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February 2023 brought default merchandising rules to Adobe Commerce (Magento) Live Search: fallback re-ranking rules that apply across every search, rather than one term at a time.
Why one rule per term stops scaling
Before this, merchandising Live Search meant building a rule for each search term. A footwear retailer writes rules for 'running shoes', 'sneakers', 'boots' — and then meets the long tail. The high-volume terms get looked after and everything else gets whatever the relevance engine decides. The result is an inconsistent experience, a maintenance job nobody volunteers for, and a team that stops optimising because it cannot see where to start.
What a default rule does
A default rule is a global fallback that applies to any search without a specific rule of its own. You might keep a specific rule for 'running shoes' and set a default that boosts high-margin items, buries out-of-stock ones and excludes discontinued products. When someone searches 'trail running shoes', the default takes over and the same merchandising principles still apply.
Default rules support the same re-ranking actions as specific ones: pinning products to the top, boosting products that match your criteria, burying products, and excluding them from results entirely.
How it behaves
Rules are applied server-side during search execution with zero performance impact, and changes take effect within minutes. Live Search's analytics dashboard reports how often default rules apply, click-through and conversion rates, and which re-ranking actions are doing the work — so the rules get refined on evidence rather than instinct.
What this means for you
The commercial argument is short. Consistent visibility for high-margin products, fewer out-of-stock complaints reaching support, and a search experience that is decent before you have written a rule for every term.
Your long tail is the part of search you are least likely to have merchandised, and it is where a default rule earns its keep. Set the fallback first, then write specific rules where the data says they are worth it.