After hundreds of conversations with merchandising teams across the globe, one thing became crystal clear: while AI-powered ecommerce merchandising solutions promise the world, they often leave merchandisers feeling powerless and confused. “I don’t understand why products are ranking this way” and “I’ve lost control of my search results” were themes we heard time and time again.

Today, I’m thrilled to share how your feedback has transformed into reality with Lucidworks Commerce Studio^™, an AI merchandising platform built from the ground up with real merchandisers in mind. As Chief Client Officer, nothing makes me prouder than seeing your challenges turn into solutions.

Why This Matters to Your Team

Remember telling us how frustrated you were with black-box AI solutions? We understand that skilled merchandisers don’t just optimize for metrics—they craft experiences that reflect brand values, respond to cultural moments, and create emotional connections with shoppers.

Commerce Studio is the first ecommerce merchandising software that shows you exactly why products rank the way they do—right in our visual editor where you can see real-time performance metrics next to every product. Our team took this challenge seriously, creating transparent AI that explains its decisions in clear, visual terms, with inline analytics that reveal each product’s conversion rate, revenue, and trending metrics at a glance. 

You wanted control without sacrificing AI power? The intuitive drag-and-drop visual merchandising tools puts you in charge while AI works alongside you, not in place of you—amplifying your expertise rather than replacing it. Commerce Studio surfaces actionable insights right where you’re working, ensuring you can maintain your brand’s unique voice and vision while leveraging powerful automation to enhance your merchandising strategy.

Let me share the impact we’re seeing:

• 15% improvement in ecommerce conversion rates
• 20% reduction in merchandising workload
• Significant increases in revenue per visitor through better product discovery
• Enhanced ability to create compelling brand experiences through merchandising

The Power of Understanding Your Customers

One of the most exciting aspects of Commerce Studio is how it works seamlessly with our new Analytics Studio. Together, they create a complete picture of your customers’ journey. While Commerce Studio helps you perfect your merchandising strategy, Analytics Studio shows you exactly how those strategies perform in real-time.

As Keri Rich, our VP of Product, explains: “We designed these platforms to work together, giving merchandisers both the tools to act and the insights to know their actions are working. It’s about empowering teams to make confident decisions backed by data while staying true to their brand’s unique story.”

Key Features That Make the Difference

Based on your feedback, we’ve focused on four core areas:

Understand Shoppers Like Never Before

• Advanced customer behavior tracking lets you see exactly how shoppers navigate your site—from search terms they use to products they view but don’t purchase—giving you the customer insights you’ve been asking for.
• Real-time performance metrics put critical data at your fingertips, showing you which products are trending right now, not just last month, so you can improve ecommerce conversion rates and capitalize on emerging opportunities instantly.
• Sophisticated audience segmentation empowers you to create personalized experiences for different customer groups—because no one knows your customers better than you do. Now you can curate unique journeys for first-time visitors, loyal customers, and seasonal shoppers alike.

Take Action with Confidence

• Visual merchandising tools transform complex data into intuitive displays, letting you arrange products with simple drag-and-drop actions while seeing the performance impact of each move in real-time.
• Smart rule builder allows you to create merchandising rules in plain English—no coding required. You can easily set up rules like “Always show waterproof jackets first when shoppers search during rainy seasons in Seattle.”
• Query optimization automatically refines your search algorithms based on shopper behavior, ensuring customers find exactly what they’re looking for even when they use non-standard terms or misspellings.

See AI at Work

• Clear explanations of AI decisions demystify why products are ranked in a particular order, with simple visual indicators showing which factors (conversion rate, margin, relevance) influenced each placement.
• Preview capabilities for changes let you see how your adjustments will look before they go live, eliminating the guesswork of traditional merchandising tools and helping you avoid costly mistakes.
• Complete override controls ensure you always have the final say. When seasonal priorities or brand initiatives require specific product placement, you can easily override AI recommendations while still benefiting from its insights.

Test and Optimize

• Simple A/B testing enables you to try different merchandising strategies simultaneously and see which performs better—all from a single dashboard that shows clear performance differences.
• Advanced rule collaboration lets your entire team work together seamlessly, with version control, approval workflows, and the ability to share successful rules across multiple campaigns or categories.
• Performance tracking provides daily reports on how your merchandising decisions impact key business metrics, helping you increase revenue per visitor and demonstrate ROI to leadership.

What’s Next?

While I’m incredibly proud of what our product team has built, I’m even more excited about where we’re heading. Your feedback continues to shape our roadmap, and we’re committed to evolving these platforms to meet your changing needs.

But you know what really makes my day? Hearing merchandisers say things like “Finally, someone gets it!” or “This is exactly what our team needs!” These reactions tell me we’re on the right track—that we’ve built something that truly addresses your needs, not just another tool.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on Commerce Studio. What excites you? What else do you need? My team and I are always listening, always learning, and always working to make your job easier and more impactful.

Ready to see what true AI-assisted ecommerce merchandising should look like? Schedule a demo to learn about how to turn AI search into your merchandising superpower with Commerce Studio— transforming how your team discovers insights, predicts trends, and delivers results.

Want to dive deeper? Learn more about Commerce Studio and Analytics Studio – because great merchandising deserves great analytics.

Lana Klestoff is Chief Client Officer at Lucidworks. You can connect with Lana on LinkedIn to share your feedback.