Search in the Depict: Search & Merchandising app is a search modal that opens
from an icon in your theme’s header. It understands what shoppers mean
(“something for a wedding in June”), ranks your catalog with the same signals
as your collections, and shows suggestions and top picks before the shopper
types.
Two places hold its configuration:
Stores that still run the separate Search by Depict app find the same theme-editor settings documented under Search by Depict. The embeds are identical in both apps, only their names differ. Before you start
Search has to be part of your plan; see Plan.
With search in the plan, the Search page shows a setup guide that walks you
through preparing a preview theme, placing the search button and switching the
embeds on. Theme setup explains what each embed
and block does in your theme.
The Search page
The Search page opens on an overview of the period: revenue via search,
orders, click-through, add to cart, searches that found nothing, and search
conversion, with the queries that need attention. The sections below it hold
the decisions:
Changes on the Search page are live on your store as soon as they are saved.
Theme-editor settings
The look and behaviour of the modal are set in the Shopify theme editor, so
you see every change in Shopify’s live preview before saving. Open
Shopify admin → Online Store → Themes → Customize, then App embeds
(the puzzle-piece icon in the left sidebar). Two embeds carry the settings:
- Depict Search Settings: the template, the product grid and cards, the mobile layout, the headings before typing, and the header logo.
- Depict Search Styling: corner radius, typography, the search field’s shape and shadows, the loading indicator, product card fonts and colours, dark theme, background colours and custom CSS.
The search button itself is an app block, Depict Search Button, placed in
your header; its own settings (icon, size, optional text) sit on the block.
Depict Search Settings
To edit these settings: Shopify admin → Online Store → Themes → Customize → App embeds, then expand Depict Search Settings.
Global settings for how the search modal is laid out and behaves. These are configured once and apply to every search button on your store.
Search template
Product grid
Product card
Mobile layout
Search suggestions
The header logo is clickable: clicking it closes the search overlay, the same as the close (✕) button.
Advanced
Depict Search Styling
To edit these settings: Shopify admin → Online Store → Themes → Customize → App embeds, then expand Depict Search Styling.
Global visual styling of the search modal. The baseline stylesheet has sensible defaults, so the modal still renders correctly if this embed is disabled. Every setting below defaults to the look the modal had before the setting existed, so a store that never touches them sees no change.
Shape & type
Search field
Product card
Modal styling
A storefront with small type and no shadows, such as a fashion theme set in 14px Helvetica: turn on Match store typography, set Surface style to Flat or Search field style to Underline, set Loading indicator to Thin line, and Section heading style to Sentence case. The heading text itself (“Our Top Picks”) is set in the layout embed.
Reports
Search metrics live on the Analytics page
under its Search section, and in the weekly report. 
