or better merchandised than search results page. However in this case the root cause should be solved - search results and their merchandising should be improved because when users search, they expect to have a proper search experience by finding products from all categories, using contextual facets, and refining search query.
Redirect search queries to irrelevant pages. E.g. if users search for Nike shoes and are getting redirected to a general Nike landing page, they see all sorts of Nike products. In this case, they are served many irrelevant search results and the majority of users will leave the site. If they search Nike shoes, they should get Nike shoes in search results page.