Executive Summary

This case study explores how Cotopaxi, an innovative outdoor gear company, enhanced its online search experience by leveraging Google Cloud's Vertex AI Search for Commerce using Nimstrata's Retail Cloud Connect Shopify solution.

The Product Discovery Challenge

Modern ecommerce platforms, even Shopify, face a complex challenge: surfacing the most relevant products to the right customers at precisely the right moment. Traditional search solutions, even those deeply invested in AI development, still struggle to deliver intuitive, context-aware experiences that could truly understand customer intent.

The Evolution of Search Technologies

Ecommerce search has undergone a remarkable transformation over the last several decades:

• Early solutions relied on rigid SQL-like queries

• Advanced platforms introduced full-text search engines with fuzzy matching and spell checking

• Current AI-powered solutions utilize natural language processing (NLP) and large language models to deliver truly intelligent search experiences

The Shopify Ecosystem

The Shopify App Store was launched in 2009 to provide merchants with an ecosystem of third-party applications designed to enhance and customize their online stores. Initially, it featured a modest selection of apps developed by Shopify partners, but it has since grown into a comprehensive marketplace with thousands of apps spanning various categories such as marketing, sales, customer support, inventory management, and more.

There are several product discovery solutions available on the Shopify App Store, but none have performed as well as Google Cloud’s Vertex AI Search for Commerce. Cotopaxi migrated to Google Cloud from their legacy search solution, Fast Simon.

Vertex AI Search for Commerce

Vertex AI Search for Commerce is the only solution that equips retailers with the ability to offer Google-quality search functionality on their own ecommerce storefronts. Google Cloud offers this comprehensive product discovery platform with three key components:

1. Search Results: Algorithms analyze written or spoken user queries and return the most relevant products based on keywords, product attributes, user intent, and historical user behavior.

2. Category Merchandising: Categories, or Collection pages on Shopify, organize products into easily navigable sections. Product discovery platforms can dynamically sort results to ensure the most relevant and appealing products are prominently displayed.

3. Recommendations: Many product discovery platforms use machine learning algorithms that collect user behavior data and then suggest products to prospective customers. Common model types include, “Frequently Bought Together,” “Others You May Like,” and “Recommended for You.”

Implementation: Build vs. Buy

After an initial search quality and relevance evaluation of Google’s Vertex AI algorithms, Nimstrata and Cotopaxi were planning to build a custom integration between Cotopaxi’s back end systems and Google Cloud. However, the upfront costs and ongoing maintenance of a custom installation quickly became an expensive capital outflow for an untested solution.

Instead, they installed Nimstrata’s Shopify App, Retail Cloud Connect, a turnkey solution that:

• Syncs their Shopify product catalog in real-time

• Simplified complex catalog attribute mapping

• Offered a customizable theme integration pattern

• Provides low-latency global serving infrastructure

Catalog Sync

A particularly challenging aspect was mapping the unique colors of Cotopaxi's Del Día backpacks. Nimstrata's solution streamlined this process, meeting Google Cloud's specific color family requirements with minimal manual intervention.

Theme Installation

Retail Cloud Connect includes three drag-and-drop Shopify Online Store 2.0 App Blocks to activate search, collections, and recommendations with no code. However, Cotopaxi has a fully custom storefront and has invested significant effort into perfecting their merchandising experience. Matching their existing designs was essential for implementation success.

While Nimstrata offers no-code components, the App Blocks can also be deployed as customized packaged components that any custom storefront can render. The Nimstrata team quickly matched the CSS and Collection page requirements, preparing a version ready for testing within 72 hours.

The Results

Performance Metrics

• 29.23% increase in search term relevance

• 44.78% higher conversion rate from search

• 97.94% of search keywords return accurate results

Summary

Cotopaxi's success story illustrates how advanced AI technologies are continuing to shape ecommerce, enabling brands to create more intuitive, personalized shopping experiences that directly translate to improved business performance.

Nimstrata and Vertex AI Search for Commerce exceeded Cotopaxi’s expectations by becoming one of the quickest external vendor implementations in the company’s online history. Google Cloud’s search algorithms increased their search relevance rating by 29.23% and conversions from search by 44.78% while offering the same look and feel of their existing branding across their website.