We built our own product search instead of reaching for a plugin

The default store search wasn't cutting it, and a paid search platform felt like overkill for a focused catalogue. So we built our own: a single, carefully-written query that searches product titles, SKUs, categories and manufacturers, with a debounced live results table as you type.

Along the way we cut a dependency too — moving manufacturer data off a separate paid plugin and onto the store's native taxonomy. The result is fast, relevant search that costs nothing extra to run and behaves exactly how this catalogue needs it to.